Our
View: Violence in U.S. schools report hides
the truth
If
someone told you that only 52 schools in
the entire nation were considered "persistently
dangerous" you would probably laugh.
There are 91,000 schools in the United States
and it is hard to believe that with 700,000
violent incidents in 2001 that they were
concentrated in just those 52 schools.
That
would equal almost 13,500 incidents per
school, and even if they were spread evenly
among the 91,000 schools nationwide that
would be around eight at each school in
one year. That sounds kind of dangerous.
California
has more than 8,000 schools and none of
ours are considered persistently dangerous.
That means this self-reported qualification
applies to no school in Los Angeles, Oakland,
San Francisco or any school throughout the
state? Who do they think they're kidding?
It
is hard to believe a study where most schools
have an interest in making sure their school
is not reported as dangerous. The point
of the report was to give students at schools
like this the chance to go wherever they
want in the district that's safer. But then,
with no heads in their classroom to count
and the state paying schools based on body
count rather than enrollment how else could
school officials respond.
How
can the government leave this kind of thing
up to the schools? Some one somewhere has
the records necessary to complete this kind
of report with honesty and the safety of
the students in mind. If they can find out
that there have been 700,000 violent crimes
then they can figure out where those crimes
occurred.
If
they cannot manage to figure this stuff
on their own, and they want to hold the
schools accountable then they should assign
someone at the school to be in charge of
those kinds of numbers.
It
is suspect when only six states claim any
persistently dangerous schools. Perhaps
these states have a greater sense of duty
towards bringing the truth to the public.
Rather than the truth going untold and their
names still looking good, most of these
states have reported more than one school.
So how can Texas have six persistently dangerous
schools and the State of California have
none?
It
must be obvious to both the students and
the parents at schools that should have
been reported but were not that something
was not right. Giving students the right
to get out of a school that is dangerous
is a noble goal, but if the bureaucracy
and the system that is suppose to be protecting
the students is instead protecting themselves
then that goal cannot be reached.
The
school administrations of the United States
should be called on by parents, students
and staff to come clean with the truth about
which schools are dangerous. There must
be more than six states that feel a responsibility,
and if those states cannot be called out
to do what is right, the Federal government
must do what is right for them, or drop
the program all together. If we can only
give half-truths then we shouldn't give
any truth at all.
|
