Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 26, 1992 TAG: 9201270222
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NEAL THOMPSON EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
STUDENTS: WE JUST NEED A PLACE TO GO
It's not that big a deal anymore, Northside High School student J.J. Larsen says. It happens all the time.Some of his friends carry them under car seats or in the glove compartments. Some keep them stuffed deep in coat pockets. Some carry them in gym bags.
But never in school lockers. They know better than that. They might get caught.
"I've seen them in school before," the 15-year-old said.
Larsen is talking about handguns.
At this suburban Roanoke County school, it's not a matter of protection. It's just the cool thing for some kids to do: carry a gun.
And if you're real cool, you carry a 9mm.
"That seems to be the coolest gun to have," Larsen said.
It's also cool to keep it loaded.
"That's the first thing they'll say, too. They'll say, `Don't touch it, it's loaded.' "
So add 9mms and .38s to the list of cool things to have in high school, along with pump sneakers and fast cars.
OK, so it's not like they're shooting each other in our schools.
In fact, Roanoke area educators say security measures have helped limit the number of guns in schools.
But a dozen Roanoke, Roanoke County and Salem high school students each said recently they had friends or knew someone who carried a gun.
"It's so easy to find someone who'll get you one," Larsen said. "It seems like the law is pretty tight. But there's always a way to get it."
"Plus, there's a lot of fear out there," adds his schoolmate, Heather Dent, 17. "People feel safer with guns. They feel like nothing and no one can hurt them."
Dent said she never gives guns a thought at school. But at parties, the movies, the malls and basketball games, "that's the scary part."
"People are trying to imitate people on TV," said Salem High School student Luqman Wade, 17.
Wade said the guys he knows keep their guns in their cars. "It makes them feel safer. . . . Or they're just showing off."
But it doesn't always make him feel so safe when he's at the mall or walking past the arcades. "You have to check over your shoulder to make sure everything's all right," Wade said.
Patrick Henry High School student Ben Johnson, 17, said he doesn't see guns in school - they're at home, jutting from the back pockets of drug dealers on his street.
For Johnson, school is his sanctuary.
"I've been here three years and I've never seen a gun" in school, he said. "When I come to school, this is about the best place, the most safest place."
Betty Stelman, 18, also a Patrick Henry student, said someone in Roanoke needs to do something about providing more activities for teens at night and on weekends.
She and her friends used to go to the teen club Dream Street at the Golden Key Shopping Center off Franklin Road. "It was packed and it was fun," Stelman said.
But gunshots in the club's parking lot became a regular event that left one person dead, another wounded and led to a number of arrests.
The club's owner finally closed the doors for fear of more shootings.
Weekly dances at the National Guard Armory in Roanoke picked up a little of the slack. Teachers used metal detectors to keep weapons out, and Patrick Henry and William Fleming students mingled and had a ball.
It kept kids off the streets; especially on Fridays, when it's most dangerous to be on the streets.
But that was just during football season. Now, it's back to the malls and the movies.
So, at least part of the solution to the gun problem would be: "Have somewhere for us to go. If we had a place where students could go, . . . just students," Stelman said.
At least that would be a start, she said.