Entry #32 - May 3, 1999
"I found her words deeply disturbing, for lots of reasons --
but I kept coming back to the question: 'What must we do to make schools
SAFE places for our kids?' Not only safe from armed attack, psychotic killers
or bomb threats, but safe places to learn, to develop interests and relationships,
to explore issues of personal values and identity in an atmosphere where
it's 'OK' to be oneself?"
School violence is an issue that's just not going away. I remember thinking
we Canadians are a little smug about our kinder, gentler society with more
gun control. Then.... whoa! Reality check. Not only are we too quick to
congratulate ourselves (in the light of the light of this week's tragic
Alberta events), we also have short memories.
Long before Littleton or Springfield, we had an incident that eerily foreshadowed
them both -- right near here in sleepy, low-key Brampton, Ontario. It was
almost a quarter-century ago, and we had completely forgotten about it.
It was my neighbor who reminded me. She's a captain in our provincial police
force, and Sunday she stopped by for a quick visit and a chance to exercise
her dog on the "back forty." While our quadrupeds frolicked in
the April sun, she recalled that fateful day at Brampton Centennial Secondary
School, 24 years ago -- before I started teaching, and while she was still
in sixth grade. She remembered the day vividly though, because her sisters
were both at the high school. She knew most of the people involved and has
kept in touch with them.
[Our media has finally resurrected the story: see "It DID Happen Here,"
at this web address: http://www.thestar.ca/thestar/editorial/opinion/990501INS01_IN-SHOOT1.html
]
I found her recollections moving, and her insights (looking back from her
perspective as an experienced police investigator) compelling. "What
nobody tells you,." she said, "is how many victims there *really*
are, and how devastating the impact of such an experience is. It's not only
those killed and injured who are victims. Many, many other students will
suffer trauma similar to the shell-shock and long-term stress disorders
of soldiers in combat. But, we TRAIN our police and soldiers to prepare
them for such experiences, while these are vulnerable kids, at one of the
most fragile times in their lives!"
The impact, she said, can be severe and long-lasting. Families will break
up; substance abuse and suicide may be linked to the psychological damage,
and many victims will have panic disorders and difficulty forming long-term
relationships or feeling safe and trusting for a long time -- if ever. She
knew many kids at Brampton Centennial whose lives had been totally torn
apart -- yet that incident, bad as it was, lasted only a few minutes. "Can
you imagine the stress of being locked up for HOURS, with the terror of
an armed killer stalking the hallways? We haven't even BEGUN to calculate
the cost of this type of experience," she said.
I found her words deeply disturbing, for lots of reasons -- but I kept coming
back to the question: "What must we do to make schools SAFE places
for our kids?" Not only safe from armed attack, psychotic killers or
bomb threats, but safe places to learn, to develop interests and relationships,
to explore issues of personal values and identity in an atmosphere where
it's "OK" to be oneself? Part of the discussion all week surrounding
these school shootings has revolved around the ostracism felt by some students,
and the bullying and abuse (tacitly condoned in some places by teachers
and administrators, it seems) that may exacerbate the risk of violence.
Of course, for many of our urban students, violence is a familiar part of
their everyday lives and we are too often blasé about it. Let's hope
these latest events act as a wake-up call to make us all focus on developing
safe places for ALL students! I'm just as outraged by the random violence
our city kids endure on a daily basis as I am by these senseless murders
that have devastated their communities.
Many of our city kids have few places to go where they are welcome and feel
they belong. I hope our school is one of those havens! We try to make the
physical environment clean and attractive, and provide both before and after
school activities for the many who really haven't got anywhere to go. School
HAS to be a safe place for them -- they may not have anywhere else.
It's sad, but true, that many students today -- and not only those from
less affluent homes -- inhabit a virtually adult-free world outside of school.
Parents work long hours and may interact with their kids only on weekends
-- if then. Extended families are usually too separated geographically for
everyday contact, and neighborhoods are no longer perceived as safe places
for kids to socialize. Lots of my students go straight home and watch television
for six or seven hours every night. Even the most innocuous shows hardly
exemplify any values that we really want to pass on to the next generation.
My feeling is that there needs to be a much bigger adult presence in many
students' lives. If families can't or don't provide it, then our schools
must try to pick up the slack. Smaller schools, or school-within-a-school
models, keep a "personal touch." More strategies such as teacher
advisors, "looping," modified rotary schedules and so forth, can
help keep kids connected. Sports and extracurriculars can offer kids opportunities
to develop friendships, skills and interests -- and relate to adults in
a different way. I read somewhere that the number one reason kids drop out
of high school is the feeling, "Nobody really cares about me."
We need to change this -- and to start in middle school, if not before.
As for the ones who can't or don't fit in, we *can* help them. I've been
in a sizeable K-8 school that had a real "community" feel to it,
where the kids were part of a commitment to ensuring that everybody was
included, at least to some degree. We had a Peacekeepers program, peer mentoring,
a community service project working with disabled children, and good communication
within the staff and between home and school fostered close cooperation.
I remember some children and young teens with bizarre behaviors (or worse!)
and irritating personal characteristics who were gradually brought into
the school mainstream and made welcome. Did it solve all our problems? Hardly,
but there really were NO outcasts -- other students assumed some responsibility
for helping kids who were hard to like learn to get along.
I think the "misfits" know more than they can say, in many cases.
They may not know how to ask for help, but they are trying to reach out.
My student "Danny," whose behaviors are bizarre in the extreme,
told his parents and teachers in a conference last week that he knows he's
extremely angry, and he knows he needs help. He admitted he didn't know
why he feels the way he does, and that he doesn't know what comes over him
sometimes. He would like to be different. We're trying to find a more appropriate
school program for Danny, and meanwhile we take each day as it comes. We
affirm the very real strengths that he has, and express confidence in his
future, without minimizing the problems of today.
In our school plan for next year, we're initiating monthly award assemblies
that will recognize students not only for academic and sports achievements,
but also for citizenship, community service, and achieving personal goals.
We'll be bringing in a math drill program which will have kids competing
against themselves and receiving awards for "moving up" a level
-- something like "SRA labs" for math. Our music and drama groups
will be performing for their peers, and we plan to showcase student work
that exemplifies the standards in various subject areas.
All of these things are ways of recognizing students for their very different
gifts and accomplishments. We don't need to settle for a school where ANYBODY
is marginalized! It's the adults' job to create and nurture a school culture,
and I'm encouraged that we're getting on with it and trying to make our
school one where all students can earn recognition and applause.
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