High School Assembly; School Violence

You You Left Right

What are the what are the real causes of school violence can individual students do anything to prevent school violence? Are clicks a problem within schools today? How important are school resource officers in the school setting? We'll examine the answers to these questions next on high school assembly. Closed captioning of this program on UNCTV is made possible in part by a grant from the FM Kirby Foundation. This program was made possible by contributions to UNCTV from viewers like you. Thank you. Hello everyone and welcome to

today's high school assembly. I'm Shannon Vickery. Our show is a bit different today. We have just aired the program the students versus school violence that was filmed right here in North Carolina. Now we want to offer you the chance to join the high school students in our audience today as we discuss how North Carolina students respond to school violence. And you can join us by phoning our toll free number at 1 -800 -555 -3120 or you can fax us at 919 -549 -7070. And joining us in the audience today we are delighted to have students from the safe chapters here in North Carolina that students against violence everywhere, those chapters. They are from the following schools. Wakefield High School and Wake County, Broughton High School and Wake County, Eastern Alamance High School and Alamance County, D .H. Conley High School and Pitt County, Northern Durham High School and Durham County, South East Raleigh High School and Wake County, Fuqua Marina High School and Wake

County, James Behunt High School and Wilson County and West Charlotte High School from Mecklenburg County. Thanks to all of you for joining us this afternoon. Well this is an interactive program and we want to hear from you and hear what you think on this subject of school violence. Our operators are waiting to patch in your questions to us and also your comments to us here in the studio for our panel to answer. And all you have to do to call in those questions again is to give us a call at 1 -800 -555 -3120 or again you can fax those questions to 919 -549 -7070. Our panel today consists of leaders in North Carolina's fight against school violence and we'd like to welcome them as well. Starting with Joanne McDaniel who is the associate director of the Center for the Prevention of School Violence. Lieutenant William Capers is the SRO Supervisor for the Forsyth County Sheriff's Department. Brandon Boxler is a senior at Northern Durham High School

and Linda Mayhan is a counselor for Broughton High School here in Wake County. Thank you all for joining us and I'd like to begin because we have just watched the video of the students versus school violence. And Joanne I'd like to start with you if you could tell us a little bit about how this film was made and the messages that you're hoping students in North Carolina will gain from watching the video. Governor Hunt had a task force last summer on youth violence and school safety and one of the primary messages of that task force was to get students involved on this issue particularly in prevention efforts. And so when the task force came to a close and the governor reacted to the report David Creech who is a local producer in North Carolina and the Center for the Prevention of School Violence got together and talked about how we could get this message of student involvement on this issue out to the schools and the communities in the state. And the result is the video that was just aired on public television across the state. Well Brandon I want to get some of the students perspective here starting with Brandon and Brandon as you watch this video as a high school student

what are some of the messages and images that really are communicated to you through the film. The main thing that I got out of watching it was that there's two sides to every corner for every argument or every finger that can be pointed as a problem for school violence. There's a kind of argument saying that well it's not just that problem and the message that I got from it was that it's not just a single thing it's not just a single problem. There's lots of different problems that come together and combine to create the problem of school violence that we fight today. And Brandon I have to agree with you I saw this show for the first time this weekend and it really is very thought provoking on the issue of school violence. I'm wondering with our studio audience today some of you folks what did you think about the video now that you've watched it at least once some of you have watched it a couple of times. Who's got a comment for us on what they thought about this video. How about you sir over here. We're going to get a microphone to you here. Yes. Thank you. Hi I'm Nick Karner from Broughton High School. I thought it was an excellent

video it really it opened up my eyes and I think mostly everyone else's eyes to the to the reality of school violence and what people feel the way people treat each other whether or not they're either popular or maybe even less popular than others. And it really made me understand that if I ever say something wrong or something mean to someone else then I should realize what I said is wrong and I should apologize to them and just be friends and everyone should get along just so nothing like Columbine or all the other tragedies in the world can happen. We don't want that to happen. And that's why David Creech is such a genius in making this video. So he's over here and turning right. And David it is a very fine video so thanks so much for producing that and sharing it with us. I have a question follow up question for you. Do students in high schools and your high school in particular talk about school violence. Do you talk about these issues that are raised in the video? Well we try to

