Los Angeles County has decided that any child caught bringing a gun to school will be required to view an autopsy. While on the surface, this may seem like a great idea, sure to impress the quick-fix folks, but when you think about it, it's hardly an appropriate punishment. A kid who takes a gun to school is already a disturbed individual. Forcing them to see a dead body isn't going to help them, counseling is. The lawmakers say that it will humanize the experience for the juveniles, but I just don't see that happening.
Kids see dead bodies on television, in movies, and occasionally right in their own backyards.
Seeing one more on a table isn't going to faze them. Maybe then the kids would realize that the individual who died had people who cared for them, depended on them, and are going to be irreparably harmed by their demise. Coupled with counseling, this could be an effective treatment for kids who take guns to school. However, this mentality could be the very thing that helps foster school violence. Expect and encourage a child to do well, and they will.