School Safety WebQuest
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Politicians & Representatives
How would politicians & government representatives feel about violence at schools? Your job is to understand this perspective, to become an expert, knowing the concerns of people who are responsible for creating laws to educate and protect children and to serve the needs of society.
You may choose to make up your own questions or use those provided.
- How often do guns seem to be used in incidents of school violence? If guns were harder to get, do people think the danger at schools might be decreased? Why do some people object to restrictions on guns?
- What should be done with children who commit violent crimes, even murder? Should they be treated as adults? What if they are seven years old or seventeen? Should people who commit violent crimes be helped or punished? Does the current practice in detention homes and prisons involve more help or punishment? Which is the most helpful to society?
- What impact does violence in the media have on people, particularly children? If we know certain video games and television shows or movies encourage violent acts, should government do something to address the situation? What do you think should be done? how much violence is too much? Who gets to decide?
- Who bears responsibility for the social and mental well-being of children? Parents? Schools? Society? Government? The children themselves? If you believe all these people/groups do, then rate them in order of responsibility from most responsible to least.
Your answers to these questions should help you take a position on the main question(s) listed below. Remember, your answers should reflect what politicians & government representatives would think and feel:
Why all this violence in schools?!!
In other words...
- Why does it happen?
- Who is responsible?
- How can we stop it?
- How does all this relate to the world outside the school gates?
Use the links below to find answers. If you think you need more site to review, use the extensive Topic Hotlist and broaden your search.
- School Shootings - Interactive Map
- Excellent quick overview from CNN
- Fact File - from Common Sense about Kids and Guns
- (Great for Affective)
- Family Stories
- links to online articles and postings
- School shootings have high profile but occur infrequently
- from CNN
- School shooting sparks gun control debate
- from CNN
- Industry -- but not NRA -- backs some restrictions on guns
- from CNN
- School violence needs radical solutions - anti gun control
- Bill Shipp is editor of Bill Shipp's Georgia newsletter
- Secret Service takes a crack at school violence
- from CNN
- Innocence Lost - How should the legal system handle kids who kill?
- an expert panel discussion on NewsHour
- First-grader shot dead by classmate in Michigan school
- from CNN
- Oklahoma Boy, 13, doesn't know why he shot classmates
- from CNN - December 6, 1999
- Violence and Discipline Problems in U.S. Public Schools: 1996-97
- from The National Center for Education Statistics
- 1993 CDC Study: Teen Gun Deaths Hit New High
- Video games 'increase aggression'
- from BBC News
- Growing Up Scared
- from the Atlantic Monthly
- Violence on Television
- What do Children Learn? What Can Parents Do?
- Candidate George W. Bush on Education
- from Issues 2001
RealAudio Files
- Gun Control History - Weekend Edition - Sunday, March 11, 2001
- RealAudio file - from NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr
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