Part III of this series was originally published by The Scranton Tribune on Friday, May 14, 1999. Though sometimes we can have a brief attention span for news items, the school massacre at Littleton, Colorado is an exception. Few things capture our attention more than challenges to the welfare of our children. We are also alarmed by data indicating that, taken together, suicide and homicide are the leading cause of death among adolescents. The purpose of this article is to suggest some of the things that our local schools and community might do to reduce the odds of violence in our schools.
Schools have it tough.
There can be no doubt about that. Schools are too often asked to be the village that raises the child. Functions typically thought of as the responsibility of parents, law enforcement officials and mental health professionals have become interwoven into the daily responsibilities of teachers and school administrators. While the distribution of labor is going to have to change if we are to be ultimately successful, there can be no doubt that school personnel must be centrally involved in school violence prevention efforts. The most important thing that each school can do is to have a functional school safety committee.