over our over our school announcements called WCAP their televised and sort of just exactly the way it is here. Sometimes we try and give out messages of people who have exemplified or gone above and beyond prevention of school violence and violence in general. And we enjoy seminars. We get together monthly in the SAVE chapter our students get violence everywhere. And we just talk about each other's feelings and what we want to do to try and prevent future school violence happenings. Is it tough to get that conversation started to get students thinking about what can we do on our part to prevent school violence? It is difficult to open up students to what they really feel because a lot of people sort of pull punches you know and don't really want to say what's really on their mind just in case someone would look at them. That's a little bit strange or think bad thoughts about them. But if you introduce a topic people will open up and they'll just understand that no answer or question is wrong and what everybody says is relevant. Great. Well thank you for your comments. Good points. We have our first

caller of this afternoon from Cumberland County. Cumber are you there with us this afternoon and what is your question or comment for our panel of guests today? Yes I am here with you. Yes. My name is Brad Hinton and like you said I am in Cumberland County. First I want to congratulate all of you for taking the necessary steps to bring this situation to light. And just for the fact that you realize that there's such a big problem and attempting to take care of it greatly states that I'm at a loss for words. We certainly appreciate your comments. It basically states that you're willing to take the necessary steps. And what I wanted to say was basically an echo of what Brandon said if we can get along with each other then the students themselves can control the violence. So the parents and teachers can always take the necessary steps to keep violence out of the schools, the

mental detectors and things like that having more security. But it's ultimately the students that can guard each other's lives. If they take the time to just go ahead and talk to each other to realize that they've said bad things, to try to eliminate clicks, then I think that it might help the schools cut the violence down. You mentioned a good point there and I'm wondering Brad are you seeing this conversation going on in the schools in Cumberland County? Are students taking to heart some of these messages and talking amongst themselves about school violence? Actually this is the first time I've actually seen something like this going on actually happening. You know the students are stepping out and taking a stand and saying we

do not like this violence and we're willing to take the necessary steps to keep it from happening. Great, well Brad thank you so much for your call and your comments this afternoon. Thank you. Linda as a school counselor, how tough is it to get students to talk about school violence and to share their feelings? It is very difficult at some levels. A lot of students will begin the participation but we were lucky at Broughton High School to be able to view this last spring as the initial opening. The students were led in small groups and at first we were a little nervous how long it would go but it's gone very well and students did open up and it led to other things happening. Our SAVE group, our student to participate in character conferences and other programs that are developing throughout the state. But students are reticent about admitting that there are problems sometimes and if everybody's in their little group but I think our groups

are more mixed now because of the open dialogue and it is important to get students to do that. We have another caller on the line I believe from Johnston County this afternoon. Caller what is your question or comment for our panelists today? Yes this is Jody Parrish. I was just asking after the Columbine shooting I had some friends that were at school with me that had been wearing trench coats for a very long time prior to the shooting and it was not anything disrespectful to the victims in the Columbine shooting but they were subsequently suspended the next day when they showed up in their trench coats. I was just wondering if anybody on the panel felt that it was right for them to be suspended for stuff and that they had been doing since middle school. Jody thank you for that call and Joanne you are shaking your head here as well. We hear some times of overreactions to these instances that take place and what's important in one of the messages of the video is important to hear and that is that warning

signs whether it's clothing kids wear or behaviors they do or attitudes they have really come in patterns over a series of times. And so when one instance happens the adults in that picture the administration or the teachers or the parents involved with those children that really need to know the students and need to respond in appropriate ways. And that means if a child is wearing a trench coat or wearing black they need to look beneath the clothing to determine what's within that child and determine why that child is doing that. And typically what we've seen is that there are multiple warning signs that come into play and that's one of the messages of the video. You're not going to look at a trench coat and determine that that's a predictor of any kind of school violence situation but rather it may be a red flag that some attention needs to be paid. Brandon you're shaking your head rather vigorously over here. Have you had this experience in your own school or seen people who were judged simply by what they were wearing? Absolutely and I think it happens at every school and there's really the only way to eliminate is

education and by saying that you can't judge people just by what they wear or just by the people that hang out with or who they sit with at lunch. And that's a part of the whole click thing that we've been talking about is just because you get judged by who you hang around with and it really shouldn't be how it is in high school and middle schools. You can be an individual and just be around your group of friends and if your group of friends are doing something then you automatically get tied into what they're doing. And you really have to select who your friends are and the image that you portray of yourself but absolutely not in high school and especially middle schools and other places you should not be judged by or covered what happens every day. Yes Linda. One other little thing I think Colin Bond brought everything home to each individual. It could happen here in North Carolina. It could happen at our individual schools. Before that it was a horrible thing but it was somewhere else. For some reason that brought the big picture and I think that's why a lot of people reacted so quickly and we had parents calling about different dress or different things that had happened that nobody had ever bothered before but it brought a sense of panic and a sense that it could happen here.

