Rogers 1 Gavin Rogers Mr. Li ENG 111 28 October 2013 Putting Guns In Teachers Hands?

In the span of ten years (1999-2009) there were almost three hundred untimely deaths that occurred due to school shootings in the United States. As there has been a dramatic increase in fatal school shootings in the recent past, we cannot deny that violence in our nations school system is an incredible obstacle that must be attended to. Since this substantial increase in school shootings has presented itself in the past 40 years, there have been several proposed methods of reducing the considerable number of deaths per year due to violence in the school building, (Klein). One terribly controversial solution to this disastrous situation is to provide teachers with loaded firearms, along with the training that is associated with them. Although this plan can be effective in combatting gun violence in schools as it is happening, we do not want a firefight inside of a school building. Instead of fighting fire with fire, or in this case guns with more guns, I propose that we view the fault in providing teachers with weapons and we venture further into fighting this problem at its source. Instead of acting towards violence with more violence, we can nurture children as they first begin to show prospects of being violent, we can further our understanding of the anatomy of violence in efforts to prevent it, and we can venture our research further into peaceful policies against violence that are also effective, (Bender).

Rogers 2 As many studies show, mental illness is one common factor in almost every case of violence in schools. In Deadly Lessons by Mark H. Moore, there is a cross-case analysis between five separate events of school violence that is conducted. In this analysis it is noted that all five of the offenders did show telltale signs of mental illness far before they committed to their violent acts, although only two of the five offenders had been officially diagnosed with a mental illness. In spite of the fact that only two were diagnosed, Moore goes on to explain that the other three offenders were far too young (ages ranging from eleven to fifteen years old) to evaluate for a mental illness at the time. Because of the fact that all of the delinquents that the study was conducted on did show these signs of mental illness years prior to their incident, this is an obvious pressure point on where to start solving violence in the school setting. As soon as indications of a mental illness in a child can be, not necessarily diagnosed, but noted, then children can be treated accordingly. For example, if a child shows signs of depression or anxiety, administrators, faculty, and educators that are related to that student through the school can act accordingly to him or her. They can use certain punishment techniques, rewards, and they can even provide specific social structures that will comfort the student. In Steve Gevinsons Increase The Peace, he provides a series of incredibly innovative activities for educators and students alike on how to eradicate violence in modern day schools. In one chapter entitled, The Anatomy of Violence, Gevinson provides the radical idea that the most effective way of preventing violence in schools is to simply educate the students on the topic of what violence is, and how it can be prevented.. He then goes on to provide an activity where the educator provides his or her students with a theoretical violent incident, and then together they decide how it might

Rogers 3 have been averted. Again, Gevinson is directing his attention towards the source of violence, instead of the detrimental product that it yields. This activity that he provides us with is absolutely revolutionary in the fact that its dissecting what it means to be violent, how one becomes violent, and its providing an education to students and educators alike on how to prevent acts of violence in the schools before they even occur. In 2008, Harrold Independent School District of Harrold, Texas was the first school district to implement a policy of allowing teachers and staff to carry concealed handguns on school grounds. The superintendent of the school district, David Thweatt told Fox News that, Allowing teachers to carry handguns would protect schools from a lot of anger in society, (Miskaly). However, Superintendent Thweatt obviously does not take into consideration the fact that we as a society can protect the school from anger through providing an anger free example to our students. By providing his staff with weapons, Thweatt is blatantly telling society that he has no faith in them, and that they are a miserable example to his students. As we look further into alternative options to violence prevention in schools one comes across the A.L.I.C.E. Training Program. Instead of providing guns to teachers, this program encourages the staff of a school building to take action in other fashions. A.L.I.C.E. is an acronym for alert, lockdown, inform, counter, and escape. Each step in the A.L.I.C.E. program leads to the ultimate goal of escaping the situation, instead of countering a gunman in the school and fighting back. Studies are not needed to show that escaping scenarios saves more lives than fighting back. However, a prime example of this situation occurred at Virginia Tech on April 16th, 2007, the day of the Virginia Tech Massacre. As a gunman made his way from classroom to classroom, shooting and aiming to kill anyone who stood in his path, the

