School Violence Reflects 'Rip in Moral Fabric,' Says Colorado's Lt. Gov.
by Jim Brown
October 12, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A panel of school safety experts has addressed the school violence crisis in America's public schools. The panel, moderated by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, focused on the steps schools and communities can take to help prevent future tragedies by making schools safer.A summit on school violence was convened by President Bush in Chevy Chase, Maryland, earlier this week in response to the latest string of school shootings. Panel member Jane Norton, lieutenant governor of Colorado, said the 1999 tragedy at Columbine High School in her state changed the way that Americans view the potential of violence in their schools. Norton said she has learned that in her state, at least, people want to be a part of the solution.
"Communities, business leaders, law enforcement can all do things like adopting a school and providing a little bit more of a presence in that school," the lieutenant governor explained. "We also have an innovative project that Douglas County [in Colorado] has done, and it's called the Seniors Work-Off Program." Under that program, she said, senior citizens can reduce part of their property tax by volunteering in a local school system.
Late last month, another deadly school shooting in Norton's state left 16-year-old Emily Keyes dead. The shooter turned his gun upon himself during a shootout with law enforcement authorities in Bailey. The small community of about 3,500 is less than an hour's drive from Columbine, where two students' shooting rampage in April 1999 left 15 dead.
The Colorado leader says the rash of recent shootings around the country makes it incumbent upon all communities to be vigilant. "Our state school board, after Columbine, released a statement that talked about this rip in our moral fabric when violence occurs in a school, and that we can do a lot of different things," Norton shared. "But we have to be vigilant in terms of teaching not only academic literacy but moral literacy [as well]."
Norton says faith-based communities can also play a vital role in ensuring their schools maintain a proper moral climate.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
