THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 31, 1994 TAG: 9410290008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
A pupil who had been suspended from Virginia Beach's Salem High School was arrested Wednesday in the school parking lot with a loaded assault rifle in his car. Two days earlier the state superintendent of public instruction had told Gloucester County teachers that safety was at the top of his personal checklist for effective learning.
``I believe in the rights of all young people to an education,'' William C. Bosher Jr. said Monday. ``But I believe even more in the rights of the ones who want one to get it in a safe environment.''
Some Salem pupils feel they have a safe environment, that the school's reputation, not their personal well-being, is what's threatened. Said junior Chris Gaffrey: ``We have so many great academic programs, and we succeed in so many academic things, as well as athletics, but no one seems to notice that. Everyone notices what's bad, and that's not right.''
The trouble lies with the awful implications of even one armed student in the classroom or on the grounds. And educators, citing the easy availability of cheap guns, imply that the numbers may be much larger than even the alarming series of recently reported incidents represents. Another incident Wednesday - at Nansemond River High School in Suffolk - was even scarier than the one at Salem. A pupil pulled a fully loaded .22-caliber revolver on a male classmate with whom he had fought at a school bus stop that morning.
School officials understand well enough, that concerns about the dangers are not frivolous. Systems in all five South Hampton Roads cities employ a mix of security measures. Pupils found with weapons are dealt with severely. Also, the legal consequences are clear: Bringing a gun onto school property is a felony.
So the schools are attacking the first essential by responding to the immediate problem with resolve and common sense.
The second essential lies beyond the classroom and schoolyard; beyond, too, disciplining and punishing each offender. What can society at large - individuals and institutions and, in particular, parents and peers - do to reverse the rising trend among young Americans to flout the law, eschew civility and respect for others and, by arming themselves, threaten mayhem?
Many of the answers are complex and difficult. And they are long-term, which means pursuing such remedies carries political risks. But we ought to be looking harder to find and act on them.
KEYWORDS: GUNS SCHOOLS VIOLENCE by CNB