Colorado Charter School Announcements
| Subject | WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED FROM COLUMBINE? |
| Body |
WHAT IS TO BE DONE: SEARCHING FOR MEANING IN OUR TRAGEDY In the aftermath of the most terrible day in Colorado education, when the pain and grief of those who have suffered loss is beyond what words can express, all of us are asking the questions: "Why? How did this happen? What can we do to keep it from happening again?" The State Board of Education, adhering to its Constitutional responsibility, joins the Columbine community and the rest of the State in seeking the lessons that may be drawn from the awful tragedy of April 20, 1999. As we seek the why behind this infamous event, we must find answers beyond the easy and obvious. How weapons become used for outlaw purposes is assuredly a relevant issue, yet our society's real problem is how human behavior sinks to utter and depraved indifference to the sanctity of life. As our country promotes academic literacy, we must promote moral literacy as well, and it is not children, but adults in authority who are ultimately responsible for that. 0ur tragedy is but the latest - albeit the most terrifying and costly - of a steadily escalating series of schoolhouse horrors that have swept across the nation. The senseless brutality of these calamities clearly reveals that a dangerous subculture of amoral violence has taken hold among many of our youth. We cannot pretend that we have not known about this subculture or about those elements of the mass media, from films to video games, from which it derives sustenance. Further, we must honestly admit that essentially we have done nothing to prevent these cultural cancers from spreading through our schools and society. How often have adults questioning highly dubious youth speech, dress, entertainment, or behavior been decried as old-fashioned, or worse, attacked as enemies of individual expression? How often have parents or teachers reporting alarming predictors of violent behavior been told nothing can be done until someone actually commits a crime? So we do nothing, and then look upon the ruin of so many young lives while hearing those saddest of words: Too Late. As a Board we believe, with Edmund Burke, that all that is required for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. We further believe that society must act now before it is too late for more innocent children. We also recognize that failing to act shall make us all accomplices in such future tragedies as may engulf our schools. Accordingly, we make the following recommendations for renewing that unity and strength of purpose that has historically bonded our schools, our homes, and our society. I. IN OUR SCHOOLS While our schools are at once the mold and the mirror of the democratic society they serve, they are not democracies themselves. Schools are founded and controlled by adults for the benefit of children. The adults accountable for running schools must have the courage, ability, and authority to establish and maintain a safe and orderly environment maximally consonant with the purposes of schooling, i.e. the fullest possible achievement for every single child. We recognize that in every time, and every society, there is tension between liberty and license, and frankly, we believe that the pendulum has swung too far in the direction of the latter. Be that as it may, our school children should not be routinely victimized by the quarrels of the wider society. They deserve the shielding mantle of adult authority while they form and strengthen themselves for their own entry into adulthood. We also recognize the routine cruelty and torment that can occur among adolescents in an unchecked peer culture. This is all the more reason for a strong and vigilant adult authority to prevent victimization of the vulnerable. We know this won't be easy, and that it must begin with a decisive rollback of those harmful precedents that have so undermined the confident and successful exercise of legitimate adult authority upon which every good school depends. We must stop disrespecting those who urge discipline and values. We must recognize that their cry is the legitimate voice of the American people. We must listen to respected voices - liberal and conservative - like Albert Shanker and William Bennett -- when they tell us flat out that our "easy" schools will never get better or safer without a massive renewal of their values, discipline, and work ethic. Finally, we must remember, respect, and unashamedly take pride in the fact that our schools, like our country, found their origin and draw their strength from the faith-based morality that is at the heart of our national character. Today our schools have become so fearful of affirming one religion or one value over another that they have banished them all. In doing so they have abdicated their historic role in the moral formation of youth and thereby alienated themselves from our people's deep spiritual sensibilities. To leave this disconnection between society and its schools unaddressed is an open invitation to further divisiveness and decline. For the sake of our children, who are so dependent upon a consistent and unified message from the adult world, we must solve these dilemmas. Other civilized nations have resolved divisions that are far more volatile. Surely, America can do as well. II. IN OUR HOMES We routinely preach about cooperation between home and school, yet too often our actions tell a different story. Too often, we undermine rather than support the values and authority of parents. Too often, we find them handy scapegoats for our own failures. When countless surveys show our parents to be deeply concerned about the state of public education, something is seriously wrong and we ignore this at our peril. This alienation has as much to do with parental concerns about safety and values as it does with persistent learning deficiencies. If we are to ask parents to use their authority to support those educating their children, then educators must use their authority to support the work and values of parents. Some schools are already doing this, but sadly in too many instances, these historic bonds of trust and mutual support have frayed badly or broken altogether. We deeply believe that without a unified adult world, our children will continue to suffer the consequences of our doubts and divisions. III. IN OUR SOCIETY The connection between murder in our schools and elements of the mass culture is now beyond dispute. Only those who profit from this filth, and their dwindling bands of apologists deny the evidence of violence, hatred, and sadism routinely found in films, video games, and the like. We believe it is no longer acceptable for an entertainment industry that spends billions to influence the behavior of children to deny that their efforts have consequences or that they have no accountability for sowing the seeds of tragedy. If a utility poured sewage into our streets, an outraged public would not tolerate it. Should those responsible for the stream of moral sewage entering our homes and communities be any less accountable? If we deem it proper to boycott, withhold public investments, and otherwise impose an economic penalty on companies for their labor practices, environmental policies, or countries in which they operate, how could we fail to move at least as aggressively against those who create, promote, and distribute media and other products for which there is no imaginable justification. In closing we should be reminded that throughout our history our people have demonstrated a remarkable capacity for moral courage and self-renewal in times of great danger and challenge. Perhaps across the ages we can hear the timeless words of Abraham Lincoln, and, applying them to our own circumstance renew his pledge... "that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom" With history as our judge, let us go forward together with a strong and active faith. Authorized at a Special Meeting of the State Board of Education, April 21, 1999 and issued by our hand in the city of Denver, Colorado, at the regular meeting May 13, 1999. Clair Orr, Chairman, State Board of Education Pat M. Chlouber, Vice Chairman Randy DeHoff Patti Johnson Ben Alexander Gully Stanford John Burnett William J. Moloney Commissioner of Education |