Lieutenant Capers you have been very patient but I can tell you are ready to jump into this conversation from your perspective. What are you seeing in the schools of North Carolina from a law enforcement perspective? Well from a law enforcement standpoint and everybody has made some very good points here. Colin Bond did trigger a lot of things to occur out through the United States. But from a law enforcement standpoint I see the young people are tired of the violence. As the young men said prior to this call is that the young people are starting to stand up now and say hey we don't want to send out schools. And we're getting that message out through the S .O .s that are in the schools working with the center for the prevention of school violence and the officers actually getting out to know the kids and working with the administration. The caller now says should the kids been suspended they had the trench coat so if you get to know individuals you can prevent that, know a student. And I know some schools

have as much as 1 ,600 to 2 ,000 kids and it makes it very difficult sometime but you know getting to know kids on a 101 based helps. Alright we have another caller on the line this afternoon from Western North Carolina. Colin what is your comment or question for our panelists? My name is Gray Schumacher and I'm a student at Appalachian State and a former student of Melbourne High School. And I grew up in Raleigh and witnessed numerous violent violence including shootings right next to the school. I just see it I've seen an increasing level of violence and this Columbine shooting has really brought it out to the media. But I think it should have been done much earlier and we should have really called this it was about maybe eight or nine years ago. And up here in Boone it's really people who were violent are looked down upon. And I think that we need to really start earlier with the kids and

teaching the violence is just wrong and it doesn't have a place in our world. Great thank you so much that was an important comment. I have a question for our students here we've been talking a little bit about stereotypes and how in high schools there may be certain stereotypes that students get labeled onto them that are unfair. Do you all have any comments about this? Do you see this happening in your own high schools? How about you all over here in Pitt County? What you're shaking your head here? What do you see in your high school? My name is Kate Callan and I'm from Almonds County and I think the stereotypes are unfair because a lot of times people won't if they're running for a student office they won't vote for them because they have purple hair or something like that. And I don't think that's fair because how can you judge an individual when you don't even know them? I mean maybe they look different from you but that's their own they're expressing themselves that way. And I think they should be able to do that without you judging them. Do you see a lot of clicks in high schools? Yes

and that bothers me too because a lot of people feel they can't hang out with certain people because they're different from me because they play sports and I don't. And that's not fair. You should be able to have fun with everybody and hang around with all different people and not be excluded or feel on the outside. Thank you. Good comments. Good comments. We have another caller on the line this afternoon who'd like to join this conversation. Caller, what is your question or comment for today's panel? Hi, my name is Santissa. I'm from North Mecklenburg High School in Mecklenburg County. I'm a senior there. I have been there for four years now. We are the largest school in the state. When I was a freshman we had absolutely no security just two cops and like one resource officer. Now that I'm a senior we have 80 something cameras in our school and four cops and 12 resource officers. But just the first two weeks of school we've had over 20 people expelled for fights. So obviously surveillance in the school is not helping. I mean the violence is never going to stop and I agree with the lady young lady that just spoke with. If we have clicks and how are we going to get to

know each other and judge just by judging people I think makes people angry and that's why violence happen. Fantasia, let me ask you this. Why do you think that there are so many fights in your school? Is there a particular issue that seems to be stimming these fights or anything particular that's going on in your school that may be leading to some of these problems? We have a whole bunch of different clicks like the gods and I guess you could say freaks or whatever and my sister she's a freshman in this year and I guess you could consider her freaks. And she really hates the way that people judge her without getting to know her. She is a great person, great personality and I've met with some of their friends. They're the nicest people that you could ever talk to. And Fantasia, when you're saying that your sister is referred to as a freak, what does that mean to most high school students? Not high school students. She wears the really big baggy jeans and the like dull color bracelets and necklaces and dyes are here at different colors and rebellious type I guess. So Fantasia, if you could send a message out to the folks across the state about what you think students should

do to help out with school violence, what would you tell folks? I would tell them to get to know the person that you're making fun of. If you don't know them then why should you judge them? Basically, great comment. Thank you so much for calling today. Lieutenant Capers, let's talk a little bit about some of the efforts that the schools are going through to better monitor the students and as they progress through their days. And that's a good point because I've heard several comments to reference to TV cameras, metal detectors, those type of things. And they are in place. Handheld communications between administrators, teachers, the SROs are being used. But I think one of the most key and the most important part is you as a student. Y 'all are the eyes and the ears of the school. And once in seven psych county and all our schools who try to establish a serious relationship with the young people. And if young people don't come and talk to an administrator or teacher or an SRO,

