Violence in School
When teenagers think about school, the last thing they think is fun.
School is always associated with homework, teachers, tests, quizzes, report cards and alarm clocks. When teenagers go to school, they have worries, such as to see their grades on their report card or if they studied enough for an important math test. Those are the issues teenagers should be concerned about; those are normal teenager’s worries when they enter school. Unfortunately, that’s not the case anymore these days. When teenagers enter their school these days, they aren’t worried about a big test or a report card, they are worried about the kid who has been bullying them and if they brought a gun or a knife to school that day. They are worried about what kids will jump out at them and start beating them for no reason at all.
They are worried about the kid that has been harassing them at school will come out and do something terrible to them. Bullying has been around for a while and it’s been a problem in schools for a extended amount of time. Schools now look like prisons because security guards have to walk around with walkie talkies and guns and stand at the front of the school asking for an ID to get into the school. That’s not a school that you can be proud of; that’s not a school where anyone would want to attend. Violence in schools is a big problem and unfortunately it won’t be stopping soon. Violence in schools isn’t just happening to kids at school, it’s also happening to the teachers at school.
Kids are always going to have a teacher that they don’t like and dread going to everyday. The violence has gone way too far then just “I don’t like my teacher.” According to Time Magazine in Memphis, Tennessee there were 680 assaults reported and 144 of them were toward teachers (Education). According to Time Magazine In New York City students erupted in 2,420 attacks, half of them being against teachers (Education). Teachers getting injured at their jobs shouldn’t be something that they have to worry about when they wake up in the morning. In one incident a 15 year old boy stabbed a teacher in the spine with scissors (Education).
Paul Hauge a teacher at Des Moines’ Harding Junior High was hit in the face by a 200lb student (Education). The problem with this is that the kids know they will not be getting in trouble. One student attacked a teacher with scissors and then went to juvenile court, but then was back at the same school. According to Time Magazine Joseph Grandy, an executive secretary of the Providence teacher’s union, says, “Teachers complain bitterly, too, that even if they press charges either school administrators do not support them or offenders get off with a reprimand in juvenile court “(Education). Many Teachers have stopped trying to report these problems because they think it’s a waste of time.
American parents and educators have yet to figure out a way of making respect for authority and for others a part of student education (Education). Teachers getting harassed at school used to unthinkable, but now in some kid’s lives it’s what happens every single day. A lot of people wonder what could make a kid do this. They question what kind of kid would come to a school and just start shooting students or teachers and bully a classmate so bad that they don’t want to go on living. They think what reasons does someone have that could hurt an innocent student and ruin a family’s life and potentially a kid’s life. Children who live in broken homes do have it hard; parents being separated or parents who fight all the time can really put a lot of stress on a kid who feels stuck in the middle of it all ( Than).
Kids may see their parents fighting and they may just do the same thing to an innocent kid because it’s the only way they can think of to release their anger Sometimes kids who are bullying and being violent are only doing it because their group of friends does it (Than). They have had the same friends since elementary school and if they don’t go along with what their friends are doing, they are afraid that they could lose their friends. Kids who don’t have proper guidance or an adult figure that they can look up to can make a kid feel lost. Jealousy can also play a part in violence. If a kid who has a bad living situation compares himself to another kid who is happy and has a nice family that may make them angry. They will take out their jealousy and start beating the kid for no reason except they are jealous that the kid has a better life than they do.
Media also plays a big part in the fact that there is school violence (Than). Kids see all the violent stuff on the TV shows they watch, in the movies they go to with friends, and in the violent video games that are so popular. There is violence all over the media and that influences teens. On the TV shows and video games it all looks so cool and dangerous and something that they would like to try; but the media and real life is completely different when it comes to things like that. In the TV shows it is actors getting paid a lot of money to do those things for the purpose of entertainment; no one is actually getting hurt, but kids don’t realize that or want to believe that because it just looks so cool.
The media violence does cause a lot of the same acts that happen at schools, and no kid should have to experience violence because someone want to act out what they saw on TV. Violence is getting a lot worse in schools. It has gone from just teasing and taunting to physical and life threatening, with kids bringing guns to school. Thirty three people died and seventeen people were being treated for gunshot wounds in the Virginia Teach shooting in 2007 (New York Times). Up until that shooting, the deadliest campus shooting was in 1966 at the University of Texas, where a man named Charles Whitman climbed to the 28th-floor observation deck of a clock tower and opened fire, killing 16 people before he was gunned down by police.
In a Columbine High attack in 1999, two teenagers killed 12 fellow students and a teacher before killing themselves (New York Times). A student in 8th grade at a Louisiana Middle school planned out a school shooting. The 15 year old brought a .25 caliber semiautomatic pistol to class, fired one round in the classroom, and then took one to his head. The student shot himself in the bathroom of the middle school. Investigators found a suicide note in his bag that described the boy’s plan for a shooting spree (New York Times).
School shootings have become a very big problem in the world today. No kid should have to go to school being scared for their lives and have to think about going to school and getting shot at. Even though it shouldn’t be, unfortunately school shootings are the worst kind of bullying. School Violence is too obvious, and it’s happening all over the world every second. School used to be a place where you would go to see your friends and get the education that provided you with the knowledge to get a job someday; school was never always about violence and bullying. People say it has been around for years and maybe that’s true, but I’m guessing that our parents and grandparents were probably not fearing for their lives and wondering who brought a gun to school or what kid was finally going to snap and do something horrible.
No one will do anything about it they suspend the kid for a couple days and then they are back doing the exact same thing. Schools have a zero tolerance rule for violence and bullying but that doesn’t mean anything to a bully. Schools may say that they now have metal detectors and guards but still violence is always going to happen and there is not one thing that can be done about it. The kid who is getting beaten up doesn’t care about any metal detectors or zero tolerance because they know it is going to happen every single day and that’s the saddest part about all of this. Something needs to be done to minimize the violence in this world today or else that little kid that gets picked on everyday is not going to have a chance.
