Students Say Shooting Response Should Be Dialogue, Not Lockdown

Ben Smilowitz, co-founder and national chair of the International Student Activism Alliance, said the Littleton, Colo., shootings and bomb spree point to a need for more dialogue between students and administrators, not a prison-style lockdown.

"Students around the country are very upset and sort of frightened but it's generally understood that the actions were (taken) by crazy students," said Smilowitz, 18, who graduated earlier this year from Hall High School in West Hartford, Conn. "I think our main problem is that adults are trying to create solutions, and have forums, and are not including students. That doesn't make a lot of sense."

Members of the alliance, which has 150 chapters in high schools nationwide, say open discussions about intolerance brewing beneath the surface of many campuses, increased counseling and peer mediation would go a long way toward preventing violence on campus. Some schools are more open to these programs than others, they add.

In New Jersey, high school senior Ashley Price said despite the placid appearance of largely white Nutley High School, racial slurs and derogatory remarks about students who were different in attitude or dress from the "in crowd" were all too prevalent.

"The beautiful people dominate sports, school council and the teachers' time," just as their counterparts appeared to do in Littleton, said Price. "Those are the kids everyone wants to be, but they are also the most hated." Price said she thinks while social stereotyping goes on in all schools, efforts to be proactive in preventing violence can make a big difference. A proposal by members of her school's Human Relations Club to form a committee of administrators, teachers, clergy and students on teaching tolerance is being considered by administrators, she said, although she thought enthusiasm for this was stronger on the students' side. Administrators were not immedately reachable for comment on this point.

The often different understanding of a school's social climate by administrators and students has been underscored in the work of a Boston-based group that advocates social and emotional learning in schools. Educators for Social Responsibility found that when program administrators and parents were asked to assess the overall climate of their workplace or child's school, they generally saw it in a much more favorable light than did the students. At George Washington High School in Charleston, W. Va., senior Anna Sale said that even though the Littleton shooting was particularly upsetting and it can be frustratingly difficult to figure out solutions to school violence, dialogue -- and not more rules -- was essential.

"I couldn't really sleep at all last week," she recalled. "I was very bothered by it. I find myself glimpsing at students walking down the hallway when I never did before. But I don't know if turning schools into a military state is going to improve anything. There's sort of an element of hysteria developing that makes me a bit nervous."

© COPYRIGHT 1999 THE AMERICAN NEWS SERVICE

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Contacts:

Ben Smilowitz, co-founder, national chair, Ashley Price, Anna Sale, International Student Activism Alliance, 860-232-8452.

Backgrounds:

JoinTogether, Boston, Mass., national advocacy and research group for preventing youth violence and substance abuse, on-line information service: http://www.jointogether.org

THE AMERICAN NEWS SERVICE

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