basically we're in the dark. You're right. Having metal detectors or cameras doesn't work. I mean, they're there, they help. But you, the students are the key to the problem. I mean, y 'all can, y 'all can solve it. And I worked in a school for 14 years and one of the things that we did was establish relationships. And in that school, the kids talked to administrators and stuff. I've heard a number of you are saying that you can start talking to one another that would enhance things. You're correct. You know, talk to the individuals there. If you hear of a fight getting ready to break out, rather than running there to be a spectator, try to solve it ahead of time, it helps a whole lot. And how many of you do have a relationship with the school based resource officer in your school? How many of you would feel comfortable going up and talking with them? Yes. Hi, I'm Lauren Jones from Pitt County. My resource officer, Deputy Johnson, is one of the best people that I know. She has a great relationship with everybody at

the school. You can go ask anybody and they'll tell you they know her name. She knows them. I mean, she's just great. She really works hard to get to know everybody and to get involved with everybody's lives. He's one of my best friends. And Deputy Johnson, not to put you in the hot seat, but how important is it to establish that type of relationship with the students that you work with? It's very important. If you're just an SRO, just sits behind a desk and sits in their office all day, you're not going to have that relationship with your students. You have to get out of the hallways and top the students. Just even the ones that you don't know, you have to go up and just start up a conversation, ask them how their weekend was and things of that nature. Being a sponsor with the SAVE organization and SAT organization helps out a whole lot. Our school, we have about 140 chat members, so that helps out some too. Why would you also tell students who perhaps hear of something going on in their school that they're not comfortable with? But at the same time, they don't want to be that person who is regarded as the tattletail or

the snitch who goes to the school resource officer and explains the problem. What do you tell to those students? It's their school. It's like everybody on the panel once said it's the student schools. They're responsible for helping SRO's administrator knows what's going on in the schools. I had a student come to me yesterday at lunchtime that just whispered in my ears that I think someone's fixing to happen in the cafeteria gave me the description of the students where the students were and who to look out for. We were able to stop the fight. So it is very important that the students communicate one -on -one. Yes, it's very important for the students to communicate. And I would imagine that you do have some type of confidentiality rules that you're not going to announce who told you that information. No, students who come to me, they know it's confidential. What goes on in my office stays in my office unless there's something criminal that I have to report. But if it's students coming to me and

telling me something that's fixing to go down, I don't even tell administrators name who reported it to me. Things such as bomb threats, stuff like that, then I have to report to the administration, but I don't necessarily have to report the student who told it to me. Great. Thank you very much. We've got another call on the line. Caller, what is your question or comment for us this afternoon? I would like to know that if you know a student who has a weapon or has brought drugs to school, what should you do if they threaten you if you tell and they find out you told, what should you do? Good question, Lieutenant Capers. Well, if that happens, there's somebody at that school that you trust, may it be a principal, may it be an administrator, a counselor, a teacher, or even the SRO. First of all, if you threaten, you definitely need to go to your SRO and let him or her know that. But the way that it usually works, they keep your name confidential to the

point to where it's very rarely that they find out who you are. But if they happen to find out that you did tell, you need to report it to the administrator. Now, let me say this to any of the students that actually report something. Don't go out and brag about it, especially if they have sort of like a scholastic crime stoppers or something like that. Don't go out and brag about it because the only people that know is the administrator or the SRO and they're definitely not giving up your names. Basically, the ones, the situations to where they found out is because the student went out and bragged about it. Just keep it to yourself. Great. We've got another call on the line this afternoon. Caller, what's your question or comment for us? Caller, are you there? Yes, I am. What is your question for us this afternoon? Well, I think we need to look at all the issues that precipitate violence and schools and everywhere else. The racism, the sexual preference issue, verbal

abuse, violence that gets females, accidental violence caused by weapons, religious preference, and of course drugs and alcohol. My question is, what is the task force going to be doing to do prevention for middle schools and elementary schools? Because we know that if you start early, you can nip it in the butt, so to speak. Good question. And Joanne, I would imagine you all are targeting students in those age groups as well as high school students. Center for the Prevention of School Violence targets, K -12 schools in North Carolina. We've been in existence since 1993 when North Carolina had its first task force. So this is not a new issue for us. And what we've seen in our state is really a better understanding of what school violence is. It's not a Columbine shooting in and of itself. It in fact is the putdowns and the bullying and the trash talking that goes on in a third grade playground.

