School violence is a school issue
I really, really hate to come down so hard on a new Peoria blogger, especially when he is only five posts into the thing, but I really have to take exception to P-Town Snarker’s claim that Peoria School District 150 is blameless in the recent spate of gun-toting students:
What we have is a cultural and sociological problem, people. It’s well beyond a school problem. It’s like someone on the Titanic getting pissed because the waiter won’t seat them when the ship is going down. There’s a bigger problem to be addressed! And until the culture issues are adequately dealt with, the problem will never leave our schools. Ever. Period. Finito.
[snip]
I sure don’t have any answers. But I do know that finding that answer must first begin with addressing the real issues. And the leadership and policies of District 150 are not the issue. They’re just the waiters [on the Titanic], fighting like the rest of us to do some good while struggling to remain afloat.
I respectfully disagree.
Granted, these are cases of students bringing the violence of the streets into the schools. But because they are in fact brought into the schools, it becomes the responsibility of the schools to address the issue.
As taxpayers, we have the right to insist that our elected officials take steps to make the schools safe, and not deny responsibilty because the root cause of the problem is outside their control.
When one assumes responsibility, one assumes power.
District 150 has a history of lax student discipline and placing the needs of students who behave criminally ahead of the needs of the students who behave legally.
Teachers have told tales of sending disresepctful students to the deans for discipline to see them sent back with instructions to take care of the problems themselves.
There is a school board member — Martha Ross — with a stated personal policy to never, ever vote to expell a student, no matter what the behavior.
For years, I and many others have argued for the need a real alternative school for students with serious discipline problems. The subject doesn’t even merit discussion with this school board.
As a result the, “vast majority of the black, white, yellow and brown kids in 150 [who] are working their butts off” try to get an education sitting while next to students who are there only to sell drugs, or who simply want to disrupt everyone else’s education.
Guns may be a symptom, but they are a symptom that can be addressed by a better security policies designed to deal with the reality of the world around us. There needs to me more metal detectors, more random locker searches and more drug- and weapon-sniffing dogs. Or better yet, the school should work with the police and state’s attorney’s office to better identify students who are arrested or charged with felonies, so these students can be assessed to see is they pose a danger to other students.
Kids don’t give up ALL their rights at the school house door, but the doctrine of in loco parentis still applies.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
I think Snarker is right. The bigger picture is socio-economic in nature. As long as people are more willing to leave and search for eutopia, than look for solutions, the problem will get worse. The solution is not making learning prisons for our children.
There an 800 pound gorilla in the room that you’re all ignoring….
Snarkalicious must not have liked my response to his post, which links to me, because he never “approved†it for publishing. I don’t recall exactly what I said, but I have two points to make:
1. Everyone agrees there is a major problem of image at Dist 150. With all the press of late on this, and the multiple episodes, the administration should come out strong and take action… or at least give the APPEARANCE of taking action. Don’t say things are hunky dory and it’s an isolated issue. It’s NOT. What is said to the press is what people believe. When things are said to the effect that no changes are needed or are in order, you’re screwing yourself and the district. Say Hello Dunlap! Granted, later, Hinton hinted at some changes being made, but what took so long, and why do I still feel it’s so wishy washy? Take the bull by the horns, so to speak.
2. This is simple. No matter what happens outside the school, in the homes, in the back alleys, etc, WHEN A CHILD ENTERS THAT SCHOOL, THEY HAVE THE ABSOLUTE RIGHT TO BE SAFE. Period. No excuses. There is no way in hell a parent should have to worry about their kids getting shot dead in the classroom!
First of all, apologies to peoriaillinoisan and anyone else who posted on my blog. I guess I have a setting screwed up. I’ll try to fix it. I wondered why I was getting visitors but no responses.
Secondly, it seems to me, we’re ALL right on this issue. Yes, children should be made to feel safe in school. Yes, the district should be doing all in it’s power to make their schools safe. I guess my response to those statements is, well, kinda “no duh.”
My point, though, is that there is a greater cancer that needs addressed here, and it is a sociological one. If our streets are a war zone, of course that violence is going to spill over into our schools from time to time. I’m not absolving the district of their role in dealing with those incidents when they occur, but I am pointing out that those incidents are going to continue to happen, no matter what, unless the greater problems are addressed.
