The Violence of America’s Youth: Assault On and Off the Playground

Watching the news no doubt would make anyone unsettled about even sending their little one to school. The news is overrun with stories about young children attacking each other, or most often, ganging up attacking one or two other children. What is going on in the world today that even Elementary aged kids are sending each other to the hospital with permanent injuries? There is something happening or not happening in our midst as parents that we are failing to detect in children. It’s not isolated, nor is it rare to hear about attacks, school shootings, or bullying to the extreme anymore. It seems that not only are celebrity behaviors rubbing off on our kids, so are our own terrible and violent ways. Not only do we as parents have to worry about them being promiscuous at a young age, we now have to walk on egg shells because they are abusive.

According to 2007 statistics obtained by Ezine Articles, out of every 10 school drop outs one does so due to being bullied by others and over 282,000 school aged children are physically attacked every month. These are just the assaults that go on record, so one can imagine how many happen that go unreported out of fear. Lest not forget that many of the school shooting aggressors were said to have been the victims of bullying. As I have seen and experienced myself in younger days, teachers often ignore the victims and do nothing to help. Many times, both parties are punished leaving the bullied child feeling helpless. Schools with zero tolerance policies for bullying, tolerance classes, and rules of respect are having results. How much more of this has to happen before all schools put these practices in place? There has really been no definite answer as of yet, and many parents are convinced that law-makers must step in.

There is an epidemic of assaults and violence among the youngest of children. For example, a 10 year old Pennsylvania girl had to be hospitalized in early April, 2008 after two 10 and 11 year old girls pulled her from where she was playing and stomped her on the head and legs. This attack apparently took place because the girl simply asked the two who assaulted her not to splash her younger sister with water, whom she had taken to the playground with her. The youngster ended up with a broken hip and will require future surgeries due to the attack which doctors say will have even more effects on her in the future. You may have also heard about nine third graders who were suspended in Waycross, Georgia for planning to bludgeon and stab their teacher in March 2008. The weapons confiscated from the youngsters included gloves, a paper weight, tape, and a broken steak knife among other things. The police said that no criminal charges had been filed in the case, although it was still under investigation.