School Violence Shoots Up, Students Are Shot Down: What To Make Essay, Research Paper

Corey Rasch

English 1301

Mrs. Mansfield

20 November, 2000

& # 8220 ; School Violence Shoots Up, Students are Shot Down: What To Do & # 8221 ;

After shots at Jonesboro, Ark, Paducah, Ky, Springfield, Ore, Pearl, Miss, and Littleton, Co, serious inquiries arise such as has school force risen, and, if so, what can we make to repair it. The truth is, school force is on a rise, and it can be attributed to factors such as neutrality in acquisition, the entire saving of the civil rights of the pupils at all costs, and the deficiency of power the instructors and decision makers have to penalize misbehaviour. Solutions such as coercing school uniforms, voluntary acquisition, and peer mediation take a long clip to implement and an even longer clip to see seeable consequences, but they are necessary to guarantee our hereafter in America as educated peoples. We must be careful, though, to non travel overboard in making Torahs such as the nothing tolerance regulation in order to maintain our schools both safe and just.

In happening appropriate, working solutions to school force, we foremost need to happen the root of the job. Does the handiness of guns truly play a major function in the job? The reply is no, it does non. Puting up metal sensors, coercing mesh ( diaphanous ) back packs, and engaging 1000s of uniformed security guards will non work out the job ( Cloud 1 ) . Finding a permanent, better ensuing answer demands a closer expression at where the job starts. Childs are turning up these yearss with small or no existent penalty compared to thirty old ages ago. Kids merely do non esteem the instructor & # 8217 ; s authorization any longer because parents, concerned for the civil rights of their kids, make instructors go through a long litany of proceedings in order to penalize a pupil ( Toby 3 ) . A hearing must take topographic point during which accusals must be made to the full supported by informants to these accusals to suspend a misbehaving pupil. Ideas such as & # 8220 ; zero tolerance & # 8221 ; are created to seek and give power instantly back to the instructors, yet it merely causes more jobs. The nothing tolerance punishes badly any misdemeanor of a jurisprudence, no affair how little or big the misdemeanor might be, in order to do an illustration ( Skiba 3 ) . This punishing merely discourages most pupils. As one interviewed pupil said, & # 8220 ; when they suspend you, you get in more problem, & # 8216 ; cause you & # 8217 ; re out in the street & # 8230 ; I got in problem more than I get in problem at school, because I got arrested and everything & # 8221 ; ( 5 ) . The figure of those punished below the belt for their little offense far outweighs the few suitably punished lawbreakers. Furthermore, larger schools mean less community engagement, which is where pupils foremost learn cardinal moralss and penalty. Puting childs in a prison-like educational environment will merely decrease the instruction they receive. These alleged safety steps would non hold stopped the tragic school shots. A better manner of stoping all the force is through community engagement. Restoring the family-student connexion would presumable rekindle pupils & # 8217 ; involvement in larning ( Toby 3 ) . Puting the parent, the most influential and basic instructor of a kid, back into a child & # 8217 ; s life is a large measure in the procedure of stoping school force. This manner, the kid can larn the basic regulations of life that he or she can non larn in a school. Hopefully, with the parent involved, the pupils would defy traveling to school less, and, in bend, would act better.

The Nipponese take the pupils desire to travel to school even more earnestly. Alternatively of coercing childs to go to categories up to a certain age as we do in America, Nipponese pupils are given the option of traveling to school ( 6-7 ) . A major job with our school system is that big parts of pupils do non desire to be pupils. Making high school volunteer will tremendously increase the production of childs. It will let those wishful of larning to non merely larn with fewer distractions, but besides assist them larn even more information. Voluntary high schools will be able to raise criterions and outlooks, which will in bend produce more sedulous, intelligent alumnuss. Students would so be compelled to obey instructors, and the instructors would be less afraid pupils who want to larn ( 4-5 ) . The Nipponese schools are proof such theories w

ork. They permit their childs to take to travel to school, while at the same clip making everything they can to do pupils want and feel they need an instruction. Though the Nipponese method, one time in topographic point, seems to work sufficiently in maintaining force to a lower limit, more precautions and thoughts are needed to achieve a high degree of safety in schools.

Soon after the horrid slayings at Columbine High School, President Clinton held an unfastened inquiry and reply treatment with pupils from T.C. Williams High School during which much paid penetration was learned about school force. All pupils have their ain manner of covering with rejection, low classs, or losing a football game. The thought is to do certain none of these ways include traveling on a shooting fling. Systems need to be put in topographic point for pupils to vent their choler. A proved method of deciding jobs and of assisting vent choler is a peer mediation plan ( Lehrer 6 ) . This is one of the best-known ways to cut down school force. Students with conflicting jobs come to a tabular array that is mediated by a equal. The pupils are respectful and gracious towards each other, while at the same clip conveying up their peculiar job ( s ) . The go-between helps the pupils work out their job, but does non give them the reply. He or she makes them happen the solution on their ain. Peoples do non hold to come to the go-between Sessionss squarely. Other persons can urge people to the mediation plan, which hastens the resoluteness of the job before it gets out of control. The peer mediation plan, both inexpensive and effectual, should be instituted throughout schools everyplace.

Another method covering with adolescent force is holding a adolescent hotline ( 16 ) . As useless and simple as a hotline sounds, it provides an priceless tool for teens to vent choler and/or solve jobs. A immense benefit of the hotline is the confidentiality involved. Persons can name about a job of their ain or a job they think person else has. This manner, those who know the most about what is go oning in schools, viz. the pupils, can maintain an oculus on each other, particularly the troubled schoolmates.

One concluding method of covering with school force is establishing uniforms. Although some pupils object on the footing of freedom violation, surveies show schools with uniforms are much less likely to see Acts of the Apostless of force. President Clinton, after analyzing unvarying have oning pupils from Long Beach, California, said, & # 8220 ; childs from upper-income every bit good as lower-income households did better [ in school ] & # 8230 ; . And it lowered dropouts, it increased attending, [ and ] it decreased subject jobs & # 8221 ; ( 23 ) . Though met with some resistance, school uniforms, which help pupils do better in school and assist them act better, appear more and more in schools across the state.

With such a high decease toll roll uping from adolescent shots, school force is being scrutinized to the really last item. Our current methods are either insufficient in consequences or non used in all high schools throughout America. School force is on a rise, and it is straight related to factors such as neutrality in acquisition, the entire saving of civil rights of pupils at all costs, and the deficiency of power instructors and decision makers have to penalize pupils. We need uniforms, equal mediation, voluntary high schools, and a reconnecting of community and school in all schools in order to get the better of the lifting force. It is up to everyone to make his or her ain portion in maintaining peace, and doing certain we implement these precautions to assist obtain and maintain the peace.

Cloud, John, and Cathy Booth, et Al. & # 8220 ; What Can the Schools Do? & # 8221 ; Time 3 May, 1999.

Britannica.com. CD-ROM. Information Access. 15 Nov. 2000

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Lehrer, Jim. & # 8220 ; Re: School Violence. & # 8221 ; Online Posting. 22 April, 1999. Online NewHour.

16 Nov. 2000

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Skiba, Russ, and Reece Peterson. & # 8220 ; The Dark Side of Zero Tolerance. & # 8221 ; Phi Delta Kappan

Jan. 1999. Britannica.com. CD-ROM. Information Access. 14 Nov. 2000.

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Toby, Jackson. & # 8220 ; Geting Serious About School Discipline. & # 8221 ; Public Interest. Fall 1998.

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