It’s easy to hide your head in “northside” sand, but there are nine year old kids on the south side doing drugs and working for the system. And that system is both corrept and violent. Those kids have weapons. Their role-models use those weapons. And then we expect those same kids to turn into angels when they hit the school house steps? Gimme a break.
Okay, Bill, let’s do as you say and ship them off to a special building for troubled kids. That might help the so-called good kids, but it’s still just a band-aid. That’s all I’m saying.
The D150 people have a HUGE problem on their hands and it’s one they’ve inherited from our culture. I damn sure wouldn’t want their jobs and I applaud them for trying. Even if they don’t always do such a great job, at least they’re doing the job…which is more than we armchair quarterbacks are doing.
Of course kids need to feel safe in school. Of course D150 needs to address issues of violence and do whatever they can to make our children feel safe. Duh! No brainers on both counts.
My point, though, is that there is a greater problem out there — and it exists on the streets and in the homes of big percentage of our city. It’s the stuff LaVetta is screaming about each week. The stuff you (Bill) praised her for addressing. It’s the stuff the “rest” of Peoria can safely choose to ignore. Why? Because it’s not in our neighborhoods, is it? It’s in someone else’s. And it’s not our kids that are threatened as they walk down the street. Indeed, our kids are driven around in cars and minivans and SUVs, aren’t they?
The reason we make such a big deal out of the schools is because that is the one place “our kids” come in contact with the problem. Sure, kids from the Southside and other areas live in constant contact with the drugs and the crime and the violence. But the rest of us can ignore the their issues and pretend it’s not there. After all, our kids are safe at home and on their well-kept blocks.
But God forbid the infection of violence and poverty leak into our schools where our children come in contact with it. Keep that garbage on the Southside where it belongs, right?
Let me ask you this? Where’s the outrage over the people getting shot and robbed and stabbed and beaten in these neighborhoods? Don’t children have a “right to feel safe” in their neighborhoods, too? Or is it simply an issue that kids from the nice neighborhoods are exposed to this stuff from time to time at school — and that’s the real source of the outrage.
Again, I say the problem is in our culture — in our neighborhoods and homes — and not our schools. We must choose to face up to the real cancer and stop spending all of our resources (and time) on band-aids.
Frankly, I wouldn’t want D150’s job for anything. And I applaud them for trying so hard to do what they do. Sure, they screw up from time to time. And yes, they could do a much better job of communicating (internally and externally). But they’re doing more of a job than any educator should have to do.
(Sorry for the ramble.)
shouldn’t parents stop letting their children bring weapons to school. Let’s talk about who is truly responsible.
AS AN MEMBER OF THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY I BELIEVE THAT PEORIA’S AFRICAN AMERICAN LEADERS NEED TO MORE OUT SPOKEN REGARDING THE VIOLENCE IN DISTRICT 150. ITS NO SECRET THAT MOST OF THE MOST OF THE GUN TOTTING OFFENDERS ARE YOUNG AFRICAN- AMERICANS WITH EXTREME DISPLINE PROBLEMS . MORE THAN LIKELY THESE YOUNG MEN COME FROM FATHERLESS HOMES WITH MOTHERS WHO HAVE SEVERAL ADDITIONAL CHILDREN. SO IN OTHER WORDS THESE KID’S ARE BEING RAISED BY THE STREEETS AND THATS A SCARY THOUGHT .
MANY AFRICAN-AMERICAN PATORS AND CITY OFFICIALS ARE SILENT ON THE ISSUES IN DISTRICT 150 ARE THEY SCARED THAT MANY OF THE SINGLE MOTHERS WHO VOTE FOR THEM, OUR POPULATE THEIR CHURCHES WILL BE OFFENDED IF THEY STATE PUBLICLY THAT THEY THEY NEED TO SHOW TOUGH LOVE, AND ENCOURAGE THEM TO BECOME BETTER PARENTS.
THE VIOLENCE IN DISTRICT 150 IS SIMPLY THE RESULT OF IRRESPONSIBLE PARENTS FAILING TO ESTABLISH BOUNDERIES FOR THEIR CHILDREN AND EXPECTING SOCIETY TO PICK UP THE PIECES FOR THEIR APATHY.