Shots Fired at Waukesha South High School, December 2019!

Growing up in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, I just don't remember worrying about any of my classmates bringing a gun to school. I do remember fights happening after school or on the bus due to some trivial jibberish being said that may have offended someone. Ok, yeah, someone was going to get beat up after school but it wasn't like things are today. These kids today are fighting in a manner to permanently hurt someone... hell, to kill someone. The idea that someone might bring a hand gun or a semi-automatic machine gun to school has become common place. I keep asking myself, "When did this epic shift in America's morale conscience take place?" I want to call this shift the new school violence. When did it become fashionable to beat someone retarded? When did it become ok to break someone's arm or stomp someone's head? I can actually remember some of the fights I witnessed in junior high school and even one or two in high school... And I distinctly remember the fighting actually used to stop on its own once someone knew they had won. I can remember fights being broken up when it was obvious that one kid had bested the other... But now, all bets are off. Kids are bringing guns to school with horrific intentions... And it appears that the American school system can only do one thing to deal with the violence... And that one thing is train for the inevitable. The schools are teaching the kids to hide behind something solid, run as fast as you can, and stay low to the ground.

In Waukesha, Wisconsin, a city police officer shot a 17 year old student at Waukesha South High School who pulled a gun in a classroom and refused to drop it. The student accounts of the incident were broadcast on social media. The teenagers followed the drills they had been taught... waiting, fearing, and ultimately hearing gun fire at school. I wonder what was going in their minds. Will we be another Columbine? According to officials, the 17 year old was the only one who was hurt physically but in my opinion, every student at Waukesha South High School was hurt mentally. Their school is no longer a safe zone. In fact, every person who has experienced a lock down or an active shooter situation may suffer from a new fear that no public place, not even an educational institution, is safe.

After a bit of research, the new new school violence can be traced back to the 1900s.   A quick analysis of school shooting on wikipedia reveals a staggering truth.   Actual shootings by "kids" began to take place in America's school system in the 1800s and with each ensueing decade, the number of crimes committed by persons under the age of 20 continually increases. Each decade the children become deadlier earlier and the number of fatalities due to the use of hand guns and semi-automatic weapons increases. What does it mean? Is it the availability of the weapons in our communities or is it a break down in the very fabric of the conscience of Americans? Why is there this new violent culture in our school systems where differences of opinion, bullying, teasing, and inabilities to communicate or disagree can only end with gun fire? Is it the availability of digital entertainment that glamorizes violence that has degraded the foundation of principles which champion peaceful resolutions over bullets to resolve conflict? I wish I had the answer. One thing is evident. The continued progression of weaponized violence in America's schools will ultimately lead to an escalation of violence by adults in other public places. It's already happening.... and it's high time America gets serious about changing its culture, teaching its youth peaceful means of resolving issues, and relooking at gun control.