Parental involvement answer to problems
by Tiffany Davis, south news editor

    I am fed up with these bratty, no manners having “I wanna be a man” little boys running around killing folks every time something does not go well in their small little worlds.

    Then what happens? They get to spend the rest of their lives in jail. Well, that’s really not helping the family who lost their precious child, is it? Nor their own parents for whatever that’s worth.

    I know I sound angry, but I am because more children continue to lose their lives at school. It seems to me that shooting and killing to express oneself is a growing trend throughout our nation.

     As a mother, I’ll take the liberty to say that we, most moms, would like to see what becomes of our children after all the hard work, suffering, sacrifices, pain, tears and joy we put into them.

    No human being has the right to take that away.

    Is death what parents get for trying to give their children an education?

    Now I know the cost of education has gone up, but the price we pay for it could literally kill.

    I’ve heard so many times before that we are living in our last days that brothers would turn on brothers or take the other’s lovers, but never children killing one another.

    Between 1996-1999 at least 10 young men reportedly opened fire on their classmates. That rate has hit an all-time high. I can personally remember reading about 34 students being killed at schools in the last couple of years.

    My point is that preventive measures the school systems and government have set forth are obviously not working.

    The Whitney Bill was an attempt to gain a grasp on the situation.     It stated that gun owners would be held responsible for minors if they gain access to their loaded, unlocked guns. The key words here are loaded and unlocked.

    If teenagers are bold enough to get the guns and take them to school and kill people, why does it matter that the gun was loaded or in an unlocked compartment? Oh yeah, it’s the law … to keep it unloaded and locked up.

    Keep in mind that teenagers can buy magazines and guns off streets; plus, they can obtain information from the internet to make bullets and gun paraphernalia.

    I believe that the parents should be charged just as well as the teenager, regardless of the fact who, what and how he obtained access to the weapon.

    We need to know what is going on with our children. Too many times, I have seen adults ignore warning signs from children. Parents, we need to stop acting out of denial and own up to what our parental instinct reveals to us about our children. It could save lives.

    We need to know what our children are watching, reading, researching and feeling. We need to know our children’s friends and their parents.

    I know I may sound paranoid, but I can honestly say that following my instincts may have saved my son’s life.

    One day my 8-year-old son came home from school bragging about how cool his new bus-seat-partner was. I asked him if he lived in our neighborhood, and he did.

    He brought his friend home and introduced me to him. Of course, I was delighted with this being the first time he had ever picked his own friend (all of his other friends were arranged by their parents and me).

    I noticed that the little boy seemed quiet and maybe even a little shy. His parents were never home when he got off the school bus, and he didn’t seem to have any prearranged after-school care.

    He would hang around in our yard and eat afternoon snacks with my son. He grew on us, and I kind of expected to see him in the evenings.

    My parental instincts told me to be cautious though, especially after my son asked if he could have his ear pierced like his friend. The last thing I wanted was for him to go on a quest to find his identity, if he was just going to duplicate another child.

    James would ask to walk to his friend’s house to play with him, but I did not allow him to leave our front yard, mainly because this kid had been to my house several times, yet I had never met his parents.

    The friendship died down over the summer, so my son was anxious to see his new friend on the first day of school.

    James came home traumatized that day. He had learned that his friend had died of a gunshot wound during a struggle with his brother over their mother’s gun.

    It makes me wonder what would have happened if I had been careless enough to allow James to play in that unsupervised home. What were the possibilities if I had cared more about that other child and his family?

    When children are having problems, they’re not just their family’s problems. If we don’t reach out and help one another, they can become our problems too. By reaching out to lend a hand to other families, we can look out for their children. When we see signs of danger, we need to report them. Some parents might hate us for it, and some might love us for it.

    I think saving a child’s life is worth the risk of scorn.