From: curt@aixwiz.austin.ibm.com (Curt Finch/131072)
Newsgroups: tx.politics
Subject: y r catholic schools safer?
Date: 25 Aug 92 13:27:36 GMT
Reply-To: curt@aixwiz.austin.ibm.com (Curt Finch/131072)
Distribution: tx
Organization: IBM AWD, Austin, TX


              =====  GOAL SIX:  SAFE SCHOOLS  =====

*5   STUDENT VIOLENCE: IT DOESN'T MAKE THEIR SCHOOL DAY
     Many public schools can expel students who take guns or
other weapons to school, but the expulsion usually is not
permanent (Innerst, WASH TIMES).  The TIMES offers two reasons:
state laws often hold school districts responsible for educating
all students and many educators are guided by the principle of
rehabilitating students.
     Eugene McAllister, executive director of a special
investigative unit of Dade County [FL] public schools:  "The
majority of youngsters get into trouble because of a lack of
parental guidance ... so to throw the kid back out ... doesn't
accomplish much."  But Edwin Delattre, Boston U's ed school dean
argues:  "Some [school officials] really believe it's their job
to try to salvage everybody.  It's not their job.  It's their job
to educate those it's possible to educate ... "
     School security chiefs explain that expulsion can mean
different things at different schools.  Some schools may banish a
student for "a day, a week or forever."
     Montgomery County, MD, created alternative schools for
students who commit serious weapons offenses "so the number of
students actually put out on the street is less than a handful,"
according to school spokesperson Kevin Gunning.
     According to the TIMES, school security officers "believe
the steady diet of violence in movies and videos is a stimulus
for violent behavior."  And educators place the onus on "state
and national governments for failing to adequately fund social
and educational programs" for children.
     DeLattre says that one consequence is "mothers and
grandmothers in some inner cities ... running ad hoc schools in
abandoned apartments and tenements rather than have their
children risk being shot in or outside the school grounds."
     The TIMES also reports that metro Washington, DC, Catholic
schools have "spun a protective cocoon" around their students.
Weapons-wielding youngsters in the Archdiocese of Washington
numbered only two during the 1991-1992 school year.  Reasons
given by the TIMES:  Catholic schools have the reputation of
taking academics seriously and parents support the "religious and
value-based education and discipline" of Catholic schools (8/23).

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curt@aixwiz.austin.ibm.com (Curt L. Finch) | AIX NFS/NIS Field Quality 
My views are unrelated to those of IBM     |       Austin, TX
        The wages of sin are death, but after taxes are
          taken out it's just sort of a tired feeling.