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IS AMERICAN EDUCATION SAFE? By Adam Weissman The color red plagues this country and education is no longer safe. With an almost weekly shooting occurring in schools in the U.S., educators are challenged to prevent any future shootings. The most recent shootings involved a six-year-old girl who was shot by one of her classmates over an argument. The other was a threat by a boy who brought a gun to school in an attempt to visit his incarcerated mother. The boy was eventually talked into handing over the gun to his teacher. According to former Poughkeepsie police officer and Marist College professor, John "Doc" Doherty, the technology exists to prevent non-owners from using other peoples guns. "The technology is out there to lessen this from occurring. Smart guns only allow the owner of the gun to shoot it," said Doherty. Doherty also said that by using common sense, many of these shootings can be prevented by taking the proper precautions so that children can not gain access to guns. "Common sense on this issue tells us that you don't leave a loaded gun out where six year olds can have access to it. Putting a rag over a gun doesn't make it safe," said Doherty. Wayne Gersen, superintendent of the Wappingers Falls school district, said that he believes these shootings are distressing and this issue concerns parents and teachers. "It is distressing to see gun violence in schools, especially at the elementary level which is particularly distressing," said Gersen. "Given the nature of the shootings, I don't want to say that it absolutely won't happen here. This kind of thing could happen anywhere and is a particular concern to school leaders and parents." Many schools have countermeasures to prevent this kind of thing from happening. Until metal detectors are installed in all schools, the possibility still exists anywhere in the country. In the Wappingers Falls school system, there are many precautions in place, short of metal detectors. There are monitors at the high school level and at John Jay High School in the Wappingers Falls District, there is even a partnership with the police department explained Gersen. "At the high school level, we have hall monitors and uniformed rent-a-cops," said Gersen. "We have parking monitors who check cars as they enter school grounds. At John Jay high school, there is a police officer in the school from the D.A.R.E. program." Officer Justin Chase of the New York Police Department, (NYPD), not representing that of the department, said that parents need to do more to secure their guns. He also said their needs to be more gun safety aimed towards children whose parents' own guns. "Parents need to secure their weapons better and families with guns need to provide better education to their children about gun safety," said Chase. Chase says that kids don't fight fair anymore, but rather carry around guns as a means to display status and power as well as a means to solve problems. "Young perps (perpetrators) see as having a gun as tough, without having to prove anything," said Chase. "In their minds, displaying and using guns is an easy way to solve problems. No one meets at 3:15 outside the school grounds for a fair fist fight anymore." Doherty, the former Poughkeepsie police officer and professor of criminal justice at Marist College said there are reasons these kind of events occur. Doherty said that children of a young age do not have the mental capacity to understand the difference between right and wrong. He said he feels that the media plays a role in the amount of violence a child sees which can have a negative effect on their perceptions of right and wrong. "Children of this age haven't formed capability of deciding what is right and wrong," said Doherty. "Certainly the media has a duty to report the facts but kids see more violence before they get to school than an older generation sees in their entire lifetime." Doherty also said he believes that video games and movies contribute to the violence in schools and on the streets. "Video games and movies are much worse," said Doherty. When Sly Stallone shoots someone on TV, the next week he can be on Rosy O'Donnell and is rewarded for portraying that character. There are no punishments in movies for shooting people and the more people a child shoots in a video game, the higher the score they recieve."