School Violence

["Wayne H Beebe" <whbeebe@turbonet.com>]

A couple of weeks ago a 13 year old Pullman youth was expelled from school and charged with felony harassment.  Yesterday the Deary High School was locked down because of rumored threats.  Aren't we overreacting a bit?  I can see some manipulative youths using this for kicks, starting rumors just to see how adults will react.

 

While I would agree that SV needs to be taken seriously, isn't there a better way: having anger management programs for the whole student body, putting a peer conflict resolution team in place, identifying problem youth that need special attention.  Even then if there is a threat to work at finding a counseling or remedial program that will help rather than punish the youth.

 

Any thoughts?