School Violence

[GerrardCapashen]

Where was your highschool? Mine doesn't have any metal detectors or much security (other than 1 or 2 cops to break up fights and take people over to the station if things go bad). We have cameras only outside and in the cafeteria and thats it. I think only the inner city schools have metal detectors.

Yeah, at my old high school the security guards (there were 3 of them) spent almost all of their time writing parking tickets for people who parked without a permit in the school parking lot.

 

[Moss]

Where was your highschool? Mine doesn't have any metal detectors or much security (other than 1 or 2 cops to break up fights and take people over to the station if things go bad). We have cameras only outside and in the cafeteria and thats it. I think only the inner city schools have metal detectors.

In southern MN...fairly small town. That being said, we have a major cultural clash between hispanics and whites at the schools, and yet there are no security gaurds or any security measures at all...

One of the teachers at the school had a hunting accident awhile ago and is in a wheelchair...I thought it was pretty rediculous that he had to try to break up a fight between two students. (I'm not saying he wasn't capable, just that security would have been much more suitable to do the job)

 

[Spelling Police]

I hate incidents like this... not just because they're obviously bad on their own, but they have a much subtler, more widespread effect, i.e. paranoia abounding & excessive security that generally makes things worse... Sure, these things are imperative for preventing incidents like this, but really, how often do they happen?

 

[DBear]

That's even worse!! How was he able to get 32 miles away after stabbing someone. In my high school, in the unlikely case that someone were to sneak pass the metal detectors, and get onto campus with a knife, I'm pretty sure he would've been taken down by one of the Navy guys or a police officer if he were to actually bring the knife out.

The article just said he crossed 32-Mile Road. Like Eminem's '8-Mile', it's just a street name.

Seriously, I thought every high school in the U.S.except those in the boonies had metal detectors by now. I would certainly expect one in the Detroit metro area to have them.

 

[Arminius]

They are doing a study at my former high school. Here is the information gather so far:
The Effect of Uniforms:*
2002 2003 2004
Fight/Student 0.58 0.61 0.67
Knife/Student 0.0034 0.004 0.0051
Gun/Student 0.00083 0.0009 0.0017
Deaths On-Campus 0 0 1

The Effect of a new school building:**
2003 2004
Skipped Class/Student 2.43 4.1
Suspension/Student 0.22 0.378

* In 2003, uniforms were introduced.
** In 2004, a completely new facility was opened, the old was destroyed.

Clearly such steps are making the problems worse. Another fact that isn't represented by the info is that the fights are becoming more and more violent. My freshman year we had scuffles, but no one bled. Nowadays, they had one kids beat another until the victim's blood splattered the ceiling. The victim was on his back, so the blood traveled nearly 8 feet straight up.

 

[The Person]

This will happen again if we continue to give such incidents so much publicity. The reason people do such things can be that they feel they're not taken seriously, and then decide to show the world they are serious. Today's excessive media coverage assures them to succeed in the latter if they aren't stopped.

I'm not saying this is the whole truth, but I think it seems plausible. Some people are willing to do anything to make themselves a name.

 

[IglooDame]

I'd just like to clarify an issue about school shootings...VIDEO GAMES DO NOT CAUSE SCHOOL SHOOTINGS!!!I'm tired of hearing some news station report to the extra-gullible American public that video games cause violence. Do you know what causes school shootings? Guns, if kids didn't have access to guns there wouldn't be any shootings. I also dislike the persecuting and disdainful attitude the media has toward teens. Every other day I see some crappy show about teens having sex, teens drinking, teens partying...blah blah blah. We're not a species bent on the destruction of society; we just test the limits of society to find out where they are. Something that could help the violence would be after school programs, take all the money politicians dump on themselves and their supporters and give it to music programs, sports, clubs; you name it I guarantee that violence will drop. I speak from personal experience that joining after school clubs gives you a new sense of purpose and perspective.

You want to take a step back and read what you've written? You're exonerating one inanimate object and declaring another inanimate object guilty.

 

[IglooDame]

I don't care about violence in america as a whole, I'm talking about violence in schools. Do you have proof of your statement?

From http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2004/crime03/index.asp

In each school year from 1992 to 2000, youth ages 5-19 were at least 70 times more likely to be murdered away from school than at school. Trends in school crime over time are also of interest to researchers, educators, and families. Data show that the percentage of students being victimized at school has declined over recent years. Between 1995 and 2001, the percentage of students who reported being victims of crime at school decreased from 10 percent to 6 percent. This included a decrease in theft (from 7 percent to 4 percent) and a decrease in violent victimization (from 3 percent to 2 percent) over the same time period.

 

[The Last Conformist]

Schools that only have a couple of security guards? Where I'm from, they don't have any unless there's an immediate threat.

I occasionally carried a flip knife in school, partly for use as a tool (opening bottles, etc), partly simply cause it was forbidden. Never saw anything worse.

The times I drew blood I used bare hands.

 

[Dell19]

Its fun how the computer science building uses a card system to get in but no one actually uses the cards and just waits for someone to open it from the inside...