01 Jun 1999 Public School Violence: An Adult Problem, by Mike Green

A New Visions Commentary paper published June 1999 by The National Center
for Public Policy Research, 501 Capitol Court, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002,
202/543-4110, Fax 202/543-5975, E-Mail [email protected], Web
https://nationalcenter.org. Reprints permitted provided source
is credited.

School violence in Colorado, Georgia and elsewhere has left us with a cold-hearted message. The blame for students’ murderous tirades falls squarely upon our shoulders. As adults, shouldn’t we be delving into the moral cavity of these boys and the immoral framework that makes up the environment we call public school?

First of all, the violence inflicted on our children by other children is a problem for which adults must accept responsibility. After all, we are the ones who pollute their minds with the garbage in movies and television. We are the ones who create innovative and fun games of fantasy murder. We are the ones who, at every opportunity, influence teens to establish intimate sexual relationships even though we know it’s immoral and unhealthy. We also allow – and sometimes encourage – the killing of their unborn children.

Furthermore, adults are the ones who give kids drugs and alcohol. We are the ones who give kids weapons. We are the ones who hand them condoms, birth control pills and bad advice. Adults are the culprits for magazines that target children and teens with images of sex. We give them music with lyrics encouraging sex, and television programs and movies depicting young people engaging in sexual relationships.

When we send our kids to school, we must also realize the influences upon our children from their peers. Kids raised with little or no respect for laws and authority – or life and liberty – interact with and potentially terrorize other children on a daily basis. This is the world of public schools. This is where our children struggle to survive every day. Regrettably, public schools are not conducive to learning appropriate moral values. The government has seen to that. Instead, children are influenced to believe they are their own authority and that God has no place in their lives.

Moreover, schools permit inappropriate behavior. School administrators assume students will have sex, so they pass out free contraceptives to prevent disease. In addition, day-care centers are appearing on campuses across the country. Is this what the government calls intellectual progress? In many of our public schools, teens wear what they want, smoke in designated areas, arrange drug connections, engage in intimate sexual affairs, are exposed to physical violence and face the dilemma of "fitting in" within some social group in a make-shift social environment that grown-ups seem unwilling to supervise. Perhaps, if God is willing, students may also learn enough to score well on their college entrance exams.

It seems government-controlled schools are not commissioned just to teach academics, but also their own brand of socialism. Our children learn to oppose the morals and principles a lot of parents teach at home. When they leave for school, kids can change their clothes, unpack their cigarettes, meet their buddies for alcohol and drug parties and engage in sexual relations. But at least they won’t catch a disease if they use their school-provided condom. And if they should get pregnant, the public school will be happy to advise them on their "right" to execute their unborn child or to leave the baby at the school-sponsored day-care center.

If public schools are run contrary to the type of environment we’d like our children exposed to (preferably one that is strictly academic), then we should have the right to send them to whatever school we desire. Since the government uses our tax money for public school funding, it should either return that money to us with a note of sincere apology or give us a voucher so that we can use it to send our children to another – possibly private or religious – school where the atmosphere is conducive to academic progress rather than social engineering.

Falling short of giving us a true choice in our children’s education, the government should stand out of the way so that we may teach our children respect for God’s law and love towards mankind rather than a misguided notion of tolerance.