Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 19, 1993 TAG: 9311190254
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"Families are the traditional source of values," said Dorothy Browne, of the University of North Carolina. "And they have failed."
Launching the Virginia Education Association's three-day instructional conference, Browne said that some causes for escalating school violence are chaotic family situations, media glamorization of violence, easy access to handguns and a lack of guidance or role models for children, particularly those in single-parent homes.
Browne told about 150 teachers gathered at the Sheraton Inn Roanoke Airport that teen pregnancies also contribute to the problem, because young parents often lack proper parenting skills and don't teach their children how to resolve problems in a nonviolent way.
"We are seeing babies raising babies," she said. "These children come into the school, and we wonder why they are violent."
Rattling off a list of statistics - for every student murdered, 100 more students are injured; 3 percent of students bring guns to school; 282 secondary school children are attacked each month - Browne said Teen pregnancies also contribute to the problem because young parents often lack proper parenting skills and don't teach their children how to resolve problems in a nonviolent way. teachers need to work with parents and students to make schools safer.
The schools, she said, hold "a captive audience" for teaching positive ways to resolve conflicts and channel anger. Citing programs in Wisconsin and Connecticut, she told teachers they should be teaching self-control, stress management, problem solving and communication.
"Our parents have reneged on their responsibility to teach these," she said.
Teachers should therefore train parents whose children are at risk of becoming violent, Browne said. That's what her program, "Reaching Adolescents, Parents and Peers," does.
Often, warned Browne, programs fail because "teachers do not have faith in them. Teachers such as yourself have to be the critical element."
She said teachers who take courses on preventing violence should be rewarded with pay and with continuing-education credits.
Linda Wyatt - a Westside Elementary School teacher who is active in teachers' organizations at the local, state and national levels - said no place is immune to the problem of school violence.
"It happens in Roanoke," she said. "I don't think there's a community in the country that doesn't have it."
Richard Poindexter, district VEA president, said the city school system teaches violence prevention through its DARE program in cooperation with local police.
But all teachers are involved in the process, Wyatt said.
"Every teacher teaches conflict resolution all day long, in the way they teach children to deal with each other," she said.
by CNB