And so what we need to do is we need to work with youngsters and we see a lot more programs in the elementary schools, including safe chapters, students against violence, everywhere chapters for young kids. We also need to recognize going back to the people component of this. Something real simple that we work on at the center, it's called the three hours. Reach in, reach out, reach over. That we need to teach our young people to reach into themselves and figure out who they are and maybe deal with some of the issues that that caller brought up. And then reach out to others, others who may be different from you, to get over the clicks and the types of differences that may define a high school or middle school and even some elementary schools. And then reach over, reach over the conflicts, recognize that conflicts are going to happen in life, but move forward and learn how to manage those conflicts. Because you're not going to agree with everyone all the time, not everyone's going to be the same as you. So what you need to do is you need to develop the skills, those people skills that will allow you to be safe in your schools and in your communities. Brandon, we have mentioned a couple of times today, the SAVE chapters. And we've got members of different SAVE chapters here in our audience today. If you could tell us, describe what it is

that SAVE wants to do. What are some of the things that you're doing in your high school with your SAVE chapter? The cool thing about SAVE is that it's student -run, student -organized, student -initiated. Everything about the chapter is by the students. And that's what makes it so powerful is that the students are fighting against violence and that the students are organizing projects and going out and speaking to the communities and going out to the elementary schools and middle schools and teaching them conflict resolution skills and telling them what's wrong about it. So it's a peer using positive peer pressure against the peers to say that this is wrong and we need to be fighting violence instead of fighting. And SAVE does certain things such as peer mediation, the organized peer mediation programs, which is a way to resolve conflicts before they get to the violence level. As I said before, they go out and teach conflict resolution in the communities, they get seen in the communities so people know. And the important thing too, which has been touched on a lot, is that they try to build the bonds and the relationships between the

students and the students and the teachers in the schools. So often that's overlooked that the teacher is the bad guy or the administrator is the bad guy. So but if SAVE really tries to build those relationships and build those bonds between the teachers and the students, so the students feel like the teacher is in the enemy and the teacher isn't the bad guy. We can go to a teacher if we know a problem or if we're feeling down, we can go to a teacher or an administrator and turn them for help instead of turning away from them. And how does that make you feel to know that you can do that, that you can go to your administration, to your teachers if you do have a problem? Well for starters it increases the positive atmosphere and that's a very good thing in preventing violence is you're in a positive atmosphere instead of a negative atmosphere. And also it makes the school feel a lot more safe because you know that you can always turn to somebody, there's always somebody to talk to. And just overall it's going to build if the teachers are more friendly and the teachers are there for the students and the students are more open about it, then it just increases the whole atmosphere and that's the important thing in preventing violence. Well thank you. We've got another caller on the line now caller. What is your question or comment for us this afternoon? I think we just lost that caller but I'm sure we'll have one coming out

here shortly. I have a question for our audience. What are some of the things that you're doing in your high schools to address school violence? Any ideas you want to throw out? Anything unique that you're doing in your high school? Yes. I don't know if I see some friends that are getting about getting to fight and stuff like that or go to them and try to make them resolve the conflict, talk to each other and stuff like that. And just try to get people to talk to each other before fighting. How hard is it to do that? If you see a couple of your buddies who are really upset about something to walk up there and to get between them and to tell them, hey guys you need to talk about this. I don't know. Mostly I've just talked to them separately and I get them to calm down. I don't know. I mean it hasn't really calmed out many times but if it does I'm not to do. How does it make you feel when you're able to defuse a situation like that? Good. That can make a difference. Good deal. It sounds like you're making a difference

in your school. Well we have got another caller on the line right now who wants to join the conversation. Caller what is your comment or question for us this afternoon? I was just wanting to say that when I was in high school I had a lot of trouble in school myself with bullies and people. I was taking, I mean I wasn't a high class person or a preppy or anything but I tried to be friends with everybody. A lot of times people, it wasn't just the preppy kids or the low class kids that caused the trouble. It's everybody because I know when I would get picked on or something. I wouldn't say anything for a long time and then eventually I would hold it in and then I would have to say something eventually because it would just get so bad and balled up inside. I noticed when I would tell the teachers this was years ago they wouldn't ever do anything but now I see my kids and why they're in school. The teachers are trying today

