School Violence 3 Essay, Research Paper

This paper is directed at school officials in Ohio. This is to address the problems of violence and misunderstandings in high school. Counselors are not as affective as they could be and this paper addresses ways that they could be seen in a better light. The solutions are cost free. The only thing is that it takes time and effort from teachers and counselors. The school board has seen other proposals on how to fix this and nothing has been done. The other solutions required adding more counselors and the budget is a big issue. I will try and show how effort is the only that is needed to make my plan work.

There’s a kid in school somewhere that’s mad. His mother or girlfriend didn’t listen to him when he had something to say. At school his grades are dropping and no one is asking why. One day that kid gets a dirty look from someone or hears someone talk bad about him behind his back. That is the last thing that he can take. With no outlet for his anger and his frustration for not being heard, he brings a weapon to school. At the first sign of a smirk or laugh that might be aimed at him, he aims and fires. How many will he hurt before killing himself or getting arrested and spending the rest of his life in jail? Wasn’t there something that someone could have done? Many think that a bad kid will do wrong no matter what is done to prevent it. Try telling that to the victim’s families.

This is the plague that is hitting the nation’s school system. This plague contains violence and hatred. The problem is not with the students; the students can see when something will go wrong. It is that no one is listening to them. I attended Ohio East High School. At the beginning of the 1998-1999 school year there was a murder that happened at a local park. The public seemed shocked to find out that former and current students of Ohio East were involved with the murder. When the topic came up in the classrooms no one seemed shocked at the names that were mentioned. We knew that there was something wrong with those students. This sense that almost everyone had was not because those involved with the murder were different or stood out. There was something wrong with them that made people afraid of them with no good reason. Counselors were there for grief counseling afterwards; if they had made their services attainable before the murder, it might not have happened.

The counselors at OhioEast are professional and probably do a good job at what they do. The problem is that the only time I and the majority of other students saw them was when schedules for the coming year needed to be made. Students and teachers are not fully aware of what the counselors can do. Counselors need to be seen in more ways then with the schedules. The line of communication that is so desperately needed to avoid disasters like Columbine, are not open. Students are aware of what is going on around them and can see when something is about to blow-up.

Students need a direct line to the counselors. This line should be common and familiar so the students don’t hesitate when there is a problem. Students talk freely with their friends about problems that they face every day. What do students do when there is something that they are facing that neither parent nor friend can fix? Katie Bend, a mother of three says, “My kids have asked me questions that I couldn’t answer and problems that I couldn’t solve. When they complain about school my only reference is when I was in school. That was years ago and things are so different now. When I can’t help them they get angry and storm away, making both of us feel worse.” This is when communication stops. There is no one to listen to so why bother to talk? Counselors are the non-partial third parties that can listen and help the student achieve the solution to the problem themselves. Bend states, “They [counselors] would know more about the problems in school then the parents and would be able to help them [students] better at solving the problems. I know counselors are there to help, but I don’t think the students know that.” This builds confidence in the student, strengthens the counselor-student bond, while avoiding potentially dangerous situations.

Teachers have many things to deal with and being a counselor to the students is an unnecessary extra. Teachers are seen as counselors since they deal with students on a daily basis and a certain bond or trust is built. Lisa Green, an English teacher at Ohio East, comments, “To be able to do my job I have to make sure that the students minds are on the subject being taught. Sometimes to do that I have to talk to students about their problems during class time and that takes time away from the other students. I also have students that tell me their problems before they have told anyone else. Since I’m an active part in their lives for almost a year, a trust builds and they feel that they can tell me anything and they usually do.” That bond needs to be made more with counselors then with teachers. Teachers have more things to deal with like education, the administration, and their class overall. They may not be able to deal with an overwhelming problem of just one student. “Every once in a while a student tells me about failed suicide attempts, pregnacies, things that I don’t know how to handle. They want me to be secret about what they have told me, but I have to tell someone that can help them,” claims Green. The teacher in turn feels that they did not do all that they could and the student may have more problems then they started with. A teachers lack of concern due to lack of time may hurt that student with sharing the problem in the future with other people. In the end both student and teacher are worse for ware, a stronger partnership between teachers and counselors would help alleviate stress for students and teachers.

The direct line to students that counselors need, can be accomplished many ways. Counselors could randomly pick students out of classes and ask them a few questions a week. At first, this would do little good but it would help build trust and in the future the students would be more open with the counselors. Students would start to see that counselors could help them in more ways then they thought.

Teachers could always use counselors as extra help when doing a large project with all of their classes. The counselors could even substatute for a teacher. This would help expose the counselor to the students own a more direct level. Teachers would also get to see all the capabilities that teachers have to offer and they would get a needed break. While the counselor is teaching the teacher could try and counsel a few students. This would help the teacher see what problems students in the school are facing, warning signs that there is something wrong, and a understanding of what counselors do all day. This would help strengthen the connection between teachers and counselors and also help the students.

Some people think that the way the counseling services are at Ohio schools are just fine. That teachers have enough to worry about so why should they add counselor to the list? Students might shy away from counselors even more if they see them constantly. All of these things are fine and might be true in some way. The thing that can not be forgotten is that there are services that are unknown to students at school and the school system should do its best to make students aware of these services. No one knows when the next big school tragedy will happen or where; it is a good idea to try and prevent it at Ohio.

There are many thing that happen to students everyday and everyone and then they need someone to talk to. The counseling services in the Ohio school system right now, is not doing that. Students need to be aware of the services open to them. Letting counselors have a more attractive role in the school will help build trust with the students and ease some if the strain that teachers have.