Columbine- Should They Restrict Cliques? Essay, Research Paper

Throughout the country, in each and every school there are cliques the development of cliques is inevitable. While some cliques deliberately exclude people, most cliques include a group of friends who are very close. As a result the people who are left out of a clique feel lonely and angry. Many outsiders are taunting them every day, which only makes them angrier. Eventually these people snap and take their anger out innocent people. The Columbine shooting proves that. To prevent this the high schools need to establish rules, though not to the extreme.

The two killers of Columbine High School were excluding from almost all groups. Anger built up in them and they took action. As a result, almost all high schools decided to enforce the ?zero tolerance for crime?. For example, one high school expelled a boy because he wrote a story about a boy who went on a rampage in literature class. This course of action was too extreme. The high school should have take in consideration whether the boy was a problem student before expelling him.

There is really no way you can prevent cliques, just like there is no way you can force a child to be friends with another child. However, there are ways to diminish their destructiveness. Schools should require that everyone has to be included in a school extra curricular activity like sports, drama or newspaper. A school can develop new

extra curricular activities pertaining to what the students want. Teachers should also give group assignments or projects and pre-arrange the partners for everyone. These are just some ways to get the kids on the fringe feel a part of a group.

One other problem even bigger than cliques is the students part of the ?in? cliques taunt or make fun of the other students who are not in their group. The school should have a rule that if a person picks on another person, they should either be suspended off a team or suspended from school or community service. The school should also hold assemblies and workshops focused on sensitivity to others.

In conclusion, the Columbine shooting was a tragedy. However that does not justify a school going to the extreme and expelling someone for writing a story. Schools should focus on getting the students to be more sensitive to each other then just focusing on the scholastic part.