to do better and it's not like it was back then. That's certainly a good point. Linda what do you tell students when they come to your office for advice on how to handle some of these issues? Especially if they feel like there are clicks in their school or that someone has done something to hurt their feelings. What do you tell them? First I work with the individual and try to make them feel better about the situation or about themselves or whatever. And then we try to branch out and either get the two groups together which becomes almost a mediation type situation. But we do some of that and then again commercials on our TV program that my student alluded to that talk about everybody working together and that we all have a common goal, common bond and we're not that different. But you start with the individual and get them to feel better and then I think the big thing is if we can make every student say there are two things you do. One if you tease someone or pick on someone that's wrong. Number two is if you see it going on and do

nothing about it that's wrong and that's the level of awareness. And then thirdly if you know of something you go to your SRO officer or teacher or counselor or someone because those are the three things but it's as much ignoring something happening as it is actually doing something. But the children are very sensitive now about issues. And Linda I think Joanne brought this up it's really these small things which are the problems. I mean when we think of an event like Columbine I mean obviously that is a big event but a lot of the school violence we see in North Carolina it starts very simply. Very simple and I think that's one of the things if students across the state will look at the video and I think it serves a wonderful purpose and brings attention to the problems. They start to pick out themselves and pick out groups and then the dialogue can start among the groups and it is a wonderful tool. Great. We've got another caller on the line this afternoon.

Caller what is your comment or question for us? My question I mean my comment was it's not necessarily the way like the video games and the movies and everything else that they claim is a violence of why people act that way. It's the way we treat each other like I mean taking on people it's like the people that are being picked on need to like find help so that out end up getting violent and shooting up schools and stuff. Caller tell me about what is happening in your own school what are you seeing in your high school which leads you to believe that these problems really are with the student body itself. Like in the first two days of school there were like a lot of fights I mean there was more fights this year than the last year. And Rachel why do you think that is is there one underlying issue or does it seem to be a lot of different things are setting people off. People just get like I mean I think they have like short tempers that they don't really know how to deal with.

Do you think there is anything that you or your friends could do to kind of help this situation out at your school? Like tell people to work out problems before they end up getting violent about it. That sounds like good advice and Brandon you're shaking your head over here going yes that's it. I've actually seen that work in schools is it you know through our safe chapters we have the peer mediators the peer mediators who are trained in peer mediation. And we've taught conflict resolution we have people who are trained to teach conflict resolution you see it happening in your school. Two students are going to have to class you see those people in conflict resolution going over say hey you know just calm down let's talk about it. And that's a big part of preventing the problem before you know two people get so upset or before things get bottled up inside. So there's no more room in the bottle to put anything that you sit down you solve that problem and you solve that conflict. So there's no there's no reason because there's no there's no there's no anger anymore and it's all gone there's no reason to fight. Important point we have a caller from Gaston County with us this afternoon caller what would you like to say this afternoon. Let's see I don't believe that that caller is with us this afternoon.

Linda what are you seeing how do you train students in some of these skills that Brent Brandon has spoken about in some of the mediation skills so they know what to do when they see some of their friends arguing. You can do it as a class there are some classes appear mediation and have a teacher do it. You can do some two week sessions with like save students or sad students or are just students who care about other students in your school. If you have one teacher or one administrator who's willing to take the time to learn and work with those it can be done after school or during the school day and then it's very effective at spreads. Once you get one or two out there then their friends will join in their friends will join and that can train each other as he Brandon mentioned. Just to show a hands how many of you folks in the audience today have had some kind of peer mediation training. Great and have you found it to be helpful. How so if you could give us an example perhaps from your high

school. It puts the ownership back in the students hands it removes the adults the administrators the teachers the counselors from the situation and the kids they only have to deal with two other students who are trained to do it. They work out the problem no one else has to see it you remove the audience if you remove the audience when the audience gathers for the fight that's when the fight explodes and the violence starts. If you remove the audience and you just boil it down to the two people with the problem a lot of times they can work it out they don't always have to agree or love each other. They just have to be able to go about their business at school and that's the one goal we have is that they can each take care of their business at school learning and going about that. Great thank you very much. Well we have been talking an awful lot this afternoon about the film that we showed earlier today students versus school violence and we have a clip from that film that we'd like to show you right now. Just in case you didn't get a chance to see it earlier today let's take a look. Students call their next witness from the grave. Student killer Mr. Freddy Kessler.

