Remembering Dunblane and Erfurt and Columbine
Today marks the 10th anniversary of the incident at Dunblane, Scotland, where a lone gunman entered the local school and killed 16 students and one teacher before killing himself. The BBC has a detailed account of the events if you don’t know how it all happened.
Next month also marks the anniversaries of similar incidents in Erfurt, Germany (an equally violent and deadly incident where 16 people died—13 teachers, 2 students, 1 police officer), as well as the highly publicized incident at Columbine Highschool, in Littleton, Colorado.
The BBC has a chronology of school-related violence and school shootings of recent years.
What caused these shocking events? Experts attributed them to various social, educational, psychological factors. But how do you deal with the pain, the sorrow, the anger? How do you try not to let it happen again? How do we make schools safe havens for students to learn and to grow?
I believe that the answer lies in two places at the same time: the school and the family. By bringing these two close together, there may be a chance at preventing such violent incidents from happening again. Parents and teachers and students working in the school community, building and maintaining a community of learning and growth and health (both physical and mental). This was the focus of this Socrates-Comenius 2.1 action on dealing and preventing school violence. More information can be found here and I hope you will find it helpful.
IKD
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