What will it take?

by lyndlj @ 2008-02-01 - 16:14:27

With the news of yet another stabbing in a school this morning in Leeds we have to ask the question, What will it take before something is done about safety in schools?

A 14 year old boy is this afternoon 'Comfortable' in Hospital after being stabbed in his classroom by a 13 year old student. The incident happened at Allerton Grange School in Leeds and kind of makes a mockery of the wording used by the head teacher in his school prospectus

He wrote: "Our aim is that your child is safe, is taught well and is encouraged to develop his/her skills and talents as a responsible member of the school and the wider community. We may be a large school, but your child will be known by the staff whose job it is to look after them while they are here."

Hmmmm, try telling the 14 year old boy's Mother and Father that he is 'safe' at school!

How many more stabbings, beatings and kickings will it take before the people in charge of Education face the fact that we have a problem in our schools? Is it going to take a columbine tragedy? Is one of our students going to have to get a gun and shoot down his fellow classmates and teachers before this problem is addressed?

School should be a safe place to send your children, it is no longer a safe place, not when your child ends up in hospital with stab wounds, and using statistics to say that the amount of stabbings, beatings and kickings are neglible to the amount of children attending school is a cop out, one child in hospital is one child too many!

It is time that this problem was dealt with instead of being swept under the carpet!

« Whose responsibility is it?

Is it not time? »

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The_Walrus [Member]
http://www.doctor-dark.co.uk
2008-02-01 @ 17:33

It is starting to feel like the maniacs are the majority. What do you suggest is done?

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lyndlj ^pro
2008-02-01 @ 19:55

Many have said that they fear that our schools are going the way of America, so lets bring in the means to deal with it in the same way.

Security guards are the first step, obviously not armed with guns, but with the correct security training that they have to go through to maintain security in stores etc.

Metal Detectors are pretty obsolete when the youth wear so much of it, but maybe the detterant of guards will help?

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deleted user [Visitor]

2008-02-01 @ 17:36

Well, I don't know what the solution is but I know it will take more than the simple band-aid solution of placing metal detectors in schools. Child behaviour NEEDS to be dealt with at home by caring parents who set good examples. But that takes too much effort so no doubt the government will build more fences and install various equipment in a "tough crackdown".

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lyndlj ^pro
2008-02-01 @ 19:57

Metal detectors are no good, too many wear ear rings etc.

But, you say the problem lies at home, well what about the child in the news tonight, an Angel at home and yet has had charges of assault brought against him. Sometimes children are totally different outside the home than inside it.

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deleted user [Visitor]

2008-02-02 @ 01:27

I don't know the details of the latest incident, I'm afraid, but I still think that parents who genuinely make an effort to communicate with their kids and not patronise them while setting good examples would notice ANY signs of oncoming extreme bad behaviour. Children are sometimes totally different outside the home but it is still up to all us parents to "play detective" in our efforts to guide them. :yes:

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deleted user [Visitor]

2008-02-02 @ 01:31

Is it this news item?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/7222183.stm

If so then the bullying seems to be a factor and, again, this is yet another part of young lives that MUST be effectively handled by parents and/or adult authority figures. Parents, teachers, police officers, etc, ANY adult authority figure should be constantly trying their best to understand and help any youngster in their lives. Sorry to harp on.

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lyndlj ^pro
2008-02-02 @ 10:25

The thing is that this is what has been happening over the years in America, a child is bullied so he takes a gun and shoots the perptrator and anyone else that gets in the way.

Many people live through bullying at school, the ones bullied didn't take a knife and extract revenge, if this kind of thing is not checked then the next step is what happens in America.

Parents do have a certain amount of reponsibility, so do teachers, the problem is when a parent sends it's child to school it is expected that the child will be taught and will be safe. Too many rules in school that allow the bullies free reign and not enough security.

My own son was bullied, eventually he stood up to them and refused to 'grass' them up to the teacher that had been watching them. As a parent I felt totally helpless through this phase of his life, I offered to get him in to another school, he refused. The school did nothing because most of the bullying took place outside the school gates.

We still need to make the schools themselves safer for our children, there will always be bullies because there will always be parents that believe the right way to bring their children up is to teach them how to be top dog.

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deleted user [Visitor]

2008-02-02 @ 13:12

Sadly, that's very true.

I hated high school because of bullying and it certainly CAN push normally good kids over the edge. Didn't mean to infer that parents have to step in to be effective (sorry if you thought that), the fact that you were aware of your son's bullying is such a big plus point in a situation full of negatives and dead ends. My mother never knew about my bullying and never made any effort to find out about that much in my life at all, really.

I went off on a tangent but my main point was really that there is no quick fix for this though. I'd be interested to find out what the statistics for this kind of incident are in somewhere like Japan, overcrowded and mega-busy yet everyone brought up with so much more respect ingrained into them.

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deleted user [Visitor]

2008-02-02 @ 13:21

Ohhh, sorry m'dear but I DO like your debatething. Why haven't I been on here before? Maybe worried we would debate our way to an argument? :))

Just wanted to add that I also have the small worry about these security measures in school building up and up until our schools start to resemble prisons. Perhaps that really doesn't matter when it's the safety of our children being dealt with but it's a shame that we've slid down this slope.

xxx (in case I've annoyed you with my prolonged debating).

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lyndlj ^pro
2008-02-02 @ 13:37

I never get annoyed at people joining in a debate and if our oinions are different well, wouldn't it be a sad world if we all thought the same.

The main point here is that it is called 'Thedebatething' because I like to encourage debate, it is also says Your views about the news, so any and all opinions are more than welcome.

It is a sad fact that many parents do not know that their children are being bullied, too busy, dont care, make them stand up for themselves.

Where boys are concerned you tend to get the old adage of it 'making a man' of them, where my son was concerned I knew him well enough to know that something was wrong and we were close enough for him to talk to me, not all parents have that.

Security for all is more important than upsetting the few who will no longer be able to get away with the bullying but whose parents will shout the loudest about rights and so on.

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deleted user [Visitor]

2008-02-02 @ 13:46

I am going to have to keep up with the news now, amn't I?

*runs off to get notepad and pencil, ready to revise for next debate*

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lyndlj ^pro
2008-02-02 @ 13:49

Well it helps :))

Dont worry I will be gentle (at first)