What Causes School Violence?

your right, teachers dont seem to care..

The schools don't seem to be focused on the right things anymore. My sons school now has the teachers carry around cameras to take pictures of students who shake hands in "unusual" ways. Anything but the traditional straight hand to hand shake is now being considered a gang shake and can get the student suspended.

I need to take exception to almost everything in this discussion. I am a teacher. I know lots of other teachers. Most teachers are not so callous that they don't care about students. In fact, with pay as low as it is and the job so difficult, most people who teach are only there because they want to help kids. First of all let me say that children are coming to school with more and more baggage from the home than ever before. I can't imagine how many children I've worked with who came to school hungry in the morning, came with bruises and other signs of abuse, came without coats on very cold days, brought lunches that were nothing but candy and chips, etc. A child who is dealing with such things has trouble relating to lessons as well as other children. I teach the really little ones, and even at that age I can tell the ones who are going to have problems growing up. Teachers are only human and can only do so much in the 35 hours a week they see a child, especially with huge classes of varying abilities. I have also worked with high school LD students for 8 years. I didn't like the comment that said teachers are afraid of students. I worked with BD students every day and found them to be really great kids who had been through a lot in their lives. I even took one into my home as a foster child and did everything I could do to help him, even though his personality was pretty much set at age 16. And hard as I've worked, and hard as other teachers have worked, with these kids, I still know two boys who are in prison for murder right now and another for attempted murder. I came within 1/4" of being punched in the face one day when I stepped between two students who had started an argument. So please don't be so general when you condemn teachers. The entire burden for these children and their problems isn't all on our shoulders. There are a lot more things that contribute to the violence in our society than teachers are able to control.

You are right that they may believe that no one cares and the teachers/principlals are taking no action. This may be true as today teachers and principals seem to be afraid of the students. The children should turn to their own parents first though. They should tell their parents what is happening. I know that there are those parents that don't want to hear it or don't care either but that is why this happens. The parents should accept more of the responsibility than the school staff. The parents should make their child feel comfortable with discussing problems that make the child feel uncomfortable. The parents should go to the school staff with the problems if necessary. the parents should play a more active role in the child's life. I know parents are busy, but that is no excuse. If they had a trely loving home they would receive the emotional support they need to make it through their problems.