Taking Lessons from GunShooting Incidents in Schools of the USA Protect Our Children at Their Schools [Archives:1999/22/Focus]

We all know what happened in Columbine High school in Colorado State in America, when two armed teenager students opened fire against their teachers and colleagues, killing twelve of their peers and one of their senior teachers. Many other students and teachers were seriously injured as well. The killers had already planned to fire at everybody in the school and to explode the whole building, but the police managed to find the bombs before they went out. It was a real tragedy for everybody that heard about it, since the victims were innocent people. 
The criminals had a peculiar change in their behavior starting two years before this massacre. The students of that school said that they used to be very fond of guns, watching violent video and computer games, gory movies and listening to doom-and-gloom music. They also used to cause a lot of tension in their schools, however, their teachers and parents did not take that abnormal behavior seriously until the tragic disaster really took place. They were laughing while they were shooting the people, to make it sound like they were in a movie. 
You may say what happened was in America, and it has no relation to our situation in Yemen. I will say you’re right, but why don’t we learn a lesson from that and protect our children. Hopefully, we will never ever have such horrible event in our country. Parents, educators, police and decision-makers should carry the responsibility to make our schools the safest places in Yemen. I am really so enthusiastic concerning the safety of our schools since I had had terrifying experiences when I used to work in a public high school, in Taiz city, before going to America. Let me have your eyes and ears for a while please. 
One day, while standing in queues during the assembly, a group of muscular teenagers sneaked into the yard of the school, looking for their target, who was a student in grade ten. They were pummeling him with daggers and stones at once. The students were so scared and terrified. The teachers ran fast to rescue the attacked prey. All the attackers ran out of the school except one , who wanted to smash his target completely. The teachers arrested that guy, putting him in the secretary office of the school, while the injured student was taken immediately to the hospital. The principal called the police, but before the police came, the other attackers had come back with their klashnikovs to free their buddy. The armed teens stormed again into the school yard, to the secretary’s room. The guard and everybody who was there surrendered raising their hand up. The attackers took their friend but before they had left, they fired several bullets in the air to scare the teaching staff and the students who were there, as well as display their power. Actually, what happened was so ridiculous. 
Similar events used to happen from time to time. Many parents used to go into the school carrying their guns. It happened once that a father of the students pointed his pistol at one of the students to take revenge for his son because that boy beat him. Such stories happen here and there everyday in the Yemeni schools because of students and their parents and teachers carrying arms into the schools. 
I believe that protection is better than condemning the accident after it takes place, therefore, I have a bunch of suggestions that may help in protecting our children especially those who are in the schools: 
– Teenagers should not be allowed to carry any kind of arms either in or outside the schools and there should be sever punishments for any violators. 
– Any visitor who is carrying any kind of arms should not be allowed to enter into any educational institution even if he is a well-known celebrity. 
– The educated people should represent a good example in the society in this respect. 
– The schools should start special programs aimed at convincing the students that carrying arms is a bad behavior, and the media have to play a role too. 
– Children and teenagers should not have any access to violent video and computer games. 
– Parents should get their kids busy with useful activities rather than spending a long time watching the violence of attacks and death in the movies, which allow bad attitudes to grow in them. Parents should be in contact with the schools to follow their children’s behavior and help in correcting the negative aspects of it. 
– The fathers should bring their children with them to the mosques and they also should be aware of their children’s friends in the school and outside the schools. We all love our children and we would like to see them safe and sound. 
Ahmed Modhesh Thabet 

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