The Causes of School Violence

The Causes of School Violence

School violence is only a recent thing. Roughhousing among teenagers in high school has always been prevalent, however, its extreme forms such as taking out vendettas against students or teachers or bringing deadly weapons to school have only risen in existence in the past thirty years. Now some have placed the blame on the violent video games, television and bad music. The first notable high school shootings didn’t happen until the 1970’s (Centennial Secondary School, St. Pius X High School), and it’s not likely that the video game Pong was turning these kids into homicidal maniacs. As for the music, heavy metal and rap were only a vague concept in the early seventies, but they did not rise to large popularity until the mid-eighties. Television, well known during this time for being very violent (Kung Fu, Kojak), it still seems unlikely as there were only two incidents in the 1970s. For those reasons, these early crimes could not have been linked to the choice of music one liked or their hobbies. In fact, one plausible cause of this might be found in the rise of mothers leaving the home and getting jobs. The neglect of caring for these teenagers is what causes them to turn on society and become violent.

Some of the indirect causes of school violence are music, video games and television. The reason why teens become engrossed in such things is only because of the attention or usually lack of attention from parents, teachers and authority figures. Most school shootings have been traced back to forms of depression in the aggressors’ lives. Now sometimes the depression may be caused from other sources or just a random occurrence during teen brain growth. Occasionally it is directly from mistreatment from parents or others; but it is the fault of parents’ inaction to treat the depression that leads to the shooting.

A common trait with many of the shootings is the mistake of the parents allowing guns to be in easy access or in some way encouraging the violence in teenagers. Now some parents do keep guns in their homes for protection, but these parents are the ones who, for whatever reason, are irresponsible in the way they either lock up their guns or teach their children the proper way to use them. Irresponsibility is the paramount factor in the cause of school violence. When parents are ignorant to what happens to their kids at school or their behavior patterns, there is no telling what could go wrong.

Hopefully teachers will catch these signals and help the students. Nevertheless, teachers have also overlooked the problems. It is fortunate to be in a school where there are decent teachers. Many are great at what they do, some are okay, and others are known to be lacking in ability. It seems that most teachers would be able to spot disturbances in a student’s life. Whatever spawns a teacher’s ignorance, whether it is their bad training or a severe dislike of the student, part of the blame lies with them. If we had more of the good teachers who regardless of the student, treated them fairly and gave them the attention and love that they deserve, we might be able to spot these problems sooner rather than later.

A solution to this problem may never happen, due to the fact that violence is widespread and almost accepted as everyday life. Yet, some simple objectives may reduce the number of incidents we see today. First, the number of good teachers needs to increase in our schools. My suggestion would increase the number of years a teacher needs to receive tenure. It is good for all; the better teachers are recognized and kept for their efforts while the bad teachers are rid of earlier. Once the teacher receives tenure, an immediate pay increase should be issued. A respectable pay increase would show that the teacher has proved his or her worth to the community. Second, clubs that promote non-violence should be in every school, as they