The bell rings, shots are fired, screams are echoing throughout the hallways of Columbine High School, this is not an ordinary day; people are dying! School violence has hit an all time high in our society, which can be demonstrated by the shootings at Columbine High, Heritage High, and many other schools all over the country. Many have tried to devise a plan to end school violence with such plans as zero tolerance, but is it really a deterrence, or has it gone entirely too far? The Columbine tragedy occurred on April 20, 1999. Zero tolerance was created to prevent such incidents as school shootings from happening, but some would say it is a bit extreme.
The Columbine massacre was one of the most devastating school shootings in United States history. It all started on a sunny spring day in April 1999. A suburban high school in Jefferson County, Colorado, found itself under attack by two of its own, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. In less than fifteen minutes of the first-lunch period on that Tuesday April 20, 1999, two student gunmen killed 13 and wounded 21 before they turned the guns on themselves (http://columbine.iwannabefamous.net/File2.htm). On May 20, 1999 a 15 year old student upset over a broken romance opened fire at Heritage High School, near Conyers, Georgia, a town east of Atlanta.
There were no life-threatening injuries but six schoolmates were injured. The student suspect was quickly taken into custody. On June 15, 1998 a male teacher and a female guidance counselor were shot in a hallway at a Richmond, Virginia, high school. The man suffered an injury to the abdomen that wasn t life threatening and the woman is reportedly grazed. On May 21, 1998 a 15-year-old student in Springfield, Oregon, expelled the day before for bringing a gun to school, allegedly opened fire in the school cafeteria. Two students are killed. The suspect s parents were later found shot dead in their home.
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On May 19, 1998, three days before his graduation, an 18-year-old honor student allegedly opened fire in a parking lot at Lincoln County High School in Fayetteville, Tennessee; he killed a classmate who was dating his ex-girlfriend. On March 24, 1998 four girls and a teacher were shot to death and 10 others wounded during a false fire alarm at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas, when two boys, ages 11 and 13, open fire from the woods. Both were convicted in juvenile court of murder and can be held up to age of 21. An all-day No Nonsense program Zero Tolerance was devised to address school risk factors to violence. The school safety plan is built around three major components of successful anti-violence efforts: deterrence, intervention, and prevention. Acts such as the threat of serious physical injury, assault causing bodily harm, sexual assault, hate-motivated violence, robbery and extortion, possession and/or use of weapons and extensive vandalism may result in a recommendation for expulsion.
Students shall not possess, handle, transmit, use, or attempt to use any dangerous weapon. Dangerous weapons shall include guns of any kind, knives of any kind, mace like or pepper like sprays, explosives of any kind, ice picks, slingshots, blackjacks, knuckles, razors or razor blades except for shaving as on an overnight school sponsored trip, or any sharp pointed or edged instrument (Anderson County Board of Education). Any student found to be in violation of this policy shall be expelled for not less than one calendar year. Also any student expelled under the Zero Tolerance policy will not be able to transfer to any other school in that district. The zero tolerance policies shall apply in school buildings, or on school grounds at any time, or in school or private vehicles or buses on or off the school grounds at any school sponsored activity, function, or event. Has the administrations effort to counter school violence gotten completely out of hand?
In November 1997 a Colorado Springs, Colorado school district says it did the right thing when it suspended 6- year-old Seamus Morris under the school’s zero-tolerance drug policy. The drug? Lemon drops. Taylor Elementary School administrators called an ambulance after a teacher saw the boy give another student some candy, which was a brand teachers didn’t recognize. “It was not something you would purchase in a grocery store,” a district spokesman said. “It was from a health-food store.” A spokesman for St. Claire’s Lemon Tarts, however, noted that the candy is indeed sold in Colorado’s largest grocery store chain. School officials were not impressed, and not only upheld the half-day suspension, but told the boy’s mother that a child who brings candy to school is comparable to a teen that takes a gun to school (http://www.thisistrue.com/zt.html.). In Oakland, school officials suspended a third-grader that showed his classmates a gun-shaped medallion about the size of a half-dollar. The boy apparently found the piece of jewelry in a snow bank and brought it to Owen Elementary School. According to state law the school was required to take action even though the medallion was just a toy. In March 1999 13-year-old David Silverstein was inspired to build a model rocket after seeing the movie “October Sky”, a biography of NASA rocket scientist Homer Hickam.
The boy took his rocket, made out of a potato chip canister and fueled with three match heads, to his Glendale, Arizona school, where it was found in a search of his locker. School officials classified the toy as a “weapon” and suspended him for the rest of the year based on its “zero-tolerance” weapons policy. The police were also called, and the case is being referred to juvenile authorities. In April 1999 administrators saw three students at the Union Colony Charter School in Greeley, Colo., playing with a water gun. According to the school’s interpretation of the state’s “zero tolerance” weapons law — which mandates suspension of students who “carry, bring, use or possess a firearm or firearm facsimile at school” — the unnamed boys have been suspended. According to standard practice in “weapons” cases, the boys must now face expulsion hearings. In conclusion, I really feel that school violence is a very important issue that needs an immediate solution. Students should be able to feel safe in school. School shootings are events that should never happen. There should be programs that help troubled students. Zero tolerance is an answer, but I do no think it should be an only answer. It should only be used when a student has true intent to place harm on another student.
