What Is This World Coming To?

[Japan]

[COLOR=Navy]Last year, there was a school shooting at a neighboring school. Two monthes ago, there was a kid who shot himself in the head right in front of a school in a town not too far from here. Now, at [I]my[/I] school, a teacher was fired and getting tried for sexual abuse of a 17 year old girl. What is this world coming to? I am somewhat afraid to go to my high school any more. Like, what'll happen next?

At my school, we have an open campus. (I know....weird for Washington state to have an open campus)

If some crazy guy comes on campus, how do we escape?

So basically what I'm asking is, do you think that schools are still as safe as they say it is? If so, why, and if not....why?

I 've been questioning my school's safety a lot lately. What's really creepy was that the teacher being tried was everyone's favorite.[/COLOR]

[ChibiHorsewoman]

[color=darkviolet]It's interesting that you bring this topic up in the wake of all these trials of teachers sleeping with their students.

I was seriously considering having my kids homeschooled with all teh junk that's been going on, except that it's very time consuming and you have to make sure that your kids would be able to compete with children in both public and private schools. So I don't see that as an option.

Back when I was a freshman in College there was an incident in the school my husband went to were a girl went to hit another girl with a sock filled with padlocks and ended up hitting a teacher instead (that was in a city school)

Then that same year, or the one after a girl got hit in the face with a balloon filled with bleach at the school I graduated from (that was a suburban school)

The school that Lincoln's cousin's brother (her mother is not his aunt) pretty much allows her brother to walk around the halls. They actually called his mom once to tell her that they didn't know where he was.

interesting thread. I have to go forage and sleep.[/color]

[Sea Of Chaos666]

I don't think school are safe. Most school well at least my school have no way of keeping people of campus. And if that is the case some crazy Guy with a gun could walk in at any moment. I guess thats what we have lock downs for but all we do is lock the door and sit in the back of the room.
But there also the chance if people are in there dormes what do you do then your not in the class room, and the walls at my school are not bullet proof so someone could just shoot us through the wall.
Then theres knifes. A student could have one in the pocket and pull it on you at any given moment. I recall a couple of years ago some kid got a knife pulled on him Because the guy was playing soccer without following the rules.
No I really don't think schools are safe places considering we have no real way to defened our selfs. No way!!!

[Hevn]

[COLOR=Purple][SIZE=1][B][COLOR=Plum]I'm afraid to think that there's no safe place.[/COLOR][/B]

Two years ago, a girl was mercilessly stabbed around 40 times at our university by another student. And to think security is a bit tight already.

Sometimes, churches are not safe. Either are our own homes. So I think what it all comes down to is, we should always be aware of our surroundings and be responsible for taking care of ourselves. We [COLOR=Plum][B]can't entirely depend[/B][/COLOR] on our school or churches or other community for our safety.[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Delta]

[COLOR=#B33D79][SIZE=1]Just recently, a vehicle exploded in front of a mall in broad daylight. It was Valentine's Day, ladies and gentlemen. And early this morning, I received a text message that warned not to go to malls 'cause a resistance group was planning to blow one up.

Yeah, another reason not to skip school. ;)

Our university's pretty open too. So open that outsiders could just walk in its streets and stick knives into people during lunchbreak. Lovely feeling, the guessing games students play to decide whether that man in the corner wants your cellphone. Good thing our university's got its own police force who patrol like they've got nothing else to do.[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Syk3]

In light of violence (namely shootings and such) at the schools, my school tested out their plan for a lockdown yesterday during 6th period.

Aparently, if something like Columbine were to happen and people were running around the school with guns, this is supposed to be the answer. They would announce over the intercom for teachers to turn to page 18 in the handbook, and the teacher would then lock their doors from the outside and take roll. If all of the students are there, he or she puts up a green slip of paper on the window of the door; otherwise, a red slip is put up. The students and teacher are then ordered to turn off the lights and get away from the windows and doors, and administrators would walk around the hall and check the color slips on the windows of the doors. They would announce over the loudspeaker once the lockdown was complete.

Obviously, there are a ton of flaws in this "plan." What if it happens during a lunch period? During a class change? Not only that, but they're basically showing this to people who will potentially be a cause for concern, so they can avoid the precautions. They could brake the windows on doors and open it from the inside, or knock on the window and you won't know whether it's an administrator, a gunman, or someone that's running from a gunman. You could let someone in who turns out to be the bad guy, or leave out an innocent student who could get shot down.

