As most everyone knows by now that on Wednesday, February 14th, seventeen students were shot and killed in a mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, FL. Many have been researching and taking their sign up to protest this country's war on guns. Many will criticise my perspective, but mind you this is my future battlefield. I am walking into a classroom soon to be every day and this is now a threat I face.
Putting the gun argument aside, this could have been prevented. For a long time, this troubled student showed sign of distress and unrest. Students knew he was dangerous and even made comments like he would be the next school shooter. His teachers knew something was wrong with this student and that he came from a home that was broken by death. Those administrators knew this student was violent so much so he was not trusted to carry a backpack on campus. So where did everything go wrong?
School policies currently instill a zero-tolerance policy, pipeline to prison correctional approach. When a student is disobeying certain rules they are already pre-planned consequences for that action. However, most of the time these actions are not actually solving the problem but creating a temporary fix to get the behavior to stop, not help the student. If Jonny beat up Sam and the response is your suspended, most students see that as a blessing.
Students are turning away from education is important and there's a lack of desire to be in the classroom.
Suspending Jonny is not going to allow Jonny to realize what is wrong and a better way to approach conflict if all his punishment is to take away school. By not noticing the troubled students obvious signs of distress and kicking him out to the curb, did not change his attitude on the value of others lives. We let this student fall through the cracks of mental health.
Society tells us to take everything at face value, not to trust others. We don't love one another and we just don't care for anyone anymore besides ourselves. We hid behind devices and we name call those that come forward. We make everything label for social justice. I do not hesitate to say this is not a gun problem this is a people problem.
I challenge teachers and school administrators to stand up and ask the why questions to their students. Why are you hurting? Why are you not succeeding academically? How can we help you? These are just to name a few but don't take much effort to ask. Violence is happening in all grades across the country not just in high schools. Teachers need to know their students and know where they come from. We need better resources to train teachers on more than just delivering content because that is not all this job is. We are advocates for students. We are sometimes parents or friends to these students. We are their voice.
This is a cry for change in the school system and for better resources to notice our student and bring love and compassion back into this world.
