|
Given the events at Virginia Tech this week and the recent reports regarding how safe students in Tracy Unified feel at school maybe we should open a dialog in this forum on this important subject.
I grew up in a different time, the 60s and 70s. Back then it was almost expected that boys at least those over age 10+/- carried pocket knives, everywhere. Nobody gave it a second thought and rarely were there problems with them at school. They also went hunting usually first honing their skills shooting tin cans with a BB gun.
Were families and children perfect and well behaved back then. No. But this was in a day when parents often spanked their children for doing wrong rather than giving them a time out. Kids knew bad behavior had real consequences in those days even if their parents did not spank them. Mom's were more often than not home rather than at work and parents took a more active roll in their children's day to day activities. Back then Tracy was small enough that if I misbehaved anywhere my parents would probably know about it because many people knew who my parents were and would tell them. Not so today. I sometimes but only rarely felt unsafe at school. I certainly never feared someone would attack me with a knife or gun at school. I know my kids did not feel they had the same level of safety I did at school and they all went to the same high school their father and I attended, Tracy High. More than once they asked to stay home because they felt they would not be safe at school. Many times they expressed a desire to be home schooled.
Many kids today have no fear they will be punished for anything they do wrong or if they are punished it will be of little consequence. Even suspension from school means little to them except a few days cooling their heals at home watching TV and playing games while mom and dad are at work. In other words 8-12 hours of solitude to do exactly as they please. That is not a punishment.
The school district's report says the children of Tracy do not feel safe. Maybe they should go back through the years and look at these reports and analyze them to try to figure out what has changed. They should listen to the kids because it is the kids who are most affected. Form a committee on each campus taking students from every ethnicity, every religion, every social circle, including those who are popular and those who may feel left out. Find out what is in their heads, what is going on and why they and their peers do not feel safe. Include the school's security personnel, in fact let them choose the kids for this committee. Also include administrators and the superintendant. Have open roundtable discussions and just let these kids open up and let it out. It may be an eye opening experience.
America's schools need to be safe places for children to learn. America's children want them to be safe places. There has to be a way to give these kids what they need and want. Smaller campuses may be the answer to both a real and a perceived sense of security. Better to find out now before Tracy Unified wastes money building another mega high school like West High, where so many kids do not feel safe.
I know Tracy school district's security personnel do an amazing job trying to keep the schools safe. They work very hard to develop relationships with the kids which helps them to do their job more easily and helps some students sense of security. However they are seriously outnumbered. Should there ever be a major incident such as the mass fighting that happened one day when I was a student at Tracy High they would not be able to contain the situation without police assistance. If a shooting happened I hate to think what the outcome might be. Let's hope none of us ever see that day.
|
Favoured: 0
