Qualified school counselors and social workers in the school setting have a sense for which children are troubled without searching their homes. The vast majority of our children are not going to go on a death rampage, but to lessen the possibility of any more violet youth behavior, schools should have qualified counselors and social workers on hand. It is a shame that it takes a school massacre to spur government to action against youth violence. Before we rush to enact new laws and turn our schools into fortresses, we should not ignore the potential good to our students, their families and communities by providing greater social work services. It's always better to provide the vaccine and prevent disease than to wait until the disease strikes and try to stop it.
Social workers can be that vaccine for our students.