FREE ESSAY ON SCHOOL VIOLENCE

SCHOOL VIOLENCE

Jim cringed when he heard his assistant yelling to him from her office across the hall.
The principal from your daughter's school is on the phone. Jim picked up the phone,
noticing that is was already 2:15 PM by the wall clock in his office, and timidly said,
hello? Ms. Jensen, the principal, (sounding exasperated) said, good afternoon Mr. Wilson,
I am calling because your daughter assaulted a boy during assembly this afternoon and I
need you to meet with me as soon as possible and then take her home. I can't today, Jim
told her, I have a board meeting in less than an hour. Send her home on the bus and I
will tell my house keeper to keep an eye on her till I get home. Can Mrs. Wilson come in?
I really need to discuss your daughter's behavior with one of you in person as soon as
possible, said the principal. No, she is out of town on business and won't be back till
this weekend, but I will have my assistant call you back later and set up an appointment
for me to meet with you tomorrow or the next day. In today's society with the
predominance of dual income families, parents are often too busy to raise their children,
they rely on sitters or housekeepers to care for, and in some cases actually raise, their
children. Student violence in our schools has become a major national issue, as reported
by numerous newspapers over the last several years. This problem not only endangers both
students and teachers, but also prevents teachers from teaching and students from
learning for fear of dangers in the deceptively peaceful school environment. In order to
create a safe environment that is conducive to learning, preventative programs that
address the root causes of violence must be developed. A possible, though somewhat
extreme solution to this problem would be to hold parents legally responsible for their
children's actions and/or behavior.
The factors that contribute to school violence are too numerous to count, very
diversified, and everyone probably has their own opinion of what they are. For example,
teachers perceive that the major factors contributing to student violence are lack of
parental supervision at home (71 percent), lack of family involvement with the school (66
percent), and exposure to violence in the mass media (55 percent) (taken from The
American Teacher, 1993). Today's children are pretty bright, they realize that since both
of their parents work if they do something wrong at school it will be very hard to
contact their parents. They also probably believe that even if the school gets in touch
with their parents that they will be too busy to respond to the school other than by just
answering the phone. Compounding these problems even further, when children repeatedly
get into trouble, parents may still refuse to deal with the situation and have their
sitters or housekeepers take care of the problem. Some parents may even believe there is
nothing they can do to control their children, or that the school itself is the one to
fault and not their children. Why can't the school do more to control the actions of the
students? After all, they see them more than we do.
This thought process along with the student violence itself poses serious problems to our
schools and the future of our society in general. But who is to blame; who is ultimately
responsible; and what can be done to remedy these problems? This new educational
environment, which in some respects often resembles a war zone, has created a need for
society to develop programs that will offer a safe learning environment for all children
and the teachers who teach them. Since laws demand that children attend school, schools
have the inherent responsibility to provide them with a safe place where they can learn.
To reach this goal most schools have taken technological steps (such as metal detectors
and/or police guards) to try to stop some of the more violent acts from happening. While
those steps may prevent students from conducting violent acts at school, they will not
root out the more basic behavioral problems. And schools can't do it alone. Parents have
to get involved and it may take enacting strict laws to get parents to the table. 
Is it legal to create a law that would hold parents (criminally) responsible for their
children's actions? Maybe not, but it sure would get their attention. If the law were
enacted, what would the punishment be? Would you take the child away and put them in a
home where it could end up being worse to their development than staying with their
parents? Fine the parents? That could ultimately cause them to have to work more and
further neglect their children. Parents often have to concentrate more on their economic
survival than the attitudes and behavior of their children. They do not have the quality
time to spend with their children because of job responsibilities and ultimately rely on
others to raise their children. While student violence is an enormous problem for our
society and there is no simple remedy to fix it, something has to be done. Children have
to be guided, and it is our most important job as parents to do just that.
Parents have to nurture their children and provide them with strong positive guidance and
discipline. We have to send our children to school as responsible and respectful young
people and we can't expect our sitters or housekeeper to supplant us as parents. Making
parents legally accountable for their children and requiring them to assume primary
responsibility for the actions and control of their children may be the only way to do
this and will ultimately offer the best chance for reducing the violence in our schools.