TOPIC: The Force of Change
BACKGROUND INFO: In the past 20 years Americans have witnessed a number of school related acts of violence. It has been proven by sociologists and behavioralists that most of the acts could have been prevented if the warning signs had been recognized.
In most cases, according to these scholars, the perpetrators of these violent acts either warn or threaten their peers and/or teachers before they commit them.
TOPIC QUESTION: What role (if any) do students play in maintaining a safe environment at school? What role (if any) should the media, parents, and administrators play? Comment on the safety and social structure of your school. Are they connected in any way?
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DUE DATE: All posts must be submitted on or before 1/31/11
15 comments:
The CDC did a study where they asked students if they had carried a weapon to school in the last thirty days. 27.1 percent of males had carried a weapon to school; and 7.1 percent of females had. They also asked the students if they had been in fights in the last 30 days. 39.3 of males had been, and 22.9 of females had been. Fights can be seen as signs of harsher things to come. Students can harbor a safe environment at a school. If students are bringing guns and weapons to school then others are more likely to bring weapons as well to protect themselves. Administrators, parents, and media also play a role in safety, not as much, but a role nonetheless. They should enforce things that make the students less violent. I believe that at Stanton they have done a good job of harboring a safe environment. Our school is positioned in the midst of a bad neighborhood but our school is relatively safe. The school has mostly really smart people at it, so it does not have as many instances of bullying because it is usually the nerds picked on. Everyone at Stanton is a nerd though. Therefore I believe that Stanton is a safe environment.
Jonathan K.
TS: In order for violence to be prevented, students and teachers alike should reach out to children in need, achieve a level of respect with everyone, avoid labeling students, and understand that only people can change people.
CD: "There was no body for me to talk to. No one cared" This is a repeated statement from almost all the school shooters and many others who get into serious trouble.
CM: Children who bully lack the social skills of reaching out, so it is the students and administration that must initiate contact and reach out to every student. Only people can change people. If the social structure of a school is abnormal, the rate of violence will reflect that. In order to the end this, parents and administrators must insure labeling is inexistent and respect is plentiful to ensure safety.
CM: At Stanton College Preparatory High School a degree of respect is evident between students, and therefore fighting is not as prominent as it is in other schools. The social structure of Stanton is divided by a hierarchy of cliques with a diverse society of varying religions and ethnicities. Although the placement of the school is in a risky area, the social structure of the school holds the students together. There is a relationship between the safety and social structure of a school, because an unstable social structure can lead to fighting which can endanger the safety of the school. At Stanton the social structure and safety of the school is secure and stable.
Brandon G.
Students throughout America are distressed on dangerous levels. This distress can be caused by other students, teachers, people in the community and the media. Everything and everyone surrounding a students life effects him or her in both positive and negative ways. Unfortunately, the negative effects are more popular and are growing at exponential rates among young students in America. Children are shaped by the environment that they mature in;this environment determines there socioeconomic position throughout there childhood and depending on their conditions, their entire life. The surroundings of a child have such a massive impact on them their entire life and this is just a common fact of humanity. What we can do as a community is try to improve these surroundings and create a better environment for both ourselves and the future leaders of tomorrow. To improve these conditions we must help children in need by supplying them with what they may not already have. The children with the worst problems need the most specialized attention in order to prevent a violent incidents.
Stanton College Prep, is a high school that rarely has extreme issues dealing with violence. The school creates a comfortable environment that is safe for students of all creed and color. Of coarse Stanton is no utopia, but it is some sort of heaven compared to other high schools around the country that give little attention to students that only need some assistance to aid them through school. It is a fact that Stanton is its own exception to the stereotypical high school,but what ever the administration is doing here, must be right. It is only a hope that more and more schools around the country can begin to give more attention to students and assist them in their most essential stage of growth; to help them become effective and successful rulers of society.
