School Violence: The View of Teachers

These comments appeared on CNN's message boards in the aftermath of the Springfield, Oregon school shooting:

I am an elementary school teacher in rural Maryland. I see many at-risk primary- grade students coming from single parent homes where no one is ever able to spend time with discipline and values training. I would like to see more guidance resources targeted at reaching these "at-risk" kids before they become so demented that they take guns and blow away their friends. I had a fourth grader today drawing swastikas in the dirt on the playground. Scary? You bet.

I am a high school English teacher who is very concerned about school violence. Some of my students are alienated and withdrawn due to years of rejection from their peers. As scary as it sounds, I could easily see one or two of them trying to seek retribution. Because of years of teasing and harassment, it is hard for any teacher or school counselor to reach out to students who reject others because of their fears. I worry about these students. How would I stop one of them from hurting someone in my class? I just don't know the answer to that question.

I am a teacher here in Oregon and I believe that a great deal of what is traditionally talked about after such incidents are missing the point. In Oregon, since the passage of Measure 5, we have seen our class sizes increase by an average of 20-25%. I teach history and that means with 5 classes I teach around 170 kids each day. And with block scheduling I see them on an every other day basis. I state this because the greatest prevention tool we have is knowing our kids and stepping in when it is appropriate to do so … We need to commit our energies to our students and the best way I know how is to learn who they are. Give teachers that kind of time by reducing the student load and training our teachers to be effective counselors. President Clinton calls for the hiring of 100,000 teachers across this country. This is not just a request to better educate our students but could possibly be the first step at saving more lives from yet another senseless tragedy. thank you.

The one thing that keeps bothering me is that someone saw him in school and just told him to leave. I worked in an elementary school for 3 years. When someone came to school that was suspended they were brought to the office and their parents were called. They were never left alone. This was not just school policy but district policy. Teachers and administration sometimes get to complacent with children they know or they don't want to see right now. We must not over react but we must always act.

I don't know where we have gone wrong, but we have somehow, and on more than one level. I teach school, and I have heard kids say they think things are humorous that would have mortified me and the kids I knew when we were children.

Most of the teachers I work with are concerned about this; they see it, too. Somehow our kids aren't learning the compassion that we all need to be healthy, functioning individuals. I do think that the media has its responsibility in this. How about the fact that movies that are geared to teens have characters being "gutted", like the movie, "Scream"? And this particular movie is supposed to be poking fun at this particular horror movie genre? And someone is letting their children go and see this stuff, because they aren't making millions totally off the adult crowd.

Video games that decapitate people- these companies are making money off of these, and not from the adult crowd, but we parents are obviously letting our kids play them. And about guns? They have a place, too, unfortunately, but we have always had the right to bear arms, for over two hundred years. Somehow our children now aren't exhibiting the self-control that they must have