Posted on 04/20/2019 4:40:25 AM PDT by Kaslin
On April 20, 1999, two teens carried out an attack at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Twelve students and one teacher were killed during the assault and more than 20 others were wounded before the teen attackers committed suicide. This horrifying event shocked the nation and caused immeasurable grief for the survivors and the families of the deceased and wounded.
Over the past 20 years, there have been many discussions about the best way to keep students safe, as well as new legislation at the state and federal levels. Although school entrances have been hardened, firearm laws have been tightened, and studies have been undertaken to find ways to identify potential shooters, school shootings continue.
And it’s important to remember school shootings, while horrific, are not the only school safety issue that has faced Americans in the years after the Columbine shooting. Data show students face numerous threats in schools, many of which are directly related to bullying. Twenty-one percent of students report being bullied at school, and 160,000 students skip school each day due to bullying. In fact, a child in the United States is bullied every seven minutes. This bullying and intimidation toward students have tremendous negative effects on learning, both for the victims and those who witness the incidents.
Bullying and physical attacks are not just student on student, either. Many students are bullied by school staff, as reported in the Chicago Tribune’s important investigative series “Betrayed.”
Teen suicides are also on the rise in the United States. From 2006 to 2016, there was a 70 percent increase in the suicide rate for white teens and a 77 percent increase for black teens. While there are many reasons why suicide rates have increased, a report by Health Management Associates, which was presented to the Office of the Colorado Attorney General, show two key factors associated with suicide are bullying at school and cyberbullying.
No child should be forced to remain in the same classroom or school as his or her attacker. Students should be allowed to find a safe education environment that fits their needs. Unfortunately, this is often not possible, because many students who are bullied at school or face other dangers have limited resources or educational options to help them escape their dangerous environments.
However, there is a way for lawmakers to help students find safe, effective schools: creating a Child Safety Account (CSA) program. CSAs are a reform proposal developed by The Heartland Institute in 2018. CSAs are individual education accounts that would be funded by states using monies already designated for a student’s education.
Under Heartland’s CSA model, parents are provided with a debit card linked to the CSA account that they could use to pay for approved education-related expenses at a different school (public or private) or to pay for another education opportunity. In addition, CSA funds could be used for transportation, trauma therapies, curriculum, school uniforms, tutors, higher-education courses, standardized testing fees, college entrance exams, etc. To ensure low-income students can properly utilize CSAs, “topping off” would be permitted. (“Topping off” is allowing parents and others to contribute toward tuition and other expenses that exceed the amount reimbursed by a government program.) The funds used for this purpose would be raised through a tax-credit scholarship program and individual education tax credits.
Numerous studies confirm that school choice programs that allow for students to attend private schools increase student safety. Four private school studies—examining programs in Dayton, Ohio, New York City, Milwaukee, and Washington, DC—show school choice programs permitting private school attendance produce positive outcomes. Another study shows these programs are associated with decreases in mental health problems. As these studies, and many more, clearly show: Education choice improves school safety as well as student academic performance.
It’s been 20 years since the horrifying events at Columbine occurred. It’s long past time to ensure the safety of all students by creating and enhancing education choice programs.
Put an end to “free public education”. It has been a disaster. A thing is what it is worth. If it’s free it’s worthless. “If it’s free YOU are the product.”
If the schools want safety, they should have armed police officers inside the actual schools. And those officers should be willing to go into combat if needs be.
>>and studies have been undertaken to find ways to identify potential shooters
Not in Florida
Thanks, Obama
For the sake of your kid’s soul....homeschool them or put them in a Christian school. There’s still no guarantee but the alternative is communist indoctrination.
No one really examined how The Broward Promise led to Parkland. Public policy was a direct contributor. That kid wasn’t properly dealt with because everyone was trying to ignore bad behavior among minority kids, and he was classified as Hispanic.
I applaud any parents that can homeschool their children. I however would have never been able to.
How about not putting kids on ssri mind altering drugs for which suicidal and homicidal thoughts are potential side effects
I noticed—quite early—that the best way that liberals use to keep problems UNSOLVED is to eliminate the best SOLUTION option.
Then they just fuss about the problem doing NOTHING even a bit relevant to actually solving it.
“bullying”—A MISNOMER of the first order. It is invariably CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR by school-age kiddypoos. Crime should be treated as such. Try the little crooks—then chuck ‘em in the clink—but DO NOT KEEP THEM IN THE SCHOOL to pollute the rest.
NO teacher should have to endure the criminal or disruptive student—and YES, it should be the teacher’s call—OUT they go.
UNMARKED armed guards carrying concealed weapons—of course. Problem is—it WOULD WORK. (lIBS CAN’T HAVE that!)
Grabbing guns is not the answer. Instead, find out why there are people who think it’s perfectly all right to shoot up groups of people.
Since, it is a celebration of Hitler’s birthday, there must be a way to link it to Trump.
Didn't do much good, did it?
Only for the self gratification that he could point to and say he did something about it.
“Improving Student Safety 20 Years After Columbine..”
Nobody has done zilch...Bush’s “gun free school zones” is still on the books.
Broward County Sheriff’s solution was to assign the most worthless, FIGMO, short-termer deputy in his department to Parkland School.
This one deserves its own post:
http://graphics.chicagotribune.com/chicago-public-schools-sexual-abuse/index.html
L
If it has to do anything with bullying than I agree.
“If it has to do anything with bullying than I agree.”
Worse, actually. Go read it.
L
As a reminder to the gun grabbers, the 1994 Clinton Assault Weapons Ban was in full force when Columbine happened.
Didn’t do much good, did it?
This gets to the heart of the matter. The criminal element intent on committing violence, will not obey any new laws that might be passed by liberals to make themselves feel good about “doing something”.
The author concludes:
“It’s been 20 years since the horrifying events at Columbine occurred. It’s long past time to ensure the safety of all students by creating and enhancing education choice programs.”
And these are the same folks who crow about armed presence being ineffective due to the failure of Jefferson County Sheriff’s Deputy Neil Gardner (uniformed community resource officer) to stop Harris and Klebold.
We all know that Gardner is a hero (in contrast to Scot Peterson) who distracted the two long enough to limit the damage. Had the campus included enhanced security, the two would never have gained access and it would have ended on the lawn. If not for Gardner’s presence and engagement, Columbine would have literally been a massacre to eclipse what we now know as history.
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/columbine.cd/Pages/DEPUTIES_TEXT.htm
Footnote: Ironic that the POS author didn’t cite the following noteworthy event and the lack of tragedy due to procedures, enhanced security and, most-certainly, armed ‘school resource officers’:
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