Troubled ‘From Day One’

I must disagree with the writer who claims that "God doesn't need to be brought back into schools." How wrong can you be? When God was welcomed in schools in this country, you didn't have these kind of shootings and slaughters on such a mass scale like you saw at Colombine and VA Tech. Teaching religion and moralty can help to calm tempers and may prevent some of these mad outbursts. There is more than one reason why people turn to God. Open your mind and stop denying the truth. It's already hurting our kids.

Contrary to what some of you people are saying, God doesn't need to be brought back into schools. Parents need to take the responsibility to teach their children to be moral people. It should not be up to educators to teach children to live by a moral code, that falls on the parents. I am earning my credential to be a teacher. I should NOT be responsible for teaching history to high school students AND cultivating their religious morality. That duty belongs in the home. More than the removal of guns, more than heightened security at schools, the need for parents to take responsibility for their children is paramount. The problems in schools today do NOT come from a lack of religious morality in schools, but the lack of morality in the childrens' homes.

I have a sister who is a teacher, and everyday I pray that something like this doesn???t happen to her, the other teachers or the students there, but I do feel the way society is today that schools should react more to threats that are being made and act upon them, not blow it off. It???s going to get to the point were teachers and students are going to have to start wearing bulletproof vest. Whatever happen to ???respect??? your teacher or discipline. Parents should remember that teachers are there to teach not baby-sit. Do parents get babysat at there jobs no! I know I wouldn???t want to be a teacher in today???s society.

I do feel that it all starts at home and how you discipline your children. When I was growing up we were taught to respect our parents, teachers, elders etc, and if we didn???t we were punished for it, but the government and society took those rights away from the parents. I am not saying a child should be beat but a ???little smack on the but??? never hurt anyone. My parents were strict and I heard the word ???no??? a lot and at the time I thought my parents were ???mean??? but I am glad that they did what they did because it made me a better person in life. When I was kid just playing ???tag??? was fun, but today all you see is kids walking the streets looking like something out of a fright movie. You go to a store or a gas station and they have signs posted ???NO MORE THAN 2 STUDENTS ALLOWED AT ONE TIME???, that is pretty scary, So whose fault is it ??? ???PARENTS???, did you dress or act like that when you were growing up, if you did shame on your parents. Were is the family value anymore, down the tubes, what happen to sitting at the table and having dinner, watching TV, playing cards or just talking as a family. Parent???s say they are to ???busy??? then you shouldn???t have had kids.

Society should go back to how it use to be, not like today everything so fast paced, enjoy your kids and always make time for them. Life is already complicated so why make it harder. People need to learn to laugh again and learn the most important thing in life is family???..

I have a sister who is a teacher, and everyday I pray that something like this doesn???t happen to her, the other teachers or the students there, but I do feel the way society is today that schools should react more to threats that are being made and act upon them, not blow it off. It???s going to get to the point were teachers and students are going to have to start wearing bulletproof vest. Whatever happen to ???respect??? your teacher or discipline. Parents should remember that teachers are there to teach not baby-sit. Do parents get babysat at there jobs no! I know I wouldn???t want to be a teacher in today???s society.

I do feel that it all starts at home and how you discipline your children. When I was growing up we were taught to respect our parents, teachers, elders etc, and if we didn???t we were punished for it, but the government and society took those rights away from the parents. I am not saying a child should be beat but a ???little smack on the but??? never hurt anyone. My parents were strict and I heard the word ???no??? a lot and at the time I thought my parents were ???mean??? but I am glad that they did what they did because it made me a better person in life. When I was kid just playing ???tag??? was fun, but today all you see is kids walking the streets looking like something out of a fright movie. You go to a store or a gas station and they have signs posted ???NO MORE THAN 2 STUDENTS ALLOWED AT ONE TIME???, that is pretty scary, So whose fault is it ??? ???PARENTS???, did you dress or act like that when you were growing up, if you did shame on your parents. Were is the family value anymore, down the tubes, what happen to sitting at the table and having dinner, watching TV, playing cards or just talking as a family. Parent???s say they are to ???busy??? then you shouldn???t have had kids.

