THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 30, 1994 TAG: 9410280261
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
It could have been disastrous. As it turned out, it was only scary: a 17-year-old Nansemond River High School student pulling a loaded pistol on another student.
Make that very scary. Once the unthinkable, guns are increasingly commonplace in schools.
But with guns so often portrayed as the quick, macho way of dealing with problems and getting what we want without the bother of sacrifice, what should we expect?
Imagine a kid taking a gun into a school to which a police detective is assigned full-time! What has happened to respect for authority?
Educators long have said that schools mirror society, so guns in classrooms really shouldn't be any surprise. But their presence should rally parents to action, not simply to demand strict safety measures from the school administration - that's just shifting the problem to somebody else - but to take to heart our parental duty to teach that violence is not the answer to problems and to know what our kids are up to.
School systems already have banned even toy guns, asked the General Assembly to establish gun-free zones and increased security. Are they to spend huge chunks of their precious dollars to keep students from killing each other instead of fulfilling their mission to educate?
How did a 17-year-old come up with a pistol of any kind? That's for police to find out. But this much we all know: guns are too abundant, too easily obtained.
Leo V. Williams Jr., director of pupil personnel services in Norfolk, said in a story Thursday in The Virginian-Pilot: ``Kids tell me they can buy a gun for as little as $25.'' Kids shouldn't be able to get guns at any price, and parents who keep guns in their homes must see to the weapons' safekeeping.
Ike Cashwell, a Virginia Beach school system liaison to the Police Department, said anyone who believes the guns found by police are the only ones possessed by students are living in a fantasy world.
That, too, is frightening. What are schools supposed to do, hire enough police officers to search every car and run every student, every day, through metal detectors?
It can't be done, so parents and other students must join the resolve to keep schools safe. Shifting blame accomplishes nothing.
As disheartening as it is that any student would endanger others with a gun, it helps to keep in mind that these troublemakers are a miniscule minority. The scofflaws get most publicity, but most students know better than to bring guns to school.
Such foolishness as the Nansemond River incident can end when everybody is convinced that taking a gun is not only dumb but assuredly brings swift, severe punishment.
Despite their depiction in movies, guns are not playthings. They're designed to kill.
It's already taken too long, but the sooner that message sinks in, the better.
Who knows what might have happened at Nansemond River if a teacher had not broken up a fight between the young man with the gun and another student? Fights draw a crowd. Instead of hearing about a fight and confiscated gun, we could have been mourning multiple deaths. It has happened at other schools.
We pray it never happens here.
KEYWORDS: SCHOOLS GUNS HANDGUNS
by CNB