The Shooting at Chardon High

An important story about a football coach who went above and beyond, not just one day but for all the days that followed when a shooting happened at his high school.   A great piece from 60 Minutes.

I will note - again - that in all the (sadly) multiple stories about school shootings that I have yet to read one where teachers or staff did NOT protect the students in the building.  All the stories I have read have been about teachers/staff who stood between a bullet and their students.

I had the opportunity to this weekend to address a group of young Dems leaders about public education.  I noted School Safety as one of the many education issues in our country.

I took a minute to tell them that when I was in school, I NEVER worried about a gun at school.  Ever.

I told them I did not believe it fair for them and for their some-day children.  And I apologized for my generation's seeming lack of concern and oversight of this issue.

I said that, in my opinion, there were three top issues for public education.  One of them was our society's attitude towards education (and intellectual strength) but really, it also includes our attitudes towards guns and access to guns.

I told them that really, nothing can change, unless we make a commitment to a change in how we think as a country - both about public education AND guns.

Comments

Anonymous said…
The irony is that the same adults are the villains in the story about education. Teachers find themselves on guard, on defense from Administrators, Parents and yes the very children they would end their lives to protect.

All of the gun shooters are largely "children" themselves and they are settling scores or getting 'even' and yet no anger management classes are taught, there is little to few real trained and educated professionals to assess and treat mental health for children which is why we have become the drugged up nation.

And yet we are surveying the same children to assess teachers, schools and the curriculum. Really they need to be assessed not tested and their families involved and engaged in the school but they can't.

How many teachers have lost jobs due to children and their false accusations and claims and the parents who refuse to realize that yes children lie and are unkind and want to drag everyone into their miasma of pain?

Greenberg, the Teacher at Roosevelt, the Sub at Hamilton, a Teacher at RBHS is on "leave" as a student 'said' something and the district doesn't investigate they castigate and point the blame to an adult who would take a bullet.

I am not sure if this is Seattle as it has always been one step removed from the bookend Boston... there is a culture here and dynamic that is quite the parallel. The 70s started the busing issue and Seattle simply did it by closing schools in "white" upscale areas. Today it is institutional racism, Police on a rampage, homeless permeating the streets. So much for "liveable"

-Truth Teller
2/24/14, 8:19 AM
Anonymous said…
When I was a kid, we never worried about guns in school, even though probably half the cars in the school parking lot had guns in them.

Of course, families were far more intact than they are today, positive role models (churches,community groups, neighborhood interactions) played a much stronger role in teaching right and wrong, and the media didn't glorify violence the way it does today.

Virtually every 12 year old boy (the minimum legal age for hunting in that state) I know had a gun, but it was never a problem.

Blaming "guns" for a much more complicated problem only diverts attention from real solutions.

Real solutions
2/24/14, 2:50 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
Okay, what's the "real solution"?

I'm not talking about banning guns. I'm talking about making gun owners responsible for happens with their guns if they are not stolen.
2/24/14, 3:25 PM
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