June 5, 2018-- Yesterday, today and tomorrow on the Today Show with Savannah Guthrie, the armed resource officer at the high school in Parkland, Florida is telling his side of the story. He did say he actually was the one who issued the notice to Cruz (not Tom) about the book bag. Do you remember one of the early reports in which a teacher talked about an email they had received about Cruz and his book bag in another school year? He knew about Cruz and so did so many others as had been admitted. But because of lawsuits, teachers "dummy up".
In 1998, The Current told me I was yesterday's news--- then they got to know me. The newspapers published me because I knew then, and I know now, of which I write and pray. Read through this editorial about statutes and the state law in NJ since 1982. When did I write this editorial? The date is at the bottom.
So when the Parkland, Florida students come your way-- send them home. They need to take care of their own community... and we need to take care of ours. I still advocate in Pittsburgh- on the street - connecting dots to violence prevention from conception. This article below is not about abortion in case one won't read because abortion is acceptable to your way of thinking.
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
Yesterday, I read in the paper of an alleged charge against
a champion wrestler from a local high school against a fellow teammate. Today I read that Savannah, Georgia is mourning
the shooting death of a high school student by another high school
student. Will it be your school tomorrow?
As a former public-school teacher and parent, I have studied
the issue of school violence very intensely during the last two years. Some statistics indicate that the level of
violence at schools is dropping. If it
is decreasing then the job assigned to us to be decent human beings is getting
accomplished. However, the drop in
statistics could be that our idea of violence is so skewed that behavior that was
once thought to be inappropriate, is now acceptable. As a result, we are seeing extreme level of
violence playing out in our schools on a regular basis.
Since 1982, the permanent statutes of New Jersey have
included a law, which mandates reporting of violent acts in schools. It also mandates the protection of school
district employees who report acts of violence.
In response to the most recent, publicized acts of school violence, the
New Jersey State Senate has introduced several resolutions that we as a public
need to know about- and urge our representatives to endorse. The following are summaries of those
resolutions:
State Senate Resolution
No. 48- urges Department of Education (DOE) to revise procedures used to
monitor violent crimes and incidents in schools.
State Senate Resolution
No. 391- designates a week in
October as “School Violence Awareness Week”
(Through the National School Safety Center, a week of such
awareness is recognized already in other states.)
State Senate
Resolution No. 816- supplement to chapter 35 of Title 18A makes an appropriation
to the Violence Institute of New Jersey to offer violence prevention in the
schools. This bill requires each board
of education to offer instruction in the prevention of violence.
State Senate
Resolution No. 942- appropriates funds for establishing a county- based
safe schools and communities’ violence and response plan. Under the plan, each county Superintendent
would employ a violence prevention specialist.
State Senate
Resolution No. 1003- establishes subcommittees of local emergency councils
to develop response action plans.
In addition, the legislation which is designed to open up
public records, should help in the reporting of violent incidences in our
schools.
As we already know, we can not legislate morality. That is a personal decision. However, we must do whatever we can to stem
the tide of violence, which is destroying our public schools- one school right
after the other. Our public-school
employees are legally bound to report acts of violence. These resolutions should strengthen the law
and open the lines of communication. It
is also our responsibility as parents and community members to do whatever we
can to protect the integrity of our educational system and the lives of the people
in and around our schools.
Marian R. Carlino
March 12, 2000