Rogers 4 only survivors were the students who were innovative enough to attempt to escape out the window. This is terrible event is a perfect example of how the A.L.I.C.E. program is designed to work. In Violence Prevention and Reduction in Schools, William N. Bender provides a very detailed, extremely innovative list of what works and what does not work in terms of preventing and reducing violence in modern day schools. For example, Bender states that, a number of research studies, while somewhat lacking in methodological rigor, nevertheless suggest that mentoring programs are promising for increasing school attendance and reducing substance abuse among teens, whereas substance abuse has been proven to be associated with violence in schools in afore mentioned studies, (Bender). This mentoring program that is provided to the students can fill a void that a parent or guardian has abandoned, and a teacher cannot perform to fill, therefore eliminating the excuses for violence. As extreme acts of violence in school buildings continue to increase in frequency, we must make an effort to combat this and make a stance. Our effort against violence must be just that, against violence. This stance should be cemented in efforts of peace and emotion instead of adding to the violence by placing more weapons in schools. For example, instead of acting towards violence with more violence, we can nurture children as they first begin to show prospects of being violent, we can further our understanding of the anatomy of violence in efforts to prevent it, and we can venture our research further into peaceful policies against violence that are also effective.

Rogers 5 Works Cited Bender, William N, Gregory Clinton, and Renet L. Bender. Violence Prevention and Reduction in Schools. Austin, Tex: Pro-Ed, 1999. Print. This book provides a very wide range of information that ranges from analyses of various school shootings across the country and how they could have been prevented, to what can or cannot work in violent school situations in the future. I will be getting a lot of information from this resource just because it is so diverse in what it provides.

Gevinson, Steven, David Hammond, and Phil Thompson. Increase the Peace: A Program for Ending School Violence. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2006. Print. This source is exactly what I was looking for in my argument. This piece directly supports my argument in the fact that they want a peaceful solution for violence in schools, instead of increasing the violence by putting weapons inside of the classroom. This source includes a DVD that provides me with a direct course on how to end school violence through bringing peace into the classroom. Klein, Jessie. (2012) The Bully Society: school shootings and the crisis of bullying in Americas schools, New York, NY: NYU Press, http//:www.nyupress.org/bullysociety/dataonschoolshootings.pdf. Miskaly, Michelle. "Texas School District Will Let Teachers Carry Guns." (2008): n.pag. Fox News. Web. 23 Oct 2013. <http://www.foxnews.com/story/2008/08/15/texas-school-district-will-letteachers-carry-guns/>.

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Moore, Mark H. Deadly Lessons: Understanding Lethal School Violence : Case Studies of School Violence Committee. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2003. Print. This source will help me support my argument with the fact that the author gives very specific details of why, how, and when in their life kids committed to a school shooting. This is a great source for going to the origin of why kids go to school with a gun and attempt to kill many of their peers and educators. As I go to the origin of this situation, I can further argue how to prevent this situation where it begins, instead of where it finishes with violence.

Williams, Kimberly M. The Peace Approach to Violence Prevention: A Guide for Administrators and Teachers. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press, 2003. Print. Again, this source directly supports my argument. Williams gives a very peaceful approach to school violence, instead of introducing threatening and aggressive actions into the classroom. Though instead of a more sporadic approach to the argument, Williams gives a step-by-step approach to the situation. Through this source I can gain many more alternatives to prevent school violence at its origin.

Youth Violence: A Policymakers' Guide. Denver, Colo. : Education Commission Of The States, 1996. Print. This source will be very helpful, as it will provide the reader with helpful information on how to make a peaceful policy on reducing and preventing gun violence in modern schools. As I argue against the current policies that are being

Rogers 7 written to encourage teachers to carry guns in schools, this will provide very good alternatives. The Education Commission of the States compiled this information. Therefore, it is a very credible source.