Children on the Firing Line

THIS SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN Children on the Firing Line Sidney Saylor Farr "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." —Martin Luther King So far this year, security police in the Lexington, Kentucky, schools have seized two semiautomatic handguns, a number of butcher knives, and a Ninja star, among the twenty-four weapons found on students in elementary , middle, and high schools. Five of those twenty-four weapons were taken from elementary students, and six from children in middle schools—including a pupil who came to school on February 20 with a loaded .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun. Guns are not the only concern, however, because many students prefer to carry knives. Lexington schools have never been considered particularly dangerous, especially when compared with those in New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles. There are 32,000 students in Lexington's public schools. Out of those, the number of students involved in carrying weapons to schools is small, but the figure is reflective of the situation in Tennessee, North Carolina, West Virginia, and other Southern Appalachian states, as well as states across the nation. No longer is the problem confined to schools in the Bronx or Chicago, Indianapolis, Detroit, and other big cities. Let's look squarely at some of the issues facing our children. They are being destroyed by adult high technology. Children are no longer able to attend classes and other functions in most schools without being afraid or threatened in some way. Do we believe that? No. Ifwe really believed it, we would feel the earth moving beneath our feet, hear roaring in our ears, and we would be screaming in the streets for their protection. Some things that used to happen only in high schools—and not too far back not even in the hißh schools—are now common in the elementary and middle schools. How should we regard the handguns in the public 3 schools? Should it be left to the teachers, school administrators, and security forces at the schools to deal with these dangers? We may express regret. We surely hope things get better. But we are busy. We are "not paid to fix the schools"; someone else is. Take the issue of guns in schools. What do you suppose would happen if the next time a gun is found in one of our schools, several hundred parents walked off their jobs and went to that school and sat in the classrooms with the children all day talking values? Do you think the administrators would be impressed? Do you think they might conclude that we have had enough, that we will not accept this kind of life for our children? What about the children? Would they look at adults with new respect for being willing to sacrifice time away from their jobs because they care what is happening to their children? What will happen unless several hundred parents walk off their jobs and go to that school? Will the children continue to accept fear? Will the administrators continue business as usual, accepting paychecks and lying to us about things? Will they continue to tell us our water is not polluted from chemicals carelessly used? Will they say factories and automobiles and countless other products of technology are not polluting the very air we depend on for life? Individuals often forget what power there is in common people standing up and saying, "We won't take it any more. We are going to see some changes made—or else." There is power in numbers. Suppose we got angry at what our children are exposed to on the streets and in public schools. What if parents and concerned citizens attended every school board meeting, every PTA meeting, every public forum on education, and let their voices be heard? What if they went to school sometime during the day to observe, and to work with the teachers, not against them? What if they formed groups dedicated to insisting that values must underpin the process of education; insisting on a civilized environment for learning; supporting law enforcement efforts to prevent drugs from being sold to children of all ages? Do you think that would make a difference? We...