Excerpt
Blaming the tool, well, another shooting and as sure as the sun rises, the little folks are blaming the tool. The gun did it. No one bothers to consider why this never occurred 50 years ago when guns were far more available to children than they are now. Shootings never occurred in the past, they are a phenomena of the 90’s. We have had 50 years of social engineering by the feel-goods and they have succeeded in turning our children into mass murderers. Isn’t progress great! We are again being told this wouldn’t occur if we had effective gun control laws. According to author Steven Halbrook, Switzerland has more fire power per person than any other country in the world; yet, it is one of the safest places to live. Switzerland has a lower homicide and robbery rate than Great Britain, which has strict gun control laws. They have no school massacres in Switzerland where kids and guns mix freely. Guns clearly, are not the real problem. If youth have made up their minds to break the law by killing classmates, would having to obtain the guns illegally stop them? I doubt it. If we make guns illegal, the gun trade will become another lucrative market for criminals. A student intent on killing other students will find a way to do so. I asked some of my students their input on this issue. Their response -- The real issue, they told me, is why do these children feel compelled to act violently against their teachers and fellow students? Once we understand why some children are so disturbed then we can make the effort to fix the underlying problem.
Parents must take the lead. Many children today are the products of poor parenting. Students who have not been taught by their parents how to properly channel their frustration will turn to violence as their solution. By focusing on gun control laws, we are ignoring underlying social, emotional, and mental issues that lead to school violence. If we fail to address the insults, humiliation, and cruelty involved in the way our students treat each other, then we are apt to see more violence, no matter what gun control laws may be in effect.
Kevin Dwyer, a National Education Association (NEA) member and the president of the National Association of School Psychologists, works with schools nationwide on combating violence. He spoke recently with NEA Today on recognizing youths headed for trouble, the subject of his book, Early Warning Timely Response, A Guide to Safe Schools. Some of the early warning signs are withdrawal from social contacts, excessive feelings of isolation and rejection, uncontrolled anger, patterns of hitting and bullying or expressing violence in writing and drawings.
When should written or verbal statements be a source of worry? You have to understand violence and aggression in context. If students have an assignment to write about Spring and they say Spring is the best time to kill someone, that is a problem. But the violence in the writing of a student asked to write an exciting adventure story is a different situation.
What should educators do when they see signs of trouble? Teachers don’t get enough support when they do report troublesome behavior. Ideally teachers should let the school psychologist or social worker know what’s going on. The student and family can then be referred for help. If kids are already angry, how can you get them to attend counseling? You tell the student he has a choice of not attending school or talking to a counselor. Then sit down with students and parents in a calm manner.
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