John Whitehead's Commentary
Columbine: Two Years Later, We Still Haven't Learned Its Lessons
Two years ago, we watched in horror as children fled from the terror that had invaded their school. What should have been a refuge of safety had been turned into a house of fear. Children were killed for their faith and popularity, and those who survived trembled in pools of their best friends' blood.
Such tragedy should have served as a wakeup call for Americans everywhere. But even though a national debate was sparked, the solutions implemented haven't worked. Sadly, in those two years we failed to learn the lessons of Columbine.
The fundamental lesson should have been that all children need to be treated equally, recognized for their distinct contributions to our lives and, above all, honored for their humanity--that divine touch that imbues each person with a uniqueness unmatched by any other creature. It's the type of lesson that can only be taught through explicit education on moral values, those traits that have served all truly functional societies--and the lack of which have contributed to their downfall.
But even if these lessons are taught, they don't have the necessary impact if the actions of school officials outside the classroom contradict their words inside it. And this is the real tragedy of the aftermath of Columbine--rather than implementing discipline policies that incorporate the values we should be teaching, school policies instead lead to more dehumanization of our students.
The most glaring example of this trend is what educators call "zero tolerance" policies. Intended to wipe out any trace of danger, the policies have instead been implemented in ways that defy common sense and send the message to children that they are disposable.
A few recent examples among the scores around the country illustrate this point. In Louisiana, a third-grade boy was penalized with a day of in-school suspension for carrying in his notebook a picture he had drawn at home of a soldier dressed in camouflage and carrying hand grenades and knives. The principal defended the suspension by saying the school "can't tolerate anything that has to do with guns or knives."
In New Jersey, two second-grade boys were not only suspended but also actually charged with a crime and taken to court after playing with a "gun" made out of paper in the classroom. The boys said they were just playing cops and robbers. Thankfully, the case against them was dismissed after prosecutors were unable to show that any of their classmates felt threatened by the boys.
Occasionally, school officials dehumanize their students even without the aid of a zero tolerance policy. In Colorado, school officials strip-searched an eight-year-old boy, making him take off his pants and looking inside his underwear. Officials claim they were looking for signs of abuse. But social services hadn't requested the search, child protection services weren't involved, the parents had no criminal record and hadn't been contacted by any social service agency regarding any problems.
No evidence of abuse was found--but the emotional abuse suffered by the child will last a lifetime. Since then, the boy's parents have taken him out of public school and placed him in a private one where they hope he will be safe--not from classmates with guns, but school officials without a decent regard for the child's human dignity.
What each of these incidents reveals is a disturbing trend toward dehumanizing our children. In an effort to head off another Columbine, school officials are acting as if innocent children are criminals. But as the killings that have continued in our schools since Columbine indicate, treating children as just another zero tolerance statistic will lead to more senseless violence, not less.
Students need to know that they are valued as people. In virtually every school-shooting incident, the shooter has been an outsider, made fun of by his peers and treated as less than human. At one time, parents and teachers could fill the void when peers treated someone as an outcast. Knowing they were cared for and loved both because of and in spite of who they were made all the difference. But faced with intolerant peers, too often today's student has nowhere to turn--parents are often tuned out, and ferocious school discipline policies send a message of exclusion rather than inclusion.
As the saying goes, Rome wasn't built in a day. Likewise, our society didn't reach this pitiful moral state overnight. For far too long, too many parents have bailed out of their duties to their children. There has been virtually a total vacuum of moral education in our schools. Turning these trends around could lead to a renaissance among our youth, but it will certainly take time. Yet, if we continue to pursue dehumanizing zero tolerance policies and ignore the human dignity of students, such a bright new day will never dawn.
Such tragedy should have served as a wakeup call for Americans everywhere. But even though a national debate was sparked, the solutions implemented haven't worked. Sadly, in those two years we failed to learn the lessons of Columbine.
The fundamental lesson should have been that all children need to be treated equally, recognized for their distinct contributions to our lives and, above all, honored for their humanity--that divine touch that imbues each person with a uniqueness unmatched by any other creature. It's the type of lesson that can only be taught through explicit education on moral values, those traits that have served all truly functional societies--and the lack of which have contributed to their downfall.
But even if these lessons are taught, they don't have the necessary impact if the actions of school officials outside the classroom contradict their words inside it. And this is the real tragedy of the aftermath of Columbine--rather than implementing discipline policies that incorporate the values we should be teaching, school policies instead lead to more dehumanization of our students.
The most glaring example of this trend is what educators call "zero tolerance" policies. Intended to wipe out any trace of danger, the policies have instead been implemented in ways that defy common sense and send the message to children that they are disposable.
A few recent examples among the scores around the country illustrate this point. In Louisiana, a third-grade boy was penalized with a day of in-school suspension for carrying in his notebook a picture he had drawn at home of a soldier dressed in camouflage and carrying hand grenades and knives. The principal defended the suspension by saying the school "can't tolerate anything that has to do with guns or knives."
In New Jersey, two second-grade boys were not only suspended but also actually charged with a crime and taken to court after playing with a "gun" made out of paper in the classroom. The boys said they were just playing cops and robbers. Thankfully, the case against them was dismissed after prosecutors were unable to show that any of their classmates felt threatened by the boys.
Occasionally, school officials dehumanize their students even without the aid of a zero tolerance policy. In Colorado, school officials strip-searched an eight-year-old boy, making him take off his pants and looking inside his underwear. Officials claim they were looking for signs of abuse. But social services hadn't requested the search, child protection services weren't involved, the parents had no criminal record and hadn't been contacted by any social service agency regarding any problems.
No evidence of abuse was found--but the emotional abuse suffered by the child will last a lifetime. Since then, the boy's parents have taken him out of public school and placed him in a private one where they hope he will be safe--not from classmates with guns, but school officials without a decent regard for the child's human dignity.
What each of these incidents reveals is a disturbing trend toward dehumanizing our children. In an effort to head off another Columbine, school officials are acting as if innocent children are criminals. But as the killings that have continued in our schools since Columbine indicate, treating children as just another zero tolerance statistic will lead to more senseless violence, not less.
Students need to know that they are valued as people. In virtually every school-shooting incident, the shooter has been an outsider, made fun of by his peers and treated as less than human. At one time, parents and teachers could fill the void when peers treated someone as an outcast. Knowing they were cared for and loved both because of and in spite of who they were made all the difference. But faced with intolerant peers, too often today's student has nowhere to turn--parents are often tuned out, and ferocious school discipline policies send a message of exclusion rather than inclusion.
As the saying goes, Rome wasn't built in a day. Likewise, our society didn't reach this pitiful moral state overnight. For far too long, too many parents have bailed out of their duties to their children. There has been virtually a total vacuum of moral education in our schools. Turning these trends around could lead to a renaissance among our youth, but it will certainly take time. Yet, if we continue to pursue dehumanizing zero tolerance policies and ignore the human dignity of students, such a bright new day will never dawn.
ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.
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