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Yes ,I can imagine the horror of running kids to school in fear of
the unknown danger. My experience taught me not to treat the symptom of a
problem, but go to the heart of the disease I worked in a public
school system in Colorado less than two hours from Columbine High School.
The fallout from that tragedy certainly touched parents, students;
administrators and communities around North America. It felt like even
more so in Colorado. I worked with emotionally disturbed children, many of
whom were in trouble with the police and/or school administration. Much of
what happened in that area (and is still happening has only made the
wounds worse) There was a period of wanting to punish everyone for every
little crime in an effort to make our schools feel safe.
The wounds from Columbine were still fresh almost two years later
when three ninth graders were arrested for planning to "redo Columbine".
Their crime in the eyes of the law was that they had blue prints to the
school and one of their dads had weapons (he also owned property which was
alleged to host RAVES). The investigation took almost two weeks before the
students were charged with various felonies, despite an admission from
police and school officials that there was never anyone in immediate
danger of being harmed. No evidence suggests any weapons were ever on the
school grounds.
To make a long story short one boy made a deal with the prosecutors
and agreed to testify against his two friends. For his role in the
incident he received probation and was told to work through a restorative
justice process. The other two (masterminds) received sentences in
juvenile detention for up to two years. What lessons did this teach the
students? The side note to all is that soon after the Columbine
"massacre" I was talking with a local school board member. He shook his
head sadly and said that children in our care have been telling us for a
long time they do not feel safe in schools. We responded by putting in
school resource officers but never really addressed the feel of why they
did not feel safe. He suggested that adults would never agree to work in
some of the school conditions that he has seen around the country. Again,
what do we mean by safety? Is Fort Collins safer because those two boys
were jailed for making what could be labeled a terrorist threat? Some of
the emotions from Columbine have lessened, but few have healed. The
students are the real victims, again.
Locking away a 17year old for life is not going to fix the system.
Unless we take proactive action and build strong communties with a system
of justice that works for victims and offenders than this will surface in
some form at another time.
Tony
-------Original Message-------
From: jsullivan@moscow.com
Date: Thursday, October
24, 2002 19:58:06
To: Tony C. Brown
Subject: Re: What RJ
Might Look Like If this young man were starting out in the criminal justice system I could see trying to rehabilitate him. Not now, I say spend the money on our schools, invest in the future of children NOW, so they don't get to the tragic place this young man did. Janesta Sullivan Tony C. Brown" wrote:
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