School Violence

I must disagree with your editorial recommending that a better approach to the problem of children bringing guns to school would be having students alert authorities to troubling behavior by their peers ("Guns in schools," Sept. 16). It is the adults who must learn to interpret the warning signs given off by troubled youngsters before they lead to violence in the home and at school - parents, teachers, school counselors and staff. The adults are the ones who should be learning and working together more pro-actively.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told parents, students and educators in Baltimore County on Wednesday that while Americans might not agree on gun control legislation, they must work together so that children can grow up without fear of violence in schools. At a town hall-style meeting before a packed auditorium at Loch Raven High School, Duncan said communities must have tough conversations to address the violence that has hit schools across the country - including those in the county that hosted him Wednesday.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told parents, students and educators in Baltimore County on Wednesday that while Americans might not agree on gun control legislation, they must work together so that children can grow up without fear of violence in schools. At a town hall-style meeting before a packed auditorium at Loch Raven High School, Duncan said communities must have tough conversations to address the violence that has hit schools across the country - including those in the county that hosted him Wednesday.

On Friday, in his moving and heartfelt statement in response to the horrific shooting in Newtown, Conn., President Barack Obama said, "As a country, we have been through this too many times. ... And we're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics. " There's just one problem: In a democracy, politics is a synonym for "democracy. " It is through politics that people with strong feelings and strong interests peaceably hash out their disagreements.

The National League of Cities this month released a study weighted down with gloomy but not surprising news: Violence is a growing problem in U.S. public schools, practically shoving aside academics as the main concern of many school officials, teachers, parents and students.According to the NLC survey of 700 big cities and small towns throughout the United States, 40 percent of the respondents said school violence has climbed "significantly" during the past five years. In 70 percent of the surveyed communities, local police officers routinely patrol the schools.

By creating a committee to study school violence, Carroll Superintendent R. Edward Shilling is tackling a subject too often swept under the rug. For many county residents, school violence occurs only in inner city schools, but the sad reality is that attacks on teachers and students are increasing in every school system. Weapons are also appearing in schools with greater frequency.School yard bullies and playground fights are not unique to this generation of students. But the character of the violence has changed.

The Baltimore Teachers Union has asked me to join its task force on school violence. The panel of parents, educators and other members of the community is scheduled to meet for the first time Thursday. It is to report on its recommendations by February.Unfortunately, the canons of my profession prevent me from participating. Generally speaking, journalists do not get personally involved in organizations or events that affect public policy and generate news. If we join, we lose our credibility as reporters.

I read with interest the two articles in The Sun on Nov. 5 entitled, "Some advocating guards at Meade Senior High" and "Violent students go unpunished, teachers say."My son attends Meade Senior High. So far this school year he has been physically assaulted twice (by students he did not know), has had two sets of gym clothes stolen ($15 initial loss) and has had a $5 lock smashed off his gym locker by the thieves who robbed him. At this rate, we anticipate the school year will cost us about $200 in stolen tangibles, and about two weeks of lost leave for my husband and myself.

WASHINGTON -- Violence in schools is more acute than it was five years ago -- a result, primarily, of the breakdown of the family and the portrayal of violence by the media, according to school board members from 700 districts nationwide.Alcohol and drug abuse, easy access to guns, and poverty were cited as other major causes in the survey released yesterday."Now that we have solid information on the causes, we must take up the difficult task of working with federal and state government, parent groups, the business community and the media in finding solutions," said William Soult, president of the National School Boards Association, which conducted the survey.

Editor: Returning to another Monday morning at work after a horrifically violent attack. I will pray for my students and for my own strength as we try to learn in the midst of grieving for the loss of so many. Maybe diagraming sentences will occupy their minds or maybe we can get lost in a story. Teachers like me all across the country will pretend to our students that it isn't on our minds. We will close our classroom doors and think we will be safe; we want to believe we will be safe but we can't really think it. Not after Columbine.

Authorities charged two 17-year-old students Tuesday with bringing weapons to schools in unrelated incidents in Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties. Police said there were no injuries in either case, and neither student made a threat. But the incidents continue a string of school violence scares in the Baltimore area this fall. Owings Mills High School was locked down during the morning after Baltimore County police said a student brought a BB gun to school to show it off. Anne Arundel County police were called to Southern High School in Harwood, where a student was arrested for allegedly having a knife and an unloaded pellet gun. Baltimore County police spokeswoman Elise Armacost said students spotted a schoolmate removing what appeared to be a gun from his waistband at about 10 a.m. near the school on Tollgate Road.

I must disagree with your editorial recommending that a better approach to the problem of children bringing guns to school would be having students alert authorities to troubling behavior by their peers ("Guns in schools," Sept. 16). It is the adults who must learn to interpret the warning signs given off by troubled youngsters before they lead to violence in the home and at school - parents, teachers, school counselors and staff. The adults are the ones who should be learning and working together more pro-actively.

Robert W. Gladden Jr. "expected to be killed" on the day he allegedly shot a fellow student at Perry Hall High School, according to his lawyers, who said the teen remains on suicide watch in jail. The comments came on the day of the 15-year-old Gladden's first court appearance since the incident; his morning bail hearing was postponed after his attorneys requested more time to secure and examine recent mental health evaluations. Gladden did not speak in court, but kept his head down, letting his long dark hair hang in his face.

Perry Hall High School is more than 20 miles from Catonsville High, where Principal Deborah Bittner announced Monday, Aug. 27, on the school intercom, "There's been a tragic situation ... " "It's made us think and rethink how we would handle something like this," Bittner said an interview, reflecting on the shooting at Perry Hall High that morning. There, a male student was flown to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center after being shot by a fellow student with a shotgun during the first lunch period of the school year, according to county police.

This is the first of two parts. Sometimes, preventing violence means getting the buses to run on time. That's why the city's school police chief, Marshall "Toby" Goodwin, marched up and down the sidewalk on a street off Gwynns Falls Parkway on the opening day of classes, a BlackBerry pressed to his ear, barking orders, talking to a transit supervisor sitting in her SUV, pleading for help. Students from one of three high schools inside the old Lemmel complex were pouring out, the first of three staggered and carefully choreographed dismissals.

A student from an Anne Arundel County high school said she's seen guns on campus. A Howard County girl said squabbles that start as Internet exchanges lead to fights at school. And a senior at a Baltimore school told of fights that are part of gang initiations. One of the main messages from students across Maryland who gathered yesterday at a summit on school violence is that the issue cannot be ignored. "We have so many problems in our school system that we don't think about," said Josh Maley, 16, a junior at Howard High in Ellicott City.

Communities and schools should take a preventive approach to school violence rather than focus solely on punishing students who have behavior problems, experts said yesterday at a summit on school violence. Students are looking for structure, high academic expectations, and teachers who understand and can communicate with them, said Ivan J. Juzang, a consultant who gave the keynote address at the daylong meeting at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.