Newspapers / North Carolina School of … / May 1, 1999, edition 1 / Page 2
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Opirmnd^ May 1999 Tragedy: Guns in a Colorado school Thomas Robbins The Colorado shootings were a horrible trag edy. These murders shocked the nation and immediately sparked legislation to be passed that would permit greater restrictions on guns. However, the solu tions to the problem should be educating students on the value of life, parent accountability for their child’s actions, peer media tion, and more severe punish ments for these acts committed by children. Educating students on the value of a life is essential to reforming the current situa tion of school shootings. This could be ac complished through classes that discussed such horrific actions. The classes could be similar to the Student Life 101. and 102 classes that NCSSM cur rently con ducts. Like the “break-out” sessions previ ously held at NCSSM, the stu dents could talk about issues concerning the shootings. Break-out sessions would give students the chance to speak out about what they think, while also, in a prolific manner, dis couraging such an atrocious event to happen again. Parents should be re sponsible for their own chil dren. A parent is to look after a child until that child is an adult. The shooters at Columbine High School were not of adult age. If parents took more re sponsibility for their children’s actions, then violence and kill ings involving children would not occur as frequently. How ever, parent’s responsibility for their children’s actions does not mean that parent' take full re sponsibility for all of their child’s actions. The parent entire nation was shoc^d by the shootings in benver, Colorado. Flowers and cards began to arrive by the hundreds. would take partial guilt because they are accountable for their child’s conduct. Parents would be made to take better care of their children and supervise them nearly all of the time. The Colorado shootings could have possibly been prevented with a sucessflil peer mediation program . A NCSSM junior, Jonelle Stovall, said, “We should invest time in prevention such as peer media tion and simple acts of kind ness.” I agree, peer mediation would allow a student who had problem to speak with a peer that would help him resolve situ ations such as teasing. By kill ing the students at Columbine High School, the killers have shown their immature nature and cowardice. If peer mediation had been an option, there is a possibility that the acts would not have occurred or that the situation could have been spotted be fore the act. More severe punishments for chil dren who murder oth ers could also be a solution to the teen violence problem. One junior, Daniel Brezina, agreed saying, “ I agree with stricter punish ments for those who murder, even for kids if they know what they are doing.” Children are capable of making conscientious deci sions. Those who make deci sions that harm others should be punished severely for mak ing such a choice. Children would be dissuaded to kill oth ers if they could know the con sequence. Punishments for chil dren who kill others are not as harsh as they should be. “Stricter” punishments would help to prevent further horrible The Columbine High School massacre was the worst such tragedy in recent U.S. history. killings from occurring. America needs to take their feelings of remorse and put it into action by preventing the situation from occurring in the future. School shootings could be prevented if all schools edu cated their students about situ ations like in Colorado. Peer mediation is also a valuable aid in preventing shootings. Me diation allows for one to talk about problems with a peer, thus “letting off steam.” Peer media tion and education of students are proac tive ap proaches to the prob lem. How- ever, parents ’ account ability would help to prevent the killing of others by chil dren. If parent in tervention was com bined with “break- out” "ses sions at schools, then the ^ problem of ^ killing oth ers would be drasti cally re duced. Conversely, children who kill others knowingly should be punished for their un acceptable acts. Punishment of children would make children think before they acted on an impulse to take another’s life. School violence has gotten out of control and should be stopped immediately. Teachers from page 1 exciting than it normally is. These days can be good for the students, but the students are not ben efiting much when such days oc cur twice out of the year. Bdr a t i o n forms handed out by t h e teacher for comple tion by students are also ineffec tive. Often these evaluations are only seen and considered by the teacher as a means to improve the class. The failure of this method is obvious when a teacher who probably hands them out every year is still a bad teacher when 1 get to her class. some oj your teachers want to you sleep? Audra Neunkirchner szoozes in the ETC. Furthermore, students will be much more prone to softening the judgment of a teacher when the student is filling it out un der The teacher’s nose and handing it directly to him/her af terward. Oce possible solution is forms that could be placed in mail- boxes that would ask stu dents to name cer- t a i n teachers they dis like and give sub- stantial reasons. I do not believe that this would turn into an all- out teacher-bashing fest be cause most students at NCSSM can distinguish between a strict or hard teacher and an incom petent one, and they generally respect those difficult teachers, despite the amount of complain ing that involves them. Additionally, more ran dom, unanounced evaluations by faculty could occur. I would also like to see cross evalua tions by students, as in students would go into other classes and evaluate teachers that are not their own. Perhaps a panel of selected students like those se lected for the hearing board could undertake such a task. The teacher in question would then be evaluated based on how effective he is as a teacher rather than have his teaching style compared to the one that an other teacher evaluating him might prefer. It would also al low students to see differences in teaching and be more fair or informed when evaluating their own teachers. Also, the panel would not make hire or fire deci sions except in extreme cases, but instead offer suggestions to make the class more enjoyable and more rewarding for stu dents. The administration needs to actively seek student opin ion on a regular basis so that teacher quality will remain high. This would benefit not only the students in their pursuit of a good education, but also the administration, which is ever trying to maintain a good repu tation. Tho North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics j Vol. XVIII. No. North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics 1219 Broad Street Durham, NC 27705 Editors-in-Chief: Kyle McLaughlin and Benita Jones Department Editors: Frank Menius, Layout, Shannon Meyer, Opinions; Katie Poulus, Features; Samantha Lea, News; Stephanie Hartung, Sports; Sara Banner and Doug Paletta, Photography Staff writers: Vidya Goli, Becky Ballard, Thomas Robbins Layout Staff: Jennifer Newport, Heather Fried Photographers: Caroline Nguyen, Walter A. Fyler Art/Cartoons: Claire Sublette Web Design: Chunghau Lee http;//iluvatar.ncssm'.edu/stentorian
North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics Student Newspaper
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May 1, 1999, edition 1
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