Mr. Kessler are you a ghost as well? No that's what they call the goodie goodies. I'm a zombie. All right how did you become a zombie then? And where did this take place? School. Now can you tell us what you did right before you shot yourself in the head? Shot up 15 students and one teacher. That was my last count anyway. Hey was my face on the cover of time? I asked the questions Mr. Kessler but yeah you made the cover of time. Six o 'clock news? Yep pretty much around the clock coverage from all the channels. Cool. Did anyone force you to kill innocent people? Nah in fact it couldn't have stopped me. Our principal dour say something about metal detectors. Hey that just lines everybody up. All I got to do is stand outside and shoot them like ducks. Your witness. Okay zombie. So why did you kill 15 people then a teacher and then

yourself? Because I've been dreaming about doing it for a long time. Why? I want to make people pay. Pay for what Mr. Kessler? Pay for making school the worst possible place to be. Pay for being stuck up. Pay for making fun of me. Pay for thinking that they're better than me. And did you talk to anyone about this Mr. Kessler? My two friends. Now these would be the two friends that helped you kill people. Right? Yep. So why didn't you talk to your parents Mr. Kessler? Are you kidding? Answer the question. My parents were flueless. They didn't care about a thing I did. Couldn't you talk to a teacher or a principal, a counselor, some trustworthy adult? No way. Aside with the jocks and the popular people. Look, I'm not trying to say I'm sorry or anything. But I didn't really want to be a bad person. I was just kind of messed up, you know. Not a happy camper, a friend day. Did you play video games Mr. Kessler? No, I don't even start. Video games did not make me shoot people. They just made me a good shot. Video games like slow torture. Yeah. I made it to level 32 on that. Congratulations. Did you watch movies Mr. Kessler?

You're hitting a mall aren't you? Just answer the question. Yeah, watch movies. Violin movies. How about that? Lots of violent movies. Blood and Gore. Enough further questions. I just needed the attention. Why didn't anyone listen? Objection. Enough, Verdi. I didn't know how to say I needed help. I just did stuff to shock people. Your honor, come on. Violin, please don't take me back. Answer more questions. They'll answer on it. Please don't send me back to the grave. I hate it down there. Don't send me back there. Go away. And you have just been watching a segment from the film produced here in North Carolina the students versus school violence. That particular segment brings up a lot of points for discussion when you're talking about school violence. And Joanne, how important is the element of kids just wanting some attention when they act out and do some of these things? It's a very important part of this picture. And as the adults in the picture, what we have to be responsible for is ensuring that the atmosphere, a

Brandon talked about, is an atmosphere that is responsive. We heard one of the callers say that things have been reported and not responded to. And what we have to make sure is that there are response mechanisms in place and that the students and the faculty of the schools in our state understand that actions will be taken when things are reported. One of the actions of the task force that Governor Hunt was very much interested in was ensuring that there be opportunities for students to be able to report. Should they not feel comfortable in their schools? And so there now is a statewide anonymous tip line for that to happen. But the critical part of that tip line is that we want the schools to be atmospheres in which students don't have to turn to a tip line where they feel comfortable enough to turn to their school resource officer or their counselor and be able to say, I have a problem here. And that student feels like there's going to be a response and not be turned off by the adults in the picture. We are very fortunate this afternoon to have the producer of that film with us, David Creech. David, thanks so much for joining us. I want to know from you what your experience was like producing

this film because everything that I have heard from high school students that have watched this film has an impact on this. You're telling their story in a lot of ways. Well, it was a long journey. I specialize in dramas and storytelling. So the challenge was to tell a good story and keep both sides balanced and fair. And the way we figured out to do that was to put it in a courtroom setting where you could actually present both sides equally and not assert one side or another. And to get to both sides of the issues, I had to spend a lot of time with students and read a lot. I read a lot, kept up with the issues on the national scene, the weekly magazines and newspapers, that also spent a lot of time with students at the local level. I went to brought in high school, Wake Forest Rollsville. This man called me a genius early. I got to pay him later, but he was actually one of the contributors and one of my early focus groups. And that helped tremendously with the dialogue and the reality of the issues and what they were saying. And what are students saying when it comes down to

school violence in North Carolina schools, what seems to be the biggest concern from the students that you talk to? I think I keep hearing a recurring theme, and this is what I was hearing too. It's about treatment, how you treat people, and it's about how you respect people. And one of the most powerful things you can do is if you're in a click, you may not realize it, but people are looking up to you or they're feeling kind of oppressed or picked on in their situations. If you're in a group, if you're in a popular group or a click, it really is powerful if you can reach out of your click and reach out to someone and not make fun of people. So it's about treatment and respect. Those are the recurring themes. Well, the film certainly brings up a lot of issues. And David, we appreciate of you for being here with us today and for sharing your film as well. Thanks. Well, we have another caller on the line with us this afternoon. Caller, what would you like to add to our discussion today? Hello. Hello. What's your question or comment for us? I was just wondering. So I've got

