Eventually we’ll all be part of a school shooting….
Comments(1)My first year of teaching was the year of Columbine.
Of all the things I anticipated explaining to students I had never considered explaining how a safe place like a school made such a desirable target and could be so easily accessed.
While I was sad to hear about Virginia Tech today, I was not surprised. In fact, I assume that before I retire I will teach in a school that has a school shooting. You may wonder why I would think such a morbid thought. It is not based on statistics; it is not an idea to start my retirement early. It is a feeling that since the general trends are understood and ignored that eventually the number & frequency of such events will increase and as years continue I have a greater probability of being involved in one. The CDC has an interesting fact sheet on school violence:
The CDC states that “50 percent of the homicide perpetrators gave some type of warning signal ,” and “20% were known to have been victims of bullying and 12% were known to have expressed suicidal thoughts or engage in suicidal behavior.“
As an educator I see the public ignore the obvious, lament the incident and move on without any intervention. As school becomes a dumping ground for more social and less educational activities the stakes will only increase, and tools to stop these events will only decrease.
If a teacher feels that way don’t you wonder how students feel?