[kaisha]

I'm homeschooled so I personally have dealt with issues like this, but alot of my friends go to public school and they tell about about stuff like that alot. Like last year for example, my best friend Anthony was threatned by another student, he said he was going to shoot him and because of that my friend transfered schools. He hasn't had any problems like that recently, I think thats because now he goes to private school.

[Semjaza]

The world really isn't any more violent or scary than it ever was, in my opinion. It's just more televised.

[kabapu]

i agree with sheija angel.

but seriously tho, nowhere is safe.

at my school, there have been a few medium-scale riots. and students are regularly beating the ***** out of each other.


i'd say the world's gone mad

[wiccansamurai]

My school is actually pretty safe, in theory. Theory: No one can get in without being a student with an ID on. Reality: None of the students wear their IDs and its hardly reinforcable anymore. Students will let in anyone if they're knocking at a door.

Otherwise, its actually safe. We have at least two cops walking around, and the station is right across the street. The outside doors don't open at all during school, so the only way in is thorugh the deans office, ideally. No adult is let in EVER without an ID, unless its a teacher that everyone recognizes. We have a "small country" town (it stopped being a small country town when all the city people started moving out here) where there is almost no major crime problems.

But my school isn't every school. In fact, the school my sister works at, almost anyone could walk in without being noticed, really. They have no cops, no real security, not even a lock down drill.

[XcXChezaXcX]

Just recently, a man attacked one of my teachers on campus at the college I?m attending. Luckily she survived and the man was caught, but she suffered major injuries. She's doing better now but it sure made me think twice about walking to my night classes by myself.

[Morpheus]

I've always seen the flaws in our lockdown system:
-It's not like the administrators can just prance the halls during a shooting.
-We use lists of students names put under the door. What's stopping the gunman from reading the lists?
-What's really stopping the gunman from shooting the lock or beating down the door? It's not like hiding will help.
-They never tell us about [B]BREAKING THE WINDOWS[/B] to get out.

The system is so flawed, it's scary.

[Lady Asphyxia]

[font=Verdana][size=1]Whoa. This thread really makes me glad that I don't go to school in America. I've never heard of a closed campus in Australia. My school is completely open; we don't have a 'main building' that houses all our classrooms. All the walkways and everyting are outside, and where we eat is outside too. Visitors need to report to the office, generally. We do have a very strict attendance record; by second period all the teachers are aware of who is away and who isn't, so it's hard to wag.[/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=1][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=1]Really, we have to worry more about fires than shootings. The ground is so dry here that it could really do some damage if there ever was a fire. [/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=1][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=1]As for Universities; they're much the same. I recently went to QUT in Brisbane, and that had no guards/security. It was pretty much come and go as you please. [/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=1][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=1]It's really sad to see a country has gotten to a point where their kids have to be locked up each day for fear of getting shot. I mean, to me, that just says something has gone very, very wrong. [/size][/font]

[Panda]

[quote name='Scott T. Kidd and Cheryl L. Meyer']Moses Lake, Washington. On February 2, 1996, Barry Loukaitis, a 14 year-old Caucasian male, walked into his algebra class at Frontier Junior High School with a rifle and shot and killed two male students, one of whom had repeatedly teased Loukaitis in the past. He then randomly fired another shot into the center of the classroom, seriously injuring a female student. Loukaitis then shot and killed his math teacher as she headed to the aid of the wounded students. Hearing the commotion, a physical education teacher entered the classroom. Loukaitis planned to take a hostage as protection so he could safely exit the school. The physical education teacher volunteered to be the hostage. As Loukaitis placed a plastic bag over the muzzle of the rifle to be placed in the mouth of the teacher, the teacher wrestled the weapon away from him.[/quote]
Speaking of open campus in Washington state, Moses Lake High School has an open campus but Frontier where this happened is a closed campus. Being a small town I know most of the people who were involved in this event. The teacher who wrestled the weapon away was one of my former teachers. It was bizarre to think that this could happen in my little hometown.

If someone wants to go to school and cause trouble they will find a way. Like Tony said, we are just now starting to see it more in the media. Because of that we now have more laws on the books when a situation occurs. I don't think the schools are safer. We just now realized how dangerous they have always been. There are always going to be crazy kids and wacko teachers. I just think in the past we didn't want to see it. Kinda like the other "safe" places and people that we now know are not safe (ie bad priests, bad cops, bad day cares, bad hospitals, etc..).

