danger in our schools
**continued from yesterday.....
we had a small group meeting the night that the tragedy happened up at platte canyon. i asked how the kids were feeling after all that had happened that day. one girl told me that some kid had brought a gun to her school just the day before. she said that there were police everywhere. she went on to say that it scared her. that she didn't want to go back to class and that she had a hard time focusing on school after that.
can you blame her?
can we, as adults, fully understand what it would feel like to have our day interupted that way? even if we can, most of us don't think about kids having to deal with such issues. but they do.
it's been reported by some students that they know of kids who own guns and that they figure these kids could have their guns on them at any time. in other words, they go to school knowing that guns could be present at any time. they also know of kids who fit the "stereotype" of klebold and harris of columbine. they know of kids who fit into certain groups, such as; loners, bullied, haters, gangs, and the such.
so what would it be like for us, as adults, to go to work everyday with this same kind of knowledge about our work place? it's hard to imagine because, in my opinion, it would never happen on the same level as i just described the school environment.
so that makes it even harder for us to imagine for the students in our schools. the good thing, i guess, is that most students don't think about the dangers or the past situations very often. the more time that goes by without incident, the less they think about it.
but my belief is that it's just below the surface. they know what can happen but they're not going to let it get in the way of more important things.... boys/girls, sports, friends, music, and what they're going to do this friday night. but every time a dangerous situation occurs and they are exposed to it, their fragile world becomes more vulnerable. and that, in itself, is dangerous, too.
we had a small group meeting the night that the tragedy happened up at platte canyon. i asked how the kids were feeling after all that had happened that day. one girl told me that some kid had brought a gun to her school just the day before. she said that there were police everywhere. she went on to say that it scared her. that she didn't want to go back to class and that she had a hard time focusing on school after that.
can you blame her?
can we, as adults, fully understand what it would feel like to have our day interupted that way? even if we can, most of us don't think about kids having to deal with such issues. but they do.
it's been reported by some students that they know of kids who own guns and that they figure these kids could have their guns on them at any time. in other words, they go to school knowing that guns could be present at any time. they also know of kids who fit the "stereotype" of klebold and harris of columbine. they know of kids who fit into certain groups, such as; loners, bullied, haters, gangs, and the such.
so what would it be like for us, as adults, to go to work everyday with this same kind of knowledge about our work place? it's hard to imagine because, in my opinion, it would never happen on the same level as i just described the school environment.
so that makes it even harder for us to imagine for the students in our schools. the good thing, i guess, is that most students don't think about the dangers or the past situations very often. the more time that goes by without incident, the less they think about it.
but my belief is that it's just below the surface. they know what can happen but they're not going to let it get in the way of more important things.... boys/girls, sports, friends, music, and what they're going to do this friday night. but every time a dangerous situation occurs and they are exposed to it, their fragile world becomes more vulnerable. and that, in itself, is dangerous, too.
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