Looking for blame in shooting outside city school
Some facts (from the Chicago Tribune) and opinions to consider before rushing to judgment about the shooting outside of Schurz High School in Chicago yesterday (I rush to judgment so you don't have to):
Fact: The three victims are not gang members, said Police Supt. Philip Cline. But he said they were standing with gang members outside the store when the suspect walked up and opened fire ... Police said that one of the victims was spray-painting gang graffiti on a garage near the mini-mart and that is believed to be the reason for the shooting,
Opinion: Either these guys had gang affiliations or they didn't. Spray-painting gang graffiti leads me to believe that they did. Or at least they wanted to.
Fact: A 25-caliber handgun was recovered atop a roof down the street ... Cline said the real problem is that the offender resorted to using a deadly weapon to resolve the conflict. ... "That is the issue here, there are too many guns," he said.
Opinion: Um, there was one handgun involved, which sounds like the correct guns-per-criminal ratio. So it wasn't a matter of "too many guns," but the fact that we allow criminals to attend our schools. Trying to ban weapons will get you nowhere. But banning the bums from school might work. Let's take a closer look ...
Fact: The two freshmen and a sophomore who were shot are 16 and 17 years old, police said. ... Witnesses were able to identify the gunman, ... a 20-year-old student at the school.
Opinion: Freshmen are typically 14 years old. Some sophomores are 14. These hoodlums are 16, 17, 20, and probably not even close to being on track for graduation. One problem with the educational system is that public schools can't kick out the troublemakers. Many kids do want to learn. Plenty, though, don't. They go to school to hang out, to deal drugs, to waste everyone's time. If they're not learning, not progressing, not attempting to learn and progress, they should be expelled. Then they should be arrested if they come anywhere near a school.
The greater societal problem here is that there really aren't all that many options in the workplace for 16 year olds that don't want to go to school. Not too long ago, it was possible to get a decent job with benefits even if you didn't have a high school diploma. Now you need a college degree just to get a gig at Starbucks.
Fact: "Like any school with 2,400 kids, you are going to have some incidents, but this certainly is not one of the most troubled schools when it comes to safety, by any measure," Chicago Public Schools spokesman Mike Vaughn said.
Opinion: Give me a break. Three kids get shot and you say it's not troubled? Sure it is. Face it, most city schools are troubled. Or do you need to see some standardized test scores to determine which school is "troubled" and which isn't? Now, instead of closing down schools and increasing class sizes, do something about these troubled schools and students.
Fact: "It's definitely gotten worse in the last year or two," said a woman who was 20 feet away when the shooting occurred. Her son is a senior at the Northwest Side school. "Had I known it was going to be this crazy, my son would not be going to this school."
Opinion: Oh come on ... where would your son be going? Can you afford a fancy private school somewhere? Does he have the grades for one of the highly selective magnet schools in the city? Three things that freaked-out parents should consider: 1. This happened outside of school. Tell your kids to stay inside and they should be OK. 2. This happened because of a gang dispute. Stay away from gangs and they won't be bothered (too much). 3. If this had happened in the suburbs or small-town America, the gunman would probably have been inside the building shooting indiscriminately. I've heard African-American teenagers say these things and I'm starting to believe them: "Only a crazy white person would randomly shoot up a school." "Serial killers are usually white." "If I have a problem with someone, I go after him, not everyone."
By no means is this shooting a minor incident. But could've been worse. And it's not too late for the lawmakers to do something about the lawbreakers.
For more on the State of Confusion, see The Daley Show.
5 comments:
Kick them out of school? That's your solution?
That's all we need -- to cut off any chance they may have to get out of the gang life.
"They won't be bothered (too much)," that and the assumption that a city kid in a gang infested neighborhood isn't smart enough to go anywhere else ("where would your son be going?") pretty much sum up the fact that you're probably too busy huddling in your home with your guns to have actually ever set foot in one of these troubled schools. How about spending a little time finding out what it's like and contributing to correcting it rather than spinning news stories based on your 2nd Amendment at all costs world view?
But then you'd have to admit it's a problem all over, not just one for "those people."
Don't get me wrong, anonymous. I've actually spent quite a lot of time huddling up in CPS schools. I'm a product of the system, and I've spent the last five and a half years "volunteering" at inner city schools. The students I deal with are 95% minority and 90% low income. The vast majority of the students I've worked with really want to learn, really want to succeed, but there are things holding them back. First of all is the lack of resources in many of the underperforming schools. The worse off the school is (the lower the test scores), the more cuts it sees. Second is the small percent of kids that just don't want to be there no matter what. They make life miserable for everyone in the building, mostly for their peers that want to learn. Now, as far as the second amendment argument, I'm all for banning all guns from everyone. Want to hunt? Use a bow and arrow! Want to kill someone? Use your hands! I have actually only fired a gun once (on a cousin's farm in Michigan) and it scared the crap out of me. But the thing is, I just don't see any politicians brave enough to stand up to the NRA and actually doing an all-out ban. So, I say we start by making schools safer by getting rid of the element that doesn't want to be there. Sign them up for the military or, better yet, ensure there are enough businesses that will hire teenagers and pay a decent wage. Not everyone wants or needs an education. Plenty of people have done just fine without a diploma. But those jobs are quickly disapearing. Anyway, to sum up this rambling comment, I'm torn on the issue, as you can see in the original post. The schools aren't as terrible as they're portrayed, but they could be much better. Now, anonymous, what the hell have you done lately to help?
ap:
I actually spend a lot more time working to help keep schools and neighborhoods safe than I do reading between the lines of news stories to make vague points.
its just very stupid to think some one would do something like this where i come from is nobody plays around and gangs problems are going to be their forever even if we like it or not like me fore instence i use to be a head of a gang but since i heard about this shooting at my old school from a few months ago and my girlfriend stills goes to the school and that was her second day of school their and it ticked me off to hear the only person to call me and tell me this stuff, don't get me wrong i know im not the only one to think this and wont be the last i was getting ready to do something and somthing fast just so people can hear me
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