Rachel Jaffe
Students maintain a safe environment at school by advocating good “peer pressure” teens today know and understand how the world works so therefore they promote doing the right thing. At schools students follow the well know term ‘snitching’ some follow but when their friends look away most go to the office and ‘snitch’ although it may be anonymous students do what the right thing is to do. The media and adults should being showing a good example however it does have its downfalls by expressing bad criticism of teenagers of today. The media shows teen today smoking, drinking, fighting and getting in trouble with the law. It may be great to show that some teens are following the wrong path but they should also recognize the good path that students are following. A good association that does express that “not everybody is doing it” would have to be the ‘Above the influence’ association. At Stanton College Preparatory High School the teachers and administration stay aware of the student’s actions they don’t let students get by with bad behavior, if the administration sees something “sketchy” the students responsible are punished. Also, the social structure at Stanton is somewhat different from ‘other’ high schools. Yes we have people that’s are always together but everyone at Stanton seem to get along with everybody.
-Amanda agle
Students in general have a negative connotation to it, every school is different. When people think of students or teens they tend to think of fighting, drugs,foul language etc. The reason for that, that can be changed though. People should think of all the students that arent doing anything wrong and have high achievements. Such as, "Above The Influence" which is to help teens know the dangers of illigel drugs. At Stanton College Prepatory, its a different story. When people think of Stanton they automatically think, "smart school". Which is prejudice because a school cant be not smart. I think Stanton is a safe enviroment because, everyone gets along and you hardly see people not getting along. Stanton is socially diverse but, in a way it isnt. Students tend to be with old friends rather than meeting new friends. Teachers play a big role in a students life, the student can either benifit from the teacher or neglect there apportunity of learning. I think stanton is a safe learning enviroment.
Durati A.
No social environment develops in a vacuum; parents, administrators and the media affect children and parents, administrators and the media act in response to those same children. We as a society need to change our reactions to violence. Instead of condemning people like Jared Loughner, Seung-Hui Cho, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold; we must get them the proper help they need before they commit heinous crimes. School administrators knew about these students odd behavior but did not react aggressively enough to stop the events before they occurred. Threats cannot be ignored and sick children cannot sit idly by in a broken system.
Schools today take children and teens of various backgrounds, ethnicities, and social lives. A major part of a teen’s social life is their friends. Even though we teens have a mind of our own we fall for peer pressure many times in our short life. The peer pressure of telling an authority if something is wrong faces us everyday. What we don't understand is that our decision can determine our safety at school. As parents, staff, and administrators see us everyday we should be constantly reminded to "speak up" if it be little or small. How can they expect us to come to them if we never talk to them? If students do tell authorities we should trust them enough to stay completely anonymous. As Stantonians, we know our environment and should always be cautious and aware of the things happening around us. We shouldn't let our social life get in the way of our safety, even if it does mean being a snitch.
Stanton College Prep has a safe and relaxed environment. There are rarely any fights and there has not been an instance where the students were in danger. Socially, Stanton has a few issues that need to be resolved. The division between classes has resulted in a number of conflicts. At the start of the school year, the freshmen and the seniors 'bumped heads' on the day of the first pep rally. This event was unnecessary and could have been avoided.
In order to keep peace and maintain a safe learning environment, students have to respect each other and work out their differences. Students also need to be able to walk away from fights. Disrespecting and fighting with others will only result in larger problems. To ensure that students know how to behave, parents and administrators should teach and influence students to avoid conflicts.
-Karmen H.
Fingers are always pointing at different people, different things, and different reasons for the cause of school violence; the list could go on and on. But the root problem is all of the violent media that surrounds us, television, music, and even the video games that teens play are full of violence. Of course that problem has always been around, but now it is causing a problem in schools, and at a much greater degree. Students obviously play a role in maintaining a safe environment at school, by setting an example and not doing things that aren’t right could potentially help, but not completely prevent it. Parents and administrators also play a role, but much smaller than the students themselves, but they should try to confront the students with the problems before the problems eventually escalate. Stanton is a high school that almost never has immense behavioral problems, and is overall a very safe school.
Taylor G
Safety in schools can be affected by media, parents, and administrators, but first and foremost it falls to the students. From a young age, adults teach children to accept others and treat them fairly, and children’s television blares about friendship and openness, however, there is still a major safety problem in schools. This is because of teen psychology. It is not the fault of the media, as teens choose the media they want to listen to. In some cases it is the fault of the parent or guardian, who did not instill the right values into their child. But usually, from personal experience, violence is only a reaction of defense, coming to the defense of oneself, or another. One student acts out in defense of mental health, reputation, physical health, ect and another student defends themselves again them, another student against them, and it snowballs. At current, Stanton College Preparatory School is a place of relatively little fighting or bullying, however all it takes is one student for that to change. For the cycle to be broken, students must affect students, not adults or the media. It only takes one to start violence, and it starts with one to stop it.
