Guns and School Violence

More school shootings!
“Parents are not the only ones to blame. I have attended school now for thirteen years and have witnessed first-hand how kids and teenagers can act. Teenagers form their own cliques and tend to make fun of anyone who doesn’t seem to be like them. As much as one tries to forget or get over it, words hurt. Some hold grudges, and these grudges, sadly, can result in murder in [some] cases.”
Rachel Casey, Salem High School, Salem, Missouri

We invite you to read comments from Sarah, who lives in a small town in Wisconsin. She offers the perspective of an 18 year old who has exerted effort and come up with thoughtful reflections regarding the shooting in Littleton, Colorado and the American culture in general. 

At the end of the 1998 school year we asked principals and teachers for a ray of hope amidst all the sorrow and despair that students reported to us in their 1998 essays. Read the comments that were posted at the end of the 1998 school year and some excerpts regarding school violence from as early as 1994.

We heard even more about this issue in our 1999 Essay contest, The role of personal responsibility in balancing individual liberty and the common good.  Here are a few student thoughts  regarding guns and school that we selected randomly from that contest.

We have provided links so you can read what high school students had to say in 1999 and 2000 about  school cliques, student-shooters, school safety and gun control.

We  invite you to consider the school of the future envisioned by the director of the Harry Singer Foundation on page 57 of her 1997 book, Another Way and referenced last year on pages 228-229  of Kids R Us.  We must find a solution to school violence. It makes no sense to isolate students from the rest of society in warehouses where they have few role models and little guidance. We need more than school reform; we need a new way to educate our young people.

Send emails to director@singerfoundation.org and add your voice to the comments we have, to date, received on this subject.