Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 30, 1995 TAG: 9505040017
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: G-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
If you do and you're caught, you'll be kicked out. For good.
If that sounds like an extended summer vacation, it is not. Just ask the kids who were expelled last year for bringing guns to school - and who now want to get back to classes.
Expulsion is a harsh punishment. Harris and the city School Board have adopted a firm line, and they should hang tough. It won't be easy.
Dealing with such finality with immature offenders is difficult. Can youngsters truly appreciate what the long-term consequences of their actions will be, if caught and expelled, when they decide to slip guns into their jackets or book bags?
Most perhaps cannot. But to have any effect as a deterrent, punishment must be swift and certain. Deterring this particular offense is crucial for the safety of all schoolchildren, from the littlest to those on the verge of adulthood.
An equally valid question is: Can youngsters truly appreciate the long-term consequences of their actions if they put guns in their book bags and the weapons go off accidentally, shooting a classmate across the room or down the hall? Or if the guns are pulled out to plug the kids they are frightened of or feuding with?
Again, for many - especially the younger ones - perhaps not. But the damage will be no less devastating for their lack of understanding.
Schools must be safe.
Children should not have to even consciously judge that their lives will not be in danger as they head to school. They should be able to assume that, in the classrooms and hallways and on the grounds of their schools, they need contend with nothing more frightening than the ire of a teacher over an incomplete homework assignment. (That should be frightening enough!)
The school district has softened its stand only in cases in which the "weapon" has turned out to be a water gun or toy. Students expelled for toting these have been allowed, in some cases, to return to the alternative-education program. This seems reasonable.
A homebound program is offered to special-education students whose continued schooling is required by federal law. This also is a reasonable alternative that possibly could be extended to others, if parents of the students involved are willing to pay the added cost. The point of the expulsion policy, after all, is not to exact vengeance by ruining forever someone's opportunity for an education. The point, rather, is to ensure that innocent lives are not put at risk if that opportunity is provided those who show such disregard for the safety of others.
Their certain removal sends a message, to students who would bring guns and to students who would then have to fear them.
by CNB