Opinion |
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School violence: What can we do?
By Sarah King
SNN Opinion Editor
Bay Roberts, Newfoundland |
The tragedies of Littleton, Colorado; Taber, Alberta and Jonesboro,
Arkansas, perked up the ears of teens all over the world.
Students lost friends, teachers and other members of their student
body because some teens felt that life had taken them for a ride
and it was time to get off. The so called "Trenchcoat Mafia"
in Littleton felt the need to get revenge on the popular students
in their school who had shunned them because of their beliefs. |
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What can we do to make sure we are safe?
A poll taken after the Columbine High tragedy found that 47 percent
of students in grades 7 to 12 said that they had easy access
to a gun, 36 percent of teens aged 13-17 felt that there were
students in their schools that they felt were capable of such
violence. Forty percent of the students polled said that poor
peer relations were the major cause of school violence. Close
to one quarter said that personal problems were the second cause
of violence and only a small percentage felt that parents, teachers,
movies, television,or warning signs that were ignored were the
cause of violence.
When students all over North America were asked what they thought
would make them feel safer in school, nearly 25 percent said
that a combination of increased security, metal detectors, peer
counselling, communication and tolerance would help.
Peer counseling, and communication are just methods for students
that have already been harbouring hostile feelings towards fellow
school members to release them. How can we prevent these feelings
from developping in the first place?
What about friendliness? Where has this gone in today's schools?
To many students, getting up in the morning and going to school
is like volunteering to walk into a burning building. So many
teens are ridiculed because of things they have no control over
like their clothes, their religious affiliations, their ahir
or where the fit in the pyramid of social life. How can we make
sure that the students that don't have the money for the clothes
and the CD's feel that they are members of the school community?
We can help them by being friendly and not taking into consideration
whether they are above or beneath us in social status. Who knows?
Perhaps if someone had come up to Dylan Klebold or Erik Harris
and tried to make friends, the whole massacre would never have
happened!
At our school, we just finished a round of student council elections.
More often than not, these kinds of elections turn into a popularity
contest, with students electing others because they are the BMOC
instead of because they are the right person to do the job well!
This puts other students in a negative frame of mind because
they want to make the school a better place and they think that
being popular is all that matters. How could one help feeling
left out and hurt after something like this?
I personally feel that there are not many students in our school
that would resort to mass killings but that may be because I
live in rural Newfoundland. For many students elsewhere in the
country, guns, knives, gangs and the like are common in schools.
Some students feel threatened and
insecure in their own schools. In my school, teachers and administrators
are always pushing that we are all "one big happy family".
Perhaps if all schools were trying to project this image, that
we are all equal, maybe together we could stamp out and eliminate
the problem of school violence.
Together, we can make a difference. |
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