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Print This StoryEditorial: Evaluating Toki School Fights
Neil Heinen Weighs In On Issues Of School Violence
UPDATED: 5:15 pm CDT April 25,
2008
By Neil Heinen
Editorial DirectorWhen we put public safety on our editorial agenda for the year, we were thinking more along the lines of neighborhood groups and numbers of police officers than video cameras in school and girls fighting on YouTube. But this week's story of just such videos taken at Toki Middle School show's the complexity of the public safety discussion and the depth of its roots.Fights happen. They're not acceptable and shouldn't be, but most look worse than they are. It likely has nothing to do with Toki school. What the story suggests to us is the problem of violence in our culture is pervasive and it includes our schools and it needs to be addressed there as much as anywhere. And second, technology makes this a whole new game.We need to be aware of these incidents and that means seeing them, and we appreciate the value of identifying children involved. And the YouTub-ing of the world isn't going to change. What we can control and change is how we talk to our children and each other about the unacceptable nature of these behaviors and our rejection of their misplaced value in the popular culture.What do you think? Give your two cents in Channel 3000's TALKBACK section.
Editorial DirectorWhen we put public safety on our editorial agenda for the year, we were thinking more along the lines of neighborhood groups and numbers of police officers than video cameras in school and girls fighting on YouTube. But this week's story of just such videos taken at Toki Middle School show's the complexity of the public safety discussion and the depth of its roots.Fights happen. They're not acceptable and shouldn't be, but most look worse than they are. It likely has nothing to do with Toki school. What the story suggests to us is the problem of violence in our culture is pervasive and it includes our schools and it needs to be addressed there as much as anywhere. And second, technology makes this a whole new game.We need to be aware of these incidents and that means seeing them, and we appreciate the value of identifying children involved. And the YouTub-ing of the world isn't going to change. What we can control and change is how we talk to our children and each other about the unacceptable nature of these behaviors and our rejection of their misplaced value in the popular culture.What do you think? Give your two cents in Channel 3000's TALKBACK section.
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