Many people write these days about the needs of various types of reform that might improve our public school systems. As an educator at the secondary and post-secondary levels, I do have many opinions on this topic and hope to begin posting more frequently about these ideas. But today I am addressing only one challenge that we face in all school systems, not just the public ones….school violence.
According to the Columbus Dispatch, a central Ohio student was found to be carrying an armed weapon at Independence High School. While we were all very lucky that this scary story had a safe ending, the student was arrested, there is some good news contained in the article.
The positive part of the story is that not only was the gun safely removed from the school, but that it was brought to the attention of administrators by another student. Students were placed in a lock-down while the situation was dealt with. This occurred once at my high school, and luckily it turned out to be a toy gun, but we were also placed on lock-down for several hours. Once again, students were the ones that informed administrators of this potential situation.
It is important that each school create a learning environment and climate where students feel safe to inform teachers or adminstrators of these very dangerous situations. I think we should all give thanks to the student that alerted adults of this potentially very dangerous situation.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
You make good points, Jason. My district had a kind of similar incident at the beginning of the school year and I have to say that I would say the same things: the district, the school, the kids who revealed what might have been going on, all did their part to keep it to a minimum of mayhem etc. (there was none). There was not even a lockdown, since, I assume, the weapon was in the locker and not being wielded by the student.
Here’s a link to the PD’s blog post about the incident:
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/09/orange_student_arrested_for_am.html
Oo – sorry about that link! Please do whatever you need to to correct it. Ack! sorry
That’s too bad about Orange High School, but thankfully nothing bad happened. These kids that tell adults of things that are going on in the schools are truly heroes. There is no way for teachers or administrators to know everything that is going on in the school unless we send the kids through metal detectors and search their backpacks.