In the larger cities in this area the schools have turned into battle grounds. Was wondering how it is where you live?

The school system here has a pretty good handle on it according to my friends kids who are in high school. The smaller city north of me where I grew up not so much. There they have a zero tolerance policy on bullying but it has backfired because they don't or can't enforce it as written as they need to show a decrease for funding or some such thing. So now they're hands are tied because if they do enforce any fighting which is considered bullying the numbers go up. They have made statements saying there is no bullying there but when my relatives were there a few years ago there was fights and threats daily and the staff wouldn't take statements or call authorities. My wife went directly to school administrators and they said my neice was lying even though my wife went with pictures and videos. We ended up pulling them from school and listing our address so they could move schools in the middle of a school year.

I wouldn't send my kid to school in a big inner-city school. No problems with the small public schools in rural areas around here.

We homeschool my kids teachers are armed and will protect the students with their life. One boy triped the other and broke his arm this year. But that was horse play.

Used to get a kick out of the girlfights in highschool,lol.

The cities schools (read: Jackson) are atrocious. Just today about 20 cops swarmed one of them to break up a gang fight. No one seriously hurt but guns were pulled.

I live 10 miles from Sandy Hook. I was in that school a few years before the shooting for a ADC job. Nice area , you would never think something like that would happen there. Adam Lanza lived in an upscale community of $400k+ homes. I've done ADC work on his street , Yogalanda st. Sandy Hook school was locked ( as SOP ) when he showed up
He shot his way into the school.

Since then , the Newtown school district which includes Sandy Hook has had police in a rotational manner in all of their schools. It works. Good guys with guns prevent bad guys with guns. Israel has had armed teachers and staff for years. It works. Just like armed pilots and air marshals.

Thinking it will not happen because you live in a nice place is just wrong. We were shocked when we heard of Sandy Hook , you would think it was a safe area. Not.

It can happen anywhere.

Violence in schools as in daily, we do not have in our school. We are small rural and those around us are similar. Bullying does occur at times and we try to address it as soon as possible and with consequences. We are lucky and have great kids. Seriously, it is fun to teach our kids. I will say though we do ALICE training for active shooter, it is my greatest fear and you never know who it will be.
As I have stated many times, it is my belief that gun free zones, and anti-gun legislation, throw in the anti police movement, and other nonsense and our Government has created this mess. Schools have to operate within the law and policies, even if it is disagreed with. Few know what really goes on within the schools due to confidentiality rulings and other laws. It is incredibly frustrating.

The city governments let the hood rats run rampant...that is spreading across the nation and is a sign of the decline of the USA.

Small school here, very few problems
One reason I moved here in 1990.
The school I went to had several blacks and there were always trouble with them.

Never had school shootings when I was in high school and every boy had a gun in his pickup. Elk season opened on a Saturday and so did deer season. School was closed the next Mon Tue Wed for each of them.

Had bullys. Kids learned to stick up for theirselves. Teachers etc tended to let kids work things out "after school off school grounds". Wasn't perfect. Some kids had a rough go but most learned to fight back. Too much bullying and the bully usually had to face a different kid. Wasn't perfect (nothing is) but it worked.

What we didn't have was video games. Did not exist. Kids had to entertain theirselves. In grade school we played army, had bb gun fights when we got older, but gun violence was not celebrated like it is now. When Marshall Dillon shot a bad guy you knew it was because he needed killing. I think video games are a BIG problem. Definitely a contributing factor. Kids think having a gun makes them a tough guy. When I was a young man a gun was a tool to protect livestock, procure meat, dispatch trapped animals. Kids dont think that way anymore.

Amen, Amen!!!!.....x10

Exactly. By the time I was in hs guns at schools were outlawed. Guns and knives were always at school no one got shot at school. Fights all the time on and off campus. I was always in fights from elementary through high school. My high school days had less fights for me because by that time people knew I could fight. Video games were around then too. Gangs were always fighting, bullies always fighting, the occasional girl fight, guys fighting over girls, racial fights, fights from trash talking etc...

It's social media, internet, movies that are huge issues. Some kids have an incredibly hard time away from electronics & have severe withdrawals. Look at all of the stupid internet challenges getting kids killed, poisoned or arrested. Kids have access to wayyyy too much media. That's why I am strict on electronics and my kids have "dumb" tvs.

I think another problem is parents not teaching their kids how to solve their issues with various approaches. Sometimes a physical fight is what is needed to resolve the conflict.

Quite frankly I think some fights ( no weapons ) serve as a pressure valve. I've heard of some coaches letting kids go at it with boxing gloves and rules of combat. It works.

Good post Adam. I think video games may desensitize kids to killing in a way, but I also agree social media is the real culprit. I think a lot of kids get on social media (Whether it's Snapchat, TikTok, or through video game systems) and find their niche. The place where they're "cool". But their whole life revolves around people online they've never met, and they don't socialize in real life, becoming an outcast, or loner. They're not used to dealing with rejection, or bullying, or any sort of conflict because their entire life is a made up life on social media. They have no social skills to help them deal with the things they encounter in a real world setting such as school... and so it all builds up inside them until they snap.

That is in reference to the school shooter type.

The other issue, gang violence, is a totally different deal and it's the same as gang violence has always been. Kids with little to no parenting who substitute the gang for a family.

That's for sure.

I wonder how many more school shootings we have now than what we had say in the 1980's per capita that is. Information wasn't as readily available then and it wasn't anyone's agenda to publicize it. You can't find that info, at least if you do, it'll be skewed to one side or the other. There are a lot more kids and a lot more opportunities these days, and with the internet it's out there everywhere instantly.

It sure seemed a lot better to me back then.

No violence as of yet. But you’d think a farm town, where probably every boy and 75% of the girls at high school own their own firearms or have access to a firearm, would be the ideal spot for it.
I’m sure they play some video games, watch the TV, and even get in a fight from time to time.
What I’m fairly certain of, is they KNOW what a firearm is and what it’s capable of. Even my own kids had their OWN firearms in their OWN rooms with ammo. They KNEW what the weapon was capable of and KNEW it had a purpose. To this day, they’re in their 20’s, anytime a firearm is brought out, shot, or even uncased, they say “clear” or “safe” around me. They were taught to respect a firearm, they were taught to have respect for those around them with a firearm. We even discussed different scenarios of possible gun use for violence prior to them moving out of the house…break ins, protecting a loved one, etc…
Most kids around these parts were all taught the same thing.

My daughter in law teaches at a inner city school in a smaller upstate NY city and has about a 35 mile commute. She has been pushed and shoved by students. Also she has had many students laugh at her and ask what do I need to learn any of this stuff for anyway ?
Her salary is very good, because it’s the only way the school system can get any teachers to work there. She could get a teaching job at our local rural school 10 miles down the road from her home, but would have to take a huge pay cut.

Property value here is steady climbing because our school is desirable.