What We Don’t Talk About in Coverage of School Shootings
Tuesday, March 20, 2018The Topic: What We Don’t Talk About in Coverage of School ShootingsThe News Story: What Decades Of Covering School Shootings Has Taught MeThe New Research: Aggressive Teens—Permissive and Absent Parents The News Story: What Decades Of Covering School Shootings Has Taught Me Two more students are injured and the gunman dead in yet another school shooting this week, this time in Maryland. Only a few weeks after the deadly Parkland, Florida, shooting, America is still reeling. In a piece for NPR, Claudio Sanchez—who has covered decades worth of such events—covers the history of how Americans have tried to deal with school shootings. First, he says, was the era of “zero response”—no putting up with troublemakers. Then, and still, some argue for stricter punishment, even the death penalty. The Federal government released a “threat assessment guide” to help teachers pick out students who may be problems. So what has helped? Nothing, Sanchez said: “it's clear to me that students are just as vulnerable today as they were 20-25 years ago. . . . In large part, because students have access to high-powered weapons, a problem that schools have no say in or control over.” A common denominator which is persistently left out of the discussion, however, is the role that single parenthood plays in encouraging aggression in teens. Suzanne Venker over at Fox News highlights that of the 27 deadliest mass shootings in American history, “seven of those shootings were committed by young males since 2005. Of the seven, only one—Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho—was raised by his biological father throughout childhood.” Years of research backs her claims—any true discussion of how to stem the tide of school violence must begin with a discussion of how to keep families together. (Source: Penny Starr, “8 Million Mothers from 150 Countries Sign Declaration: ‘The Era of Radical Feminism is Over,
Categories:
