By Natalie Kaye Bucks County Peace Centers and Jude Aptaker-Shine Libertae Messages of violence are all around us on a daily basis. By the time our children reach 18, they have already been exposed to over 180,000 acts of violence on TV alone. War toys and computer games help to desensitize children to society's growing violence. Guns are readily accessible to our youth and make killing an easy option for solving problems in today's society.
Violence is on the rise.
In the past year, there were 16 students and five teachers killed in schools across America. Nearly 6,000 criminal cases were prosecuted in Bucks County last year. The U.S. Government's first nationwide survey indicates that schoolyard violence is now a major health problem for children. Both the Surgeon General and the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta have declared violence and crime in the United States a public health crisis. Last year, Bucks County Children and Youth Social Services investigated 627 reports of child abuse.