Insanity: Is It in Our Schools?

INSANITY: IS IT IN OUR SCHOOLS? What exactly is the definition of insanity? Insanity is being in a mental state of mind that does not allows you to make correct decisions on events that are occurring at that moment. But this definition is not always the same through out the United States. One person’s definition is not always the same as the next. This comes into conflict when trying to decide someone’s fate in court cases, and this is especially important when it involves a minor that has committed a serious crime. As an example to the seriousness of some of the crimes, look at all of the school shootings that have been occurring throughout the United States. What are we to do with young children that are now sentenced to prison for life without parole? To call them insane is not the answer. We need to find something that can be done to help stop the huge number of young people in the correctional system. Because the huge amount of money it costs to house inmates per year is extreme, and it is costing the taxpayers enough money already to house the adult inmates. We need to find alternate solutions other than sending these young men and woman to prison for the rest of their life, and causing them to legally go insane. What can we do to prevent these young adults from committing such extreme crimes? We need to look at the home and see if anything is wrong there first before anything else is even looked at. Because, to take away the children from their parents is only a good if they are part of the problem. Parents are extremely important in a child life and set the foundation for what is to come in the future from him/her whether in the positive or the negative. There are many reasons for there being problems at home. It could be the lack of supervision by an adult, the absence of punishment, and many more reason why the child is not having a good home life. There are still many more reasons why child resort to violence when faced with a problem. What can we do to help prevent a poor upbringing for children throughout the U.S? The American people need to stop putting such an emphasis on material belongings, and put it on the well being of our friends and family. We have families with everything in the world but their children have don’t even know who their parents are. Then we have the exact opposite with ones that have very little but have a very close family life. To help with the family we need to get the parents more active in the children’s life. Whatever has to be done it has to be something that brings the family closer together. You might be asking what else can we do to change these young people if the problem is not at home. What these kids do when they are not at home is another main concern. Whether it be the friends they hang around with, drugs and/or alcohol, sex, and the activities they do when they are out. The peer pressure effect has link to all the other problems. Kids want to fit in no matter what they have to do to get in the group (click) they will do it. In the Columbine High School shooting the two young gentlemen April 20, 1999 is the day when many children’s lives changed at Columbine High School by two young men that just did not fit in. They were said to be members of a group called the “Trench Coat Mafia.” This was a group out casts at the school. This school shooting also happened on a day well known to many for drugs and racists. It was the 110th anniversary of Adolph Hitler’s birthday. These kids had been planning this attack for over a year. They had practice making explosives and perfected their shooting skills well in advance. Why they did this no one will ever know because after they were finished their rampage through the school shooting as many people they could they turned the guns on themselves and ended it all. Where would these kids get the idea to do such a thing as this to their fellow students? What was going through their minds when they thought of committing this crime? If it was because they were not treated the way they wanted to be or anything else, it does not matter because nothing is going to make it okay to kill. There have been many shootings popping up around the United States involving teens and not only their peers but also their families. This is alarming, because we now have children turning on their parents because they say that they were not satisfied with the way their parents took care of them. This brings us right back to where we started, with the problems at home blossoming and coming to school. In Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Luke Woodham murdered his mother then went to his school killed two classmates and wounded seven more. He confessed to all of the charges except for murdering his mother. He said that he had no recollection of the events that took place that afternoon at his house. Woodham insisted that a man, know as Grant Boyette, egged him on about killing his mother and ex-girlfriend. Grant is a member of a