9/11 Schools

Why are there a rash of school shootings of late? It's the beginning of the school year. Surely Mr. Smith's math homework is not that overwhelming. Wait...most are being perpetrated by non-students. Why is that? Why are people (all seem to be male, strangely enough) going into our schools and just killing students. Kids with hopes, and dreams, and a future...snuffed out before they can be unleashed into the world. Could those that were killed have been our future Einsteins, or Ghandis, or Oliviers? We'll never know.

In the aftermath, our schools are becoming fortresses. Not of learning, but of fear.

Fear and suspicion are breeding in our schools, just like they have in our airports and airplanes. Metal detectors, video surveillance, armed security, physical searches, intrusive questions. These are not just the norm in our airports, they've become de rigeur in our schools too. Why is that? Why have we come to this?

The obvious reason is to protect our children. But what was the catalyst for people going on shooting rampages in our schools? Have the fears of 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan driven people over the edge? And why schools? Because they are the most vulnerable? The students are the most innocent and defenseless? The reason the shooter went into the Amish school was because he knew there would be little resistance for him to get inside. The reason he gave in his final note for committing this act was that it was because he had molested children before and he was getting the same thoughts 20 years later. More often than not, it seems a shooter's motivations centre around revenge. Why do they think they can resolve their issues by killing people (mainly students)?

We once felt reasonably safe in airplanes (except for the anxiety of crashing), before they became weapons on September 9, 2001. Is the same thing happening in our schools? Are we breeding a new generation of neurotic people who will go on to commit similar crimes? Look at the people who were molested in childhood, only to go on and commit these heinous acts themselves (Mr. Foley being the latest high profile perpetrator).

Is making our schools an armed camp they way to go? Children need and deserve our protection as they try to learn in what was once a safe environment. Do they not enjoy the same feeling of security as when we went to school? Violent acts have always been around. During my school years, a student was stabbed during school hours, when I was in Grade 8. Also, a student was shot at the high school I went to a couple of years after I graduated. These were city schools, but they weren't economically depressed neighbourhoods. These areas were populated by hard working, middle-class families. That seemed a lifetime ago. Violence in schools has always been around, but what is the difference now. The post 9/11 environment?

Has the nightly news showing religious fanaticism, war zones and military might influencing our children? Is showing the video feed from a "bomb cam" sending a message to our children that it's okay to solve your problems with the use of weapons? Is this constant exposure to violence in the news, in TV shows, and in video games finally taking its toll on our childrens' psyche?

Maybe this issue needs to go beyond being a philosophical question and moved into our labs and think tanks. Violence in our schools is not a recent phenomenon, but it certainly seems to have escalated. Ask why. Dissect the minds of those that perpetrate these crimes. Dig deep. Explore every avenue, however innocuous.

We must find a solution. Our children...our future depends on it.

Wings Over The World