I am afraid all the awareness in the world will not be enough to protect America’s school children. This new shooting is bound to veer towards insane suggestions like arming teachers, when much more is required:
Police responded to a shooting at Price Middle School in Atlanta early Thursday afternoon, WSBTV reports.
Authorities say that multiple people, including a 14-year-old, were wounded, according to Fox News.
Police said the teen was shot in the back of the neck and immediately transported to Grady Memorial Hospital for treatment, 11Alive reports. The victim was reportedly awake and responsive while being transported to the hospital.
The second victim — a teacher — received medical attention for minor cuts and bruises. The teacher may have been trampled during the chaotic scene, WXIA reports.
One person is in custody, according to CBS Atlanta. Atlanta Police spokesperson Carlos Campos told WXIA that the suspect was tentatively identified as a student. The shooting reportedly occurred outside the building.
The school was placed on lockdown, along with an elementary school and high school in the area. Parents were initially asked not to come to the school to avoid additional confusion, but students are expected to be released at the normal dismissal time of 3:45 p.m.
Click on the link to read Do You Really Want to Arm Me?
Click on the link to read Living With Adam Lanza
Click on the link to read School Shooting Showcases the Heroic Nature of Brilliant Teachers
Click on the link to read Let’s Make Sure that this School Shooting is the Last
Click on the link to read Get Rid of Your Guns!
Click on the link to read Explaining the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting to Children
Tags: 14-year-old Price Middle school, Atlanta Middle School Shooting, Carlos Campos, Education, Middle School Shooting, Name of Price Middle School gunman, Name of school gunman, Name of school shooter, Price Middle School Shooting, School Shootings, Shooting At Price Middle School
Topical Teaching 
February 1, 2013 at 9:35 am |
School shootings are symptoms of a system in the depths of dysfunction. Behaviour and attendance problems are also symptoms that all is not well. Symptoms need to be addressed. Symptoms are not the disease but are indicators of a disease. A headache might be a symptom of blood pressure, it might be the symptom of over indulgence, it might be a symptom of poisoning, it might be a symptom of brain tumour or any one of a number of underlying causes. The headache is the messenger that all is not well. If the patient is given an aspirin and a glass of water the pain might go away momentarily, but if the patient has a brain tumour he will eventually die unless appropriate treatment is not given.
What we see associated with schools are symptoms; symptoms we wish would go away. These symptoms will not go away until the underlying causes are identified and remedied. At a staff meeting we listened to our principal outlining a scheme to reduce the incidence of absenteeism amongst our students, which was running at about 40-50% of students being absent on any given day. When I asked him whether he had any data to explain the high incidence of absenteeism he admitted he had none but expressed his confidence that the scheme he was presenting would fix the problem. What he was doing was addressing the symptoms without even looking for the underlying causes. Aspirin will relieve your headache but you can still die from a brain tumour if you don’t know it’s there.
As a behaviour teacher I discovered that most of the behaviour issues I had to deal with were the result of systemic causes outside of the influence of the individual students, and for that matter, teachers. Nevertheless I was supposed to concentrate my efforts, not on the system but on the individual students and their maladaptive behaviour. Management could not see the point in my teaching a child with bad behaviour to read. “Fix his behaviour, then we can teach him how to read!” For that student the behaviour was not the issue, it was a by product.
There are some deep seated problems in our school systems that are not being addressed. They are too persistent to be due to random causes. They are built into the system and need to be honestly evaluated and identified before any worthwhile change can occur. I believe the people at the top lack the will to do anything. The system works fine for them. Reforms do not come from the top. In a game of poker the player holding 4 aces does not ask for a new deal. Believe me in the matter of education a new deal is what is needed, or in philosophical terms: we need a new paradigm.