Who's Responsible For The Acceleration Of Violence Among Teens?

"Up until the late 1950s, most families lived with or close to their extended family.…This gave many young adolescents the opportunity to talk to someone about their problems. Today most of these relatives live far away and many parents aren't home, so teens keep their problems to themselves. Today's teens are in trouble and they feel they have nowhere to turn. They are desperately crying out for help, but no one listens. When society finally hears their cries, it may be too late."
Cindy Fuerstenberg, Livingston, Wisconsin

"If the teens themselves and [their] parents do not take responsibility for their actions, pretty soon every school in America will have had a murder and everyone will be toting guns and killing each other...."
Jory Wif, Huron, South Dakota

"We need to teach our children respect. Respect for themselves, respect for others and respect for human life. We need to rebuild family values in our homes. Our children must…realize that they need to be responsible and talk out their problems, instead of shooting them out. For if they don't, they will eventually kill every youth in this great nation of ours. It's genocide."
Patrick Sampson, Concordia, Kansas

Cindy, Jory and Patrick wrote in 1994. The following was written by high school sophomores and juniors in Luck, Wisconsin at the end of May, 1998:

"I…think people are just thinking of teenagers as big bundles of hormones instead of real people, and this can get frustrating when adults tell them not to speak their minds because it's smarting off."
Melissa Mattson

"When a shooting happens, the country knows about it instantly. …Even though we owe it to the victims to publicize the event…they shouldn't over-publicize it.…murderers don't needpublicity."
Scott Schaeffer

"Children reflect on parents by how they behave in school. Use physical force on your kids, physical force will get kids what they want."
Andrea Swenson

"I think that the teens are the ones to blame because of their attitude and most of them want attention (negative and positive). If no one will give it to them, then they have to find a way to get it and they know that if they kill a couple of people they will get noticed in some way or another. Otherwise, they just have serious mental problems."
Lisa Heinz

"I think that the music that teens listen to has nothing to do with violence. But I think it couuld have some influence on the younger teens (grades 6-8) because that is a time where they follow the crowd and want to be cool and usually go with the group who gets in trouble."
Theresa Wheeler

"I think that kids do things because they are troubled emotionally and that's the only way they know how to deal with it. Parents should listen and talk to their kids more so they can tell when the child's having problems or is feeling down."
Megan Larson

"Parents have a big part in [the recent violence in schools]. The kids can only do what they have been taught and to be disciplined for what they do wrong."
Shawn Albee

"The human mind is all that is to blame. No one can influence anyone for anything. Decisions are made by yourself and for yourself. All consequences and all good can only be blamed or given to yourself; not to TVs, radios or anything else."
Kim Koecher

"I think it is easy to put the blame on the teens, music, parents and schools as long as there is no blame put on ourselves. We would rather blame someone than try to deal with the problem at hand. We have been taught to hate strongly, and the kids see the guns as a possible solution. They are not. Guns are easily accessible for children. They intrigue and fascinate the kids so instead of using words to solve problems, they take dangerous action."
Karissa Anderson

"The basic fundamental unit of society is family. If parents are able to properly teach, love, discipline and control their children, the world will be a better place. In combination with this, parents need to take more seriously the commitment of marriage. This may mean people will have to take more seriously who and why they marry."
Doug, Coddington

"The kids that get in trouble get more attention than the kids that are good."
Jenny Byl

"At home kids need a healthy, supporting family to keep them in line and feeling good about themselves. [Sure,] today's music does contain violent lyrics, but if a child is living out the lyrics, what is going on at home?"
Ethan Bergstrom

"I think it is terribly sad that kids are killing kids. I wouldn't blame the music, parents and school, but I do think that we are obviously out of tune with each other and what these children are thinking."
Brigette Schauls

"Kids and teenagers have a lot of stress and pressures in their lives.…Banning everything that has an influence on teenagers isn't going to help. They'll just rebel even more. Blaming someone or something for the actions of others is the easy way out. Then you never find and fix the real problem."
Jarl Thompson

"Personally I feel that people are just trying to find someone to blame for the violence. Teens are easy to blame. When teens try to defend themselves they are automatically assumed to be guilty due to denial. If teens do not defent themselves, then they are guilty because they are accepting the blame. Music has been blamed for many things, such as drinking, drugs and sex. Now the increase in violence is also being blamed on music. It is the peopole who commit violent acts, not the music. Parents are also often blamed for violent acts committed by thier children. Most parents do the best job they can in raising their children, and they try to teach them right from wrong. There is only so much that they can do. Teens come t a point in their lives where they make their own decisions. The schools are responsible for educating students. It is not their fault if students resort to violence. It is the individual who should be blamed. Accepting the guilt should be the first step instead of blaming anyone else."
Julie Wagers

When the Foundation put out a request for a ray of hope amidst all the recent chaos and sorrow, principals and teachers responded with the following messages:

"Ninety percent of our students never darken my door with a disciplinary problem...There will always be ten percent."
James Zimmerman, Avoyelles High School, Moreauville, Louisiana

"Students, teachers and schools succeed best by defining themselves by their greatest strengths and by their greatest successes…Our greatness has gotten us to the moon, and our greatness will take us to the stars!"
Mary Ellen Schoonover, Strasburg High School, Strasburg Colorado

"The two best examples of student responsibility...are the Improv. Troup and Natural Helpers. Both groups work with younger students on improving their ability to handle [stressful] situations .... The Improv. Troupe roll plays situations that young students encounter, giving them varied ways to handle situations responsibly. The Natural Helpers work one on one with elementary students, improving their study habits so those young students can have success once they reach high school. These two examples show that high school students have an interest in what the future holds for the community."
Mark Hofer, Centerville High School, Centerville, South Dakota

"We feel that the media may be partly responsible for the school shootings. By publishing on the front page all the details of each tragedy the media provides a 'blueprint' for the few troubled students who cannot deal effectively with their rage. The majority of the students today are law-abiding and caring; we are, indeed, concerned by the TV reports that light up a map of the U.S. with each tragic incident and repeatedly announce the names of the students who committed these atrocities. These students are getting the attention they crave and in their twisted logic may even see themselves as 'heroic.' Why doesn't the media give this much attention to the students who have made significant contributions to their school and community? Could it be because there are so many responsible students and this positive reporting isn't the 'sensational'news the media believes people want to hear?"
Barbara Downey, Rockridge High School, Rockridge, Illinois

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