Leah P.
School violence is utterly an unfortunate aspect of school life, not only is it seen as a “cool” thing to do but in fact sometimes the crowd even encourages physical conflict which only makes the violence more sadistic. Students, I believe, cannot by themselves contribute to a safe environment in school for many reason, among them is one I see as the main cause for school violence; Ignorance. Ignorance to school rules, Ignorant to how physical violence can not only affect the individuals but also school officials and their families and how ignorant it is fight over petty things. Parents and administrators should take the role of “passive guardians”, in my opinion “passive guardians” are parents and or any person(s) in the students life who is seen as an official figurehead, these passive guardians should not guide the student to the fullest extent of their power, but instead should sparingly use their influence over the students and simply point and pave the way for their future. This technique of sparingly using power can be an incredible yet simplistic way of molding students into good citizens. Stanton College Preparatory is a academically distinguished and socially fair, everyone is extremely nice and I have yet to be the subject of “freshmen hate”. Whatever Mrs. Mojava has done to the school, she has done well! I openly have conversations with seniors and juniors and have walked to the senior courtyard on many occasions. This does not mean that the social structures have flaw, the school encouraged fanatical loyalty in to their class and this irrefutably caused the first and second pep rally standoffs between freshmen and seniors. Other than the occasional fight, Stanton has done good for the most part, students attending schools such as Sandalwood or Lee deserve more in terms of security and safety, I have a friend who goes to Lee who always talks about fights and how they occur every day and every week with regularity ( jokingly, but otherwise truthful ) If a school does not provide its students with a safe environment how can a school administrator expect an obedient, just child? School safety and social structure DOES connect to school violence.
- Hamza A.
Students are the main instigators of violence and misbehavior in schools of all grade levels, and while the numbers regarding in-school violence follow no steady trend, it is easy to see that delinquency is present at every school: private, public, or otherwise. Safety in school depends almost entirely on the student-body’s desire to stay safe and responsible under the circumstances they are presented, such as Stanton, which is stationed in a relatively unsafe neighborhood. It is the student’s decision to bring drugs, weapons and other contraband, and it is the student’s decision to misbehave and engage in dangerous acts of violence. While these actions are not a direct impact of the media, it is easy to see that the media definitely plays a small, but crucial part towards the attitudes of teens. For instance, in 2001, research studies found a correlation between violent video games and the increasing violence amongst youths; that being said, it is not entirely necessary that young children base their violent attitudes solely on media influences. Teens may derive unhealthy attitudes from home environments or from their circle of friends.
School administrators play the role of keeping teens on the right course at school, and hopefully out of school as well.
The school environment has a huge impact on all the students attending. Stanton, which stresses academic integrity and discipline, is rather well off as far as delinquency and harmful behavior goes.
Students are what make the school safe or not. They outnumber teachers and staff, and they are the ones most likely to harm the school if they wanted to. The media has a major influence on students. Students think that they will be cool or popular if they act like the stars of their favorite television shows. Parents also have an influence on their children. They are the ones that are raising their kids and teaching them what is right and wrong. I believe that our school is overall safe. The social structure is divided by grade level. I believe these are connected because we are all the same. Only a few people bully but its not a major issue. The seniors and freshmen seem to get along for the most part, because they know what we are going through.
Kathryn M.
Students are what promote a safe environment at school. If students do not fight, they the environment at school will promote that. If students cuss or threaten, other peers will not feel safe at school, and by being threatened, may even cause acts of their own violence. I believe that media should also promote a safe environment, but more over, administrators and parents should provide help and attempt to teach students, starting at a young act, that school is a place for learning, and nothing else. Violence, in turn, will damper education and can lead to violent tendencies in their future- basically, violence can ruin their lives. At Stanton, I feel very safe. We are all here to learn, and so none of us truly feel threatened ever.
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