School violence and shootings are becoming more and more common. In fact they are so common that teachers can no longer assume that the gun actions of imaginative boys is innocent. Words of shooting and death cannot be ignored or taken lightly.
While I am thankful that my county has been saved thus far from the terror and nightmare of school shootings, I am aware of threats and threatening notes. These threats have been made to both students and to teachers.
While the parents of all involved students and the students’ teachers are made aware of the situation, not everyone always knows what is happening.
I agree that the entire community may not need to know all of the school details. Information in the wrong hands can cause quiet a panic among parents.
However I do feel that after a threat has been made, a serious threat of taking or harming another’s life, that the entire faculty and staff should meet. They should be made aware of the incident in order to be on the look out for suspicious action in the school.
The crime or threat may not necessarily be carried out in the classroom with the homeroom teacher. We have teachers on bus duty and breakfast duty early in the mornings. We have assistants who monitor the hallways. These people need to aware that a dangerous situation could possibly occur.
After most of the school shootings, teachers admit that once the act was committed they could think of actions or clues that they had seen. Had they only be aware that a threat existed; they might have been able to notify someone to get the student help.
Violence does not only occur in big cities or in big overpopulated schools. It can happen anywhere and at anytime.
Protecting the children from harm is another duty that has been added to the long list of teachers’ roles.