05/22/98

School Violence

Dear Beth,

As a reader of your columns, I have come to value your opinion and ideas regarding education. I am the proud father of a burgeoning genius seven-month-old, and the escalating violence in the schools across the nation has scared the hell out of me. I speak specifically about the school shooting incidents that have peppered the news over the past eight months.

It is has been clear to me, since the very first shots echoed throughout the nation, that we must have a better way of identifying students at risk for this type of behavior. In each case, students and teachers have all recounted ominous warning signs displayed by each of the assailants. In each case, they were ignored or dismissed as inconsequential. If a road has been demonstrated to be dangerous to drivers, don't we take steps to fix it? How many more little kids and dedicated teachers have to die before school boards across this country begin to take student threats seriously?

What we need is to develop a sound, compact and readily communicated protocol whereby educators and administrators can learn what to look for and how to address any threat. This fact seems so self evident to me that I will be most surprised if this is not in process somewhere already. If it is, perhaps you could direct me to resources that I can bring to the attention of my local school system. I intend to start asking questions around here, as I want to do what I can to make sure my school system is safe when my child starts to attend.

My training in adult education, (I'm a former Emergency Medical Services Instructor of Paramedics and EMT's and continue to guest lecture), has given me a few ideas to address this important problem. I propose that someone might build an online community or list-server where the emphasis would be on teaching educators and students how to recognize and respond to threats. If one were to arise out of the SNET online community, I would stand ready to participate. I'd be interested in your thoughts. I'm scared enough to do something about this. Am I the only one? -- A Dad Scared into Action

Dear Readers,

Check out the following Internet resources to learn about several initiatives here and around the country to prevent violence in our schools.

• Strategies to Reduce School Violence

• Safe School Resources: Describes partnerships against violence and offers several links to sites about violence prevention:

• National Children's Coalition: Violence Prevention Resources

• Conflict Resolution or Peer Mediation

We're faced with a national crisis and need to respond promptly to insure the safety of our children. Violence by children against children and adults is all but incomprehensible, yet it is happening. Our approach must be broad-based, to encompass causes, prevention, punishment and rehabilitation. I have more questions than answers at this point, such as:

• How do we keep guns out of the hands of children?
• How do we convince children to tell us about threats made by peers? How do we immediately improve security in all of our public schools?
• Who do we hold accountable for the actions of children at school? Teachers? Administrators? Parents?

Anyone who knows the details of a violence prevention program in one or more Connecticut schools, please write to me about it. I'll print the main points here next week.

Thank you.

Please send questions or comments to bbruno@snet.net.