Last week, during my daily perusal of The Huffington Post, I came across the story of Derrion Albert. The 16-year-old honors student was on his way back from school when he was beaten to death by fellow high school students in front of his local community center. This beating was particularly horrifying because it was taped on someone’s cell phone and subsequently posted throughout the web and on many prominent sites like YouTube.
After getting past my shock and anger at this incident, I started wondering what exactly is happening to America’s public schools.
Chicago is no stranger to school violence. Before 2006 an average of 10 to 15 students in the city were shot annually. Just last school year, CBS News reported that there was a total of 34 deaths and 290 school shootings. School shootings have become an alarmingly regular occurrence. Of the 58 school shootings that have happened around the world since 1996, 44 of them occurred right here in the United States—in 26 of the 50 states. What is even more disturbing is the age of the shooters: 21 of the 44 shootings that happened in the U.S. were committed by students 15 years old or younger. One shooting that is particularly haunting occurred in Mount Morris Township, Mich. in 2000 when a first-grade boy fatally shot his 6-year-old female classmate. No charges were filed against the boy and he was placed in the care of his aunt.
Now this is not an article about gun control or the need for more restrictive gun laws. (Although one wonders what is wrong with a nation when a 6-year-old has access to a gun.) This article is about the need to acknowledge that there is a serious problem with the nation’s public schools.
Take Washington, D.C., for example, which has one of the most dangerous public school systems in the country. The Heritage Foundation conducted an assessment of the 70 schools that comprise the D.C. public school system and discovered that during the 2007-08 school year, 2,379 crimes were reported (about 2.7 crimes per 100 students). Violent crimes comprised 666 of the crimes reported, and even one homicide was reported.
American schools have deteriorated to an astonishingly violent level. It is now quite normal for a school to employ metal detectors and police officers to monitor their students. Albert’s school did indeed have a police presence but obviously not enough of one, and since the shooting more police units have been sent to patrol the school and the community.
But police units and metal detectors are merely bandages for deeper wounds. Schools need to take a more proactive approach to the violent crimes that are becoming such an alarming addition to our public schools. One of the biggest causes of school violence is gang activity. Some believe that Albert was murdered because of his refusal to participate in his school’s gangs. Often violence occurs because of tension between different gangs, which manifests itself in fights and sometimes shootings both on and off school property.
But the fundamental reason why violence has become so rampant in public schools is because of the lack of adequate resources. It’s no coincidence that the majority of schools affected by violence are low-income schools. The struggle to deal with school budget deficits affects not only the quality of schools but also affects the number of teachers and staff members present. One of the most effective resources to counteract school gang violence are teachers and counselors. They are best equipped to really understand the mindset of psychologically troubled students who are the ones most likely to attempt school shootings. A perfect example of these types of students are Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the shooters in the 1999 Columbine incident.
Of course, the solution to school violence is a multi-faceted problem that goes deeper than allocating more resources to America’s troubled school system (although this would definitely improve the situation). Nearly eight years after the No Child Left Behind Act, many children are still being left behind. We are all here at Duke because of our outstanding educational achievement. Students are told to strive for academic excellence so they can one day attend a top 10 university. But how can they focus all their energies on school work when they’re not even sure if they’ll make it out of school alive?
Dayo Oshilaja is a Trinity junior. Her column runs every other Thursday.
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