Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 19, 1992 TAG: 9203190142
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By NEAL THOMPSON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Not long after, another student apparently came to the school packing a weapon. He left with a 10-day suspension.
In between those incidents, Blair - principal of Franklin County's Benjamin Franklin Middle School - had to meet with 25 prospective teachers and soon-to-be-graduates from Virginia Tech. They all had heard about the first gun incident, which the news media had "sensationalized," Blair said.
"I thought, `Are these folks really going to go into teaching after what they've just heard?' . . . I'm concerned about the impact all of this is going to have upon instruction."
Blair was one of about 40 teachers, students, parents and administrators from Roanoke-area schools Wednesday to share with state Secretary of Education James Dyke their concerns about guns and violence in schools.
Roanoke was the first of several stops on Dyke's tour of Virginia to learn more about the problem.
Blair told Dyke that one day last week, word spread through her school that another student had a gun. But before Blair could call the student to her office, the youth apparently ditched the gun somewhere.
Still, she suspended him for 10 days.
His reaction, Blair said Wednesday, was: "So? You can't do anything more to me."
That is the scary part, most of those who spoke Wednesday agreed: Many kids aren't threatened by disciplinary action at school, and they aren't getting disciplinary action from parents.
While Dyke listened more than spoke, he did offer one solution: legislation that would punish the parents of a child who brings a gun to school. He said other states have similar laws, and he would support a General Assembly investigation into a law making parents more accountable for their children's actions.
School officials suggested to Dyke that another solution is more money.
A few students said they liked the idea of having police officers - often called resource officers - in their schools. But administrators told Dyke that the state should pay for those.
Roanoke Superintendent Frank Tota said programs exist that cut down on violence and weapons in school - like the city's Alternative Education program for troubled youth - but they need more money from the state.
Assistant Superintendent Bill Hackley said there are 500 city students who could benefit from Alternative Education if there was enough money. Now, 200 are in that program. "If there's anything the state could do, it's find more money for Alternative Education-type programs."
In Roanoke County, the dropout rate went from more than 4 percent to less than 2 percent last year with the help of state funds for dropout-prevention counseling. But that money since has been cut, county Superintendent Bayes Wilson told Dyke, and he fears dropouts will rise.
"That's something the state can do . . . keep those funds flowing," Wilson said.
Franklin County Superintendent Leonard Gereau blamed the news media for some of the recent problems with students carrying guns in schools. He said a Roanoke Times & World-News series of articles in January on kids and guns may have given some kids the idea to carry a gun.
"I just think that tends to lead to more of it," he said. "The more we highlight it . . . the more it gives kids the idea to do it."
Gereau said the news media need to be more careful how they cover gun incidents.
Others who spoke Wednesday blamed parents.
"Until we make parents responsible for their children again . . . we're never going to be able to correct the violence in the schools," said Denise Reedy, a William Fleming High School PTA member.
Reedy said teachers can't undo bad parenting in just eight hours each day.
And Fleming Principal Alyce Szathmary said Virginia colleges need to get involved, too, and begin training potential teachers to handle "today's kids."
Dyke said he will gather ideas from this and the other meetings on his tour and suggest possible solutions to Gov. Douglas Wilder.
by CNB