Society should go back to how it use to be, not like today everything so fast paced, enjoy your kids and always make time for them. Life is already complicated so why make it harder. People need to learn to laugh again and learn the most important thing in life is family???..

It probably would not have anything to do with the fact that our children are being raised by "institutions" rather than their parents would it? I mean when I was a child, my father earned a living at a factory which afforded him to pay for a modist house, a wife and 2 children--my brother and myself. We had a mother that took care of us; watched over us, taught us family and social values. My father and mother taught us many things, but most importantly show us that we were loved. A sense of family and community was instilled in us. My parents were "responsible" for raising my brother and me; not an institution, teachers and babysitters.

Bottomline: our society has changed from a single family income to a dual family income, and still families struggle to make ends meet. Instead of a mother and father raising their offspring, it is the school system, the daycare system, the television, and gangs.

All the left-wingers want to blame the violence on guns, but that is too simplistic and unrealistic. How on earth would we as a society go about policing up all the firearms here in America, and then the only people that would have guns would be the polcie and criminals; and it still would not stem the violence and killing.

If we truly desire to stop the violence, we need to address the causes, not the objects used during the course of a violent act.

T.Alamar

I agree that the media could stop caring about ratings and money so much and start caring more about whether they might be exascerbating or contributing to the problems of the world. But, it's not really the news media's fault that someone shot somebody. And as far as T.V., video games, and movies go... you can't really blame them either.
Parents may be partially to blame. And not just the parents of the kids that shot people at the schools, but the parents of the kids that did a lot of bullying or ridiculing of their fellow peers too.
And then there's the ones doing the bullying. Don't they have a conscience? At least the ones that didn't bully their peers didn't bully their peers. But, then again, a nice smile or friendly "hi" can go a long way.
But ultimately, the one pulling the trigger, sending live ammo into another human's flesh, is the one responsible for shooting someone (whether they killed them or not). And many of them probably did regret killing their classmates or else they probably wouldn't have turned the gun on themselves.

In the larger spectrum, some parents may want to reconsider the values they transfer to their kids. No parent is perfect and neither are any of the youth of today, tommorrow, or yesterday. I know that my parents didn't necessarily set many limits, but we heard about it if we were crossing the line. I had my fair share of spankings as well as other consequences and getting a "talking to."
Furthermore, most people like to be included in a group, have a few friends, or at least be treated with a little respect. And I'm glad that there are some teenagers out there that realize that and do try to include others in their group or be a friend to others even if it isn't the most popular thing to do or means that they might get knocked down the social ladder a few rungs.

Mary had a little lamb His fleece was white as snow. And everywhere that Mary went the Lamb was sure to go. He followed her to school each day, t'was against the rule. It made the children laugh and play to have the Lamb at school, and then the rules all changed one day, illegal it came; To bring the Lamb of God to school, or even speak His name. Every day got worse and worse, and days turned into years. Instead of hearing children laugh, we heard gun shots and tears. What must we do to stop the crime, thats in our schools today? Let's let the Lamb come back to school, and teach our kids to pray.

Mary had a little lamb, His fleece was white as snow, and everywhere that Mary went the Lamb was sure to go. He followed her to school each day, t'was even in the rule. It made the children laugh and play to have the Lamb at school. And then the rules all changed one day, illegal it came; to bring the Lamb of God to school, or even speak His name. Every day got worse and worse, and days turned into years. Instead of hearing children laugh, we heard gun shots and tears. What must we do to stop the crime, that's in our schools today? Let's let the Lamb come back to school, and teach our kids to pray!!!!

Ben Stein said it best: " In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. the Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell."

When we allowed an atheist (Madelyn Murray O'Hare) to insist that prayer be taken out of our schools this is what happens. How can we allow ONE person determine if prayer should or should not be in our schools? Madelyn is dead now. But, I'll bet you any amount of money she was calling on God when her life was being taken away.

Today we have parents who have no respect of others, helping there kids fight other kids. We as a society seems to be going backwards from the people we chose to lead us to the parents who are suppose to raise and guide are all into self indulgence to the point where there is no caring about our families, friends or neighbor. The Bible states this was to happen,so strap on your seat belts it's going to be a bumpy ride

We have parents who have the mentality of kids they only repeat what they see and hear. The do as I say and not as I do reasoning doesn't comprehend with todays youth. If the parents had respect for others I believe their kids would also show respect. I can only imagine the conversations the do and don't happen behind closed doors.

