School violence blamed on poverty, gangs

School violence blamed on poverty, gangs
from The Globe and Mail
Mayor's message overshadowed by stabbing at a suburban Brampton high school yesterday
TIMOTHY APPLEBY AND JOHN LORINC



This article talks about a stabbing that occurred in a middle class school in Canada. A 16 year old
boy was stabbed by a 17 year old student. The publicity this is getting worried the mayor because of how scared the parents and students would now be. He also goes to explain that the most violent areas that
really need work are the impoverished communities.

Many parents and onlookers were stating that they think it doesn’t matter where you are, violence occurs everywhere. Although this is true, the Mayor and Mr. Falconer voice their concern of the lack of effort being put into the safety measures for the 13 priority neighborhoods. The article also talks about a shooting of a 15 year old boy that led to a 1,000 page report which showed the severity of violence in the city schools. According to these results many precautions were to be put in place such as sniffer dogs, close surveillance of entrances, a profile based on safety, etc. These precautions were never put in place which makes it seem as though school violence hasn’t been a priority in these neighborhoods. This is a legitimate concern to the citizens because they feel threatened and unsafe when sending their children to school. With this insecurity comes many problems for the government, as well as the students who don’t feel comfortable attending school every day. This also worries the mayor because a lot of pressure is being put on the government to create a change, but his changes were never put in place. It could be that although he feels it necessary to make these changes in the more impoverished and violent schools, he has not taken the necessary steps to make these changes. It is obvious that these schools have not been getting the attention they need which has resulted in the escalation of school violence in these impoverished schools. I think the mayor is trying to convey that although violence does happen everywhere, it needs to be taken care of in the more prominent areas first. Although it is wrong to discriminate when looking at which area needs help, it is clear from this
article which areas have the larger issues.

This article really shows how poverty and oppression can affect school violence. This article shows that impoverished communities are high risk for violence and that these schools need to take extreme precautions to protect their students. The events that are occurring at these schools are making parents afraid to send their kids to public and city schools. The media is really emphasizing each event that occurs which isn’t making things easier. However, now that it is starting to be recognized as a problem, something needs to be done to not only help these children keep violence out of school, but how to deal with what is making them act with violence and how to deal with it when violence does occur. And although impoverished communities are statistically the higher priority, other schools need to be assisted when it comes to violence as well.