The world is a dangerous place but that doesn't mean we should live in fear.

[Jonexe]

There were a few bad instances at the couple highschools I went to.

For example, at the school I graduated from, some kid beat the hell out of three others with a chair during lunch.

But WHY did this happen? Because those three kids had be tormenting their beater's brother for the past year. THEY began it, and paid the price.

The point of that being, if you don't MESS with other people, you're far more safe than if you do.

Let's take Collumbine for example. Those whom went off shooting people partially did so as revenge for what other students had done to them. Yes, they were wrong, but if people hadn't be messing with them for years, maybe the idea to shoot people wouldn't have gotten into their heads.

That is what I think half the problems with "school safety" issues are these days. People continue to insult, beat up, and harrass others; and then are suprised when those harrassed take action against them.

Basically, be NICE to people, and you won't have to worry AS MUCH about someone wanting to beat you up, or people wanting to shoot you for picking on them.

[Baron Samedi]

[size=1]I concur with Asphy: Australia is so much more open. You can quite literally, walk off the footpath and onto the UWA grounds, or on the other side into the residential area, Currie Hall, even though you need a keycard to access the actual dorm buildings and rooms. I see many people complaining about people just being able to wander in and kill someone else: but whats to stop that happening as you're walking down the street? Nothing. I think you actually need to look at why people pull that crazy ****, not how to stop them from doing it in a school. Obviously security is important, but why is this happening so much in America? That is the real issue here.[/size]

[future girl]

[size=1]When you say sexual abuse, what is he actually being accused of??? My last year in high school my old math teacher was accused of sexual harrassment. I was really surprised that someone actually did that. I admit, this guy was and is a pervert but everyone took advantage of it. You were failing his class, all you had to do was flirt a little and BAM, I got a B for a final grade. He flirted back, but he never went as far as to touch anyone or try anything. So in my senior year I find out he's being accused of sexual harrasment because he told a student she had a weird mole, which just happened to be near her chest area. That's just ridiculous to me. I mean I know it implies he's looking at your boobs, but God damn it you're young and wearing a low cut shirt and a man is a man no matter what his title. That's just my view on it anyway. He wasn't actually fired because everyone agreed the situation was too retarded.

My school was open to everyone and there was an adult section to it as well since it was vocational. But in my oppinion it's not something you wouldn't deal with in a mall or in your own neighborhood, really. These highly violent happenings aren't new, they're just put on tv a lot more. Highschool is supposed to be this unstable, it's getting you ready for the real world afterall.[/size]

[Japan]

[COLOR=Navy]He wrote notes to the girl, and he stated publicly that he loved the girl as much as a future wife. That's what he said in the newspaper. That's all I know detail-wise.

My school is being really good about keeping the details in secret.

School might be in so much trouble now because they didn't report what was going on soon enough....so that means they may get heavily fined.

That on top of budget cuts is not a good combination. u_u [/COLOR]

[EvanescenceChiK]

[quote name='Japan_86][COLOR=Navy]Last year, there was a school shooting at a neighboring school. Two monthes ago, there was a kid who shot himself in the head right in front of a school in a town not too far from here. Now, at [I]my[/I'] school, a teacher was fired and getting tried for sexual abuse of a 17 year old girl. What is this world coming to? I am somewhat afraid to go to my high school any more. Like, what'll happen next? [/quote]

[FONT=Century Gothic][COLOR=Navy]I know what you mean. A couple(OK,make that 6or7yrs ago...)I was in 2nd or 3rd grade when we had a lock down 'cause a rapist was in the school area[/COLOR][/FONT]

[QUOTE=Japan_86][COLOR=Navy]At my school, we have an open campus. (I know....weird for Washington state to have an open campus)

If some crazy guy comes on campus, how do we escape?[/COLOR][/QUOTE]

[FONT=Century Gothic][COLOR=Navy]The school I went to was open campus and I was (acctually still am)in Washington State.But I see what your getting at(kinda) Anyway, I agree. If we had to have tried to "Escape", it might have been pretty hard. Thank god for police officers.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[quote name='Japan_86][COLOR=Navy']So basically what I'm asking is, do you think that schools are still as safe as they say it is? If so, why, and if not....why?[/COLOR][/quote]

[FONT=Century Gothic][COLOR=Navy]I don't really think schools are as safe as they should be. I mean, I remember teachers always telling us that "School was the safest place we could be" Then you turn on a TV and what do you see? School shootings, teachers having sex with students and so on. So, I guess school really wasn't the "Safest place we could be"[/FONT][/COLOR]

