Your child comes home saying, “Mamma/ daddy, Johnny said that he was going to hurt me with a toy he brought to school.” Now, as a parent, this is alarming, but to some it’s just play and children using their imagination. What is it really? Schools are meant for learning. Schools are meant for social events. Schools are meant to prepare children for their lives. School isn’t meant for violence and having the uneasy feeling of being hurt, or scared for your life. In today’s way of living violence has been adopted into our lifestyle, with no way of escaping it. With each generation it’s becoming more and more problematic. Children see older siblings or other elder family members in relationships with people they shouldn’t be, and they hear language that younger children, let alone anyone, shouldn’t be hearing let alone say. These children then find it acceptable to mimic such behavior.
There are certain cultures that have different ways of living. Things that we as Americans may find really harmful or just down right cruel, but to them, it’s an everyday practice and they don’t know much else. In these countries there is a rule where the teachers may hit their students for doing something wrong. For instance in one culture everyone wants to enroll their children because it’s a safe school. This is a non-violence school, and if a student brings a weapon to school, it is broken in front of them to show that violence isn’t tolerated. In order to make a difference this school feels as though the children should be taught to end violence (Arraf).
According to surveys that have been conducted most students don’t feel safe at school, for reasons that have to do with bringing drama and other things on themselves. Most students feel that this isn’t right, they are in a learning environment, and shouldn’t have to deal with the worry or fear of if they are safe. More and more of these generations are adopting violence into their lives. There isn’t much that they can do but deal with it. Because of this, most students don’t think of anything of it when someone is getting hauled away for committing some type of violent act or if a student has a weapon on them (Peper).
Students have more access to and are able to obtain the tools for committing violent acts. Teens or children can obtain guns at their fingertips now. With scenes full of weapons all over the television and internet, kids are more likely to be curious, and potentially or reenact the violence. With the use of the internet kids have a way of not only hurting students during school but outside school too. It’s like a never ending game of chase that won’t have a pretty ending. Some students that have been taunted with cyber bullying have committed suicide or done other harmful things, because they couldn’t handle the mess that had been created around them.
Violence in schools has become a much larger due to the easy access to dangerous weapons. Yes, schools have safety precautions and other ways of stopping the violence that is happening, but it seems that isn’t enough. Children need to be taught the right ways of dealing with problems and also how to control what they are saying via the internet and in other forms of communication. It needs to ends where it starts; in the home, where rules are set and followed.