That student needed help and none was given. He was not raised by God-fearing parents who taught him the sanctity and respect of human life. If he didn't have a gun, he would have lashed out with his fear and anger using whatever available. I blame the adults in his life for lack of concern and love. I blame parents all over for not taking the responsibility and teaching their children the values of the Bible. It's not the guns' or knives' fault.....it's parents' faults...it's hollywood's fault for dramatizing violence....it's adults fault for the examples they've set for kids. We reap what we sow..................

Right, the problem is guns. Like making guns disappear will make the problems in this society go away... Good grief. What about inaction by teachers, students, and staff?

why does america do everything but the right thing.how many of those killed in school shootings and other "gun" related crimes voted against various gun control laws and wound up regretting their vote in the worst way. there are so many things becoming obvious to the "naked"eye these days that i cant see why you people are surprised or appalled at the heinous crimes, the constant wars etc. we should all actually laud prez. bush for giving us,through pure buffonery and just plain dumb actions,the insight into how this countrys politics really work.predicated on greed, and self servingpeople who care nothing about the future of this country let alone the world.think people. the u.s. is the only country who ever used an atomic bomb in the history of all mankind,so who would be more likely to use it?and that is "fact" not speculation,or suspicion.we have absolute power over weapons,but not each other,so lets exercise our power where it can be effective. control guns,cause we cant control one another!

It's sad that our kids have to grow up and be afraid of going to school, for fear they may be shot by one of their peers. In 1992, I lived in a community that had a HS shooting. The student, Eric Houston was upset about being flunked by his teacher in 1989, 3 years earlier. He killed 1 teacher, the teacher that had flunked him, 3 students and, injuring 13 more. He then held almost 100 students hostage for over 8 hours before finally surrendering. That affected not only the small town of Olivehurst, Calif., but all of the surrounding communites. It was very hard for us adults to comprehend, let alone the kids. I had a son that would have gone to Lindhurst HS the following year and he was petrified to go, we ended up sending him to a different school in a different town.
These are some facts about school shootings as given by Dr. Phil on Friday Oct. 12.
Since 1996 in the US alone there have been 73 school shootings. 323 students and teachers killed.
In this year 2002, in the eight (8) school months alone there have been 22 school shootings.
With facts like this and the horror that our kids are now, not only in school but just in life in general, something has to be done and done soon.

In reply to Michael Grassie's statement on Asa Coon needing helped, because he was "troubled from day one." Why did you people at that school not seek counseling for him? Not let the parent aware to get her son into counseling. True couldn't do it by herself, I am sure; with her being physically abused herself. But the school should have stepped in and done something. Social services should have done something. And fellow students in all school/colleges need to stop the 'BULLYING!" IT IS ASHAME FOR INNOCENT PEOPLE TO LOSE THEIR LIVES OVER IGNORANCE OF BULLYING! If you don't like the clothes that indivudal/student wear, turn your head. You don't like the style of that individual/student wears their hair, turn your head. You don't like the way that person talks, turn your head. The only person who does judging on this earth is 'GOD!" If there is something you don't like keep to yourself and turn your head. We are not here to judge. God has sent everyone here on a mission and judging God's other children is not one of them.

I read Mr. Mike 378's comment and immediately thought to myself, "yeah - letting teacher's hit the students... sure, that's the ticket!" NOT. There is the saying, "violence begets violence" for a reason. Because it is true. You aren't going to stop school shootings by allowing teachers to hit their students. The only way these incidents are going to lessen is for teachers, parents and even students to start taking responsibility when they notice when a student exhibits "troubling" behavior. If the teacher in question here had acted on the troubling behavior by seeing that Asa Coon got into counseling - even just the counseling the school offered - this shooting may not have taken place. We can't watch these troubled teens and hope they aren't going to erupt. We need to take action at the first sign of trouble - in other words - TAKE RESPONSIBILITY - and not wait for the shootings, but get the teen some help BEFORE they occur. We can do this. We all just have to make a concentrated effort to be responsible for more than just ourselves.