[Pumpkin]

[SIZE=1]I've never really had a problem when it came to School Safety since I live in the suburbs. But in huge cities, yeah schools can get pretty dangerous. Knifes. Guns. You name it. But I think we try our best to get the drugs, alchocol and weapons off campus and that is why alot of police officers camp out at schools now. It's not really the schools fault that people go wacko sometimes, there will always be crazy people. You can't live your life in fear that one day someone is going to crack, and I've never felt unsecure at a school. But then again like I said, I only live in a small little town, the worst I've ever got was there was a bomb threat at my school twice and we just missed school. There should always be precautions for stuff like that to happen, but I don't think people really want to think about the fact that it COULD happen to you. Just a thought. [/SIZE]

[future girl]

[size=1]Once when I was in third grade my entire elementary school was put on lock down because the police were chasing around these two guys. Everyone was pretty freaked out and they thought they were like deranged escaped convicts or something. So I looked out the window and lo and behold, the first thing to come out of my mouth is, "Hey, that's my brother!" It turns out the other boy being chased was our front door neighbor and the brother of yet another classmate. They were being chased because they were cutting class and it was the Miami-Dade School Police and not the actual police. Seriously, everything is made ten times worse than it actually is by the media and gossipy school administration. When their powers combine everything gets ridiculously out of hand :rolleyes: .[/size]

[Maully]

I'm not sure I agree that the world is no more or less violent, but any violence is much more widely televised. I find that fact somewhat detrimental. It leads to copycats.

In high scholl, I was pegged as one of the "scary kids". I kept to myself, I wore a lot of black, I read a lot of books, kids were means to me and I was snide back to them. More than once it was alluded to that if there was a threat in the school, I was one of them. That thought is now and was then completely stupid and ill-founded.

Some kids are threats, some kids people make threats. There was a kid in a small town here in Kansas about a week ago arrested for planting 11 pipe bombs, not in the school, but at teachers' homes and at sport fields and arenas. School is as safe as anywhere else in my opinion.

[ChibiHorsewoman]

[quote name='kaisha'] He hasn't had any problems like that recently, I think thats because now he goes to private school.[/quote]

[color=darkviolet]i think that's based more on dumb luck than the fact that it's a private school.

Private shcools still have problems and from what I've heard it's easrier to sell drugs in private Catholic schools than public schools. I forgot who I heard that from.

Anyways. My college was an open campus, but the majority of classes were in one building. There wasn't any violence there my two semesters and I haven't heard anything yet from there.[/color]

[You Don't Care]

School violence, neighborhood problems, acts of violence to or toward eachother and everyone else in or outside the home.

I have advise for those who have children. If you love them and they know that you love them and how much you love them, then when they go somewhere(ANYWHERE) you should trust their judgement if a situation comes to rise. If you let them know your concern and show your trust in them every time they leave the house out of your care, then they will reflect on that and think of your concerns as well as what the right actions are to just about any situation.

This and many other methods are good for the development of a human child and getting both parties to understand eachother's limits. Knowing these limits can be put to either person's advantage when the need arises (such as an act of violence, etc.).

Love is truly the greatest strength anyone can possibly have. Fuel! Drive! Passion! No matter the explanation, LOVE cannot truly be fathomed in its entirety. Thus lies its true power.

Note:
...

[Morpheus]

[QUOTE=Xy GGu]School violence, neighborhood problems, acts of violence to or toward eachother and everyone else in or outside the home.

I have advise for those who have children. If you love them and they know that you love them and how much you love them, then when they go somewhere(ANYWHERE) you should trust their judgement if a situation comes to rise. If you let them know your concern and show your trust in them every time they leave the house out of your care, then they will reflect on that and think of your concerns as well as what the right actions are to just about any situation.

This and many other methods are good for the development of a human child and getting both parties to understand eachother's limits. Knowing these limits can be put to either person's advantage when the need arises (such as an act of violence, etc.).

Love is truly the greatest strength anyone can possibly have. Fuel! Drive! Passion! No matter the explanation, LOVE cannot truly be fathomed in its entirety. Thus lies its true power.

Note:
...[/QUOTE]
That would be horrible parenting. Just because you love them doesn't mean that you can just let them go do whatever they want. That excess freedom is what gets insecure people involved in drugs.