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A drunken father comes home late from his small town job to a small house in the far outskirts of Nebraska. He slams the screen door open, waking his family except his oldest son, who was flat on the floor watching the late night shows. The boy turned his head to see the father glaring at him in the moonlight of the doorway, he shut the T.V. off abruptly and threw the remote away from him. “I’m sorry pop, I really am it’s just-.” He froze in terror, the father charged at him with his pocket knife in one hand, and a broken bottle in the other. The boy struggled to get on his feet but he was being kicked mercilessly. The father left him on the living room floor, then stomped up the stairs. Unfortunately, the boy thought this was a fair consequence, for such an innocent crime. And two years later the young boy murdered seventeen of his high school classmates, until turning the gun on himself.
This is a decision that is to important to be left up to chance, childhood beatings are one of the key beginnings to violence in schools. Would you want your child living in a constant state of fear? Too the point that they couldn’t focus on school work? I’m guessing not. Parents are a key role into showing kids what’s good, and bad. “Stealing is wrong,” everyone has heard their parents say this one time or another. Now imagine if your parents weren’t there to decipher what’s bad and good, right and wrong, legal and illegal. Usually you would find some other role model, and there is certainly a chance that they are bad themselves.
I want you to look at someone, anyone in the room you are in now. What your looking at is life, experience, knowledge, and personality all in a single human life. 5,570 human life's were intentionally lost in 2003, all between the ages of 10 to 24. That’s an average rate of that person you were looking at multiplied by 15, each and every day. Now try to believe this, if we were able to reduce or eliminate exposure to violence, conflicts in the family, poor behavioral control and early aggressive behavior we could cut that number into half, if not better.
Surely racial barriers have not been eliminated, mostly not even to a level of satisfaction. Among 10 to 24 year olds, homicide is the number one leading cause of death for African Americans, the second for Hispanics, and the third for American Indians. Leaving many of these groups in great fear of schools, and overall life. Based on a study conducted 2004 by CDC (United States center for disease and injury prevention) 17% of the high school students that took the survey reported carrying a weapon (gun, knife or a club) on one or more of the 30 days preceding the survey.
I believe that this is not what the citizens of out country should be experiencing. We are supposed to welcome people of all race, not threaten or kill them. This is not fair to those who come to this country for respect, and got nothing but contempt. There are many ways of solving this very significant problem in all areas of life:
Individual Protective Factors
• Intolerant attitude toward deviance
• High IQ or high grade point average
• Positive social orientation
• Religiosity
Family Protective Factors
• Connectedness to family or adults outside of the family
• Ability to discuss problems with parents
• Perceived parental expectations about school performance are high
• Frequent shared activities with parents
• Consistent presence of parent during at least one of the following: when awakening, when arriving home from school, at evening mealtime, and when going to bed
• Involvement in social activities
Peer/School Protective Factors
• Commitment to school
• Involvement in social activities
If we as a country were willing to put more effort into protecting the next generation from violence, and bad influences, we won’t have to cry over a lost loved one that died when it wasn’t their time. Our children will not come home to us crying because of a bully at school. A small effort can certainly make a difference, for all of us.