More Questions Than Answers on School Violence

About 100 parents, educators and politicians gathered at an Anaheim high school Saturday to discuss a question on the minds of many: Could the Littleton, Colo., school massacre occur in Orange County?

The answer was a resounding “yes,” though solutions were less clear. Is it gun control or peer counseling, parent involvement or metal detectors on campus?

The event was moderated by Assemblymen Ken Maddox (R-Garden Grove) and Dick Ackerman (R-Fullerton), and featured panelists from the school district and law enforcement.

It was scheduled in the wake of last month’s Colorado high school shooting, in which two students killed 12 other students, a teacher and themselves. But it took on new urgency with another school shooting in Georgia on Thursday and, much closer to home, the arrests Wednesday of two eighth-grade boys from South Junior High School in Anaheim. Police allegedly found a pipe bomb, bomb-making materials, stolen guns, Nazi propaganda and 1,500 rounds of ammunition at the boys’ homes.

Police got involved after a parent and student told an assistant principal that one student at the school had weapons at home. School officials pointed to the arrests as proof that the system works when students, parents, police and schools all work together.

But several parents at the forum said they remain fearful and angry that their children attended school with bomb makers. They attended the forum hoping to hear that those students and their parents would be severely punished but came away frustrated.

Jim Mora, whose 14-year-old son attends South Junior High, said officials “sugarcoated the real issue.”

“If my son was to act in a manner such as that, then OK, fine, we ought to be held responsible for that and, depending on the circumstances, put in jail,” Mora said.

Anaheim police said they are trying to determine whether the two boys’ parents knew about the arsenal and, if so, whether they should face criminal charges.

David Viro, whose grandchildren soon will be attending school in Anaheim, said he was disappointed the forum did not dwell more on gun control.

“Why does someone under 21 need to have a gun?” he asked. “Why is that legal? If you take the guns away, then people can’t shoot them. It’s so obvious, it’s so simple.”

Anaheim Union High School District Supt. Jan Billings, Western High School Principal Doug Munsey and other officials tried to reassure the audience that a tragedy on the scale of the Littleton shooting is possible but improbable.

Western High School student body president Perry Bang, 17, told listeners that the Littleton massacre brought fears and anger into the lives of students everywhere, in particular because the shooters targeted their own school and classmates.

“Nothing will erase it,” she said.

But Bang said she believes that the alienation and anger that might have triggered the Littleton shooting is uncommon at her school. Everyone at Western is not necessarily friends with everyone else, she said, but kids “don’t look at people funny because of the way they do their hair or makeup or the clothes they wear.”

“Even the most popular football player talks to the strangest loner,” Bang said.

During the forum, community violence expert Allan Hoffman not only called for more gun control but said children should be taught a nonviolent approach to life.

The country’s juvenile population is going to soar over the next few years, he said. Although the number of violent incidents involving teens has been dropping, their level of severity will continue to increase, he predicted.

“We are about to experience the worst wave of adolescent violence America has ever seen,” Hoffman said.

While intervention programs and school safety plans are worthwhile, ultimately a cultural change is necessary, he said. Also, no school-based program is a substitute for close parental supervision, Hoffman and others agreed.

“Schools are not responsible for teaching students their basic moral values; that has to come from the families, said Sgt. Kirt Robertson of the Anaheim Police Department.