a child heading in a head start, and I was just wondering, I hear on the news every night that they're bringing guns, knives, and everything else into the skulls, and I would just like to know, you know, who can you trust? Because I am very nervous about sending my kid to the skull system of, I mean, I'm very frightened for her life. All right. Good question. Thank you so much for calling. Lieutenant Capers, what do you tell parents who call you who have concerns about their kids in the high schools? Well, it's one of the things that I found to be very true. School is probably the most safest place that a child will go. Matter of fact, the young people that are actually picked on in their communities look forward to going to school. Why? Because that's one facility where they get attention. People are going to listen to them. People are going to take care of them. I say to parents,

you know, you got to become a part of the solution. You've got to get out there and know your kids. Go to your school, talk to the teachers, talk to the principals. Go there and sit in some of your child's classes. You need to go get the notice facility where your kid is going. But school is the safest place that kids go. And Brandon, how important is it for students to have mom and dad who are involved in their school, who know their friends, who are thinking about these issues? It's very important because that's where a lot of problems with anger management and conflict management occur. Is that a young age and at home? The sort of parents not dealing with conflicts well, and more than likely you're going to go along that same path. And that's why our safe chapter and other safe chapters are going into elementary schools and going to see the younger children who teach them the skills. They may not have as strong as home life as they need to be able to deal with conflicts as they come up. So the education there are safe chapters in elementary school and their educational opportunities there. Going in to see these

younger children who teach them a lot of ways to deal with their anger and deal with a lot of the pressures that they are going to deal with in life to deal with them in a better way than maybe they not have been taught that at home. And what are some of the issues? If you go into an elementary school class, what do you try to stress for those age of children? Think twice at once. A lot of times, the majority of times, if you think twice about an action and you just have that extra second of thought, you're not going to do that if it's wrong. And that's something as far as fights and that sort of thing. Just think about it just an extra second or think about doing that twice or think about picking up that cigarette twice and more likely or not if you think about the consequences of your actions. Good point. We have one more call on the line for us this afternoon. Caller, what is your comment or question for our panelists today? Good afternoon. My name is Betty Hunter. And I was calling in reference to the video that you had on. Yes.

I'm hoping that a lot of the younger kids will be able to see this and realize that each and every one has anger and jealousy in them. But if you don't feed into these things, then it will not take over and control your mind and having you doing things that ordinarily you would not do. But we got to let the kids know that anger is bad and greed and jealousy. It doesn't do nothing but take over. Caller, I think you've got a good point there. I appreciate you calling. Joanne, what are you doing to make sure that high school students throughout North Carolina have a chance to see the video and discuss the issues that are involved? A copy of the video has been distributed to each high school in North Carolina via the superintendent's offices in each district in the state. So they'll be getting those videos and we're telling those superintendents to get those into the hands with the principals and then to turn those videos over to the SIROs, to the school counselors, to the save advisors,

and let those folks work with this video. We see it as something that fits with the standard course of study and the health curriculum in the state of North Carolina. And we wanted to be used as a prompter of dialogue, as Ms. Mahan said, that it really should be used in that way to get students to respond to it, react to it, talk about it, talk about what's relevant and what's real to them, talk about what's not, and make sure that this issue is talked about at the level it needs to be understood, that it's a relationship issue, it's about people and how people treat each other, and that's true whether we're talking about second graders, fifth graders or twelfth graders. And Linda, how has the conversation gone since watching the video last spring? Have you been able to keep these issues on the forefront of students' minds as we go into this new semester? I believe so. I think the SAVE group is keeping it alive. Our parent group is keeping it alive, the Goddard's department has planned some activities for the year. So we're keeping it in the forefront, so that the students, we

have a vehicle through a community class or an old home room style thing to keep that dialogue going. And I think it's important that we do that. And Brandon, what are you all doing at your high school? Is it tough to keep this conversation going? Or is it something that, as the day goes on, as you see different situations arise in your high school, that it kind of reiterates some of the points that you've mentioned this afternoon? We've really focused on educating and opening the eyes of the students at our high school. And a really cool program, just take a second here. We've started as a, it's called Fight Free School Zone. And what it is, it's a reward system for students dealing with their conflicts in better ways. And for instance, if the school body goes two months without a fight and everybody in that school, you know, they get a $5 gift tip to them all. Or certain things like that. And that program has been done at several schools across the state. And instead of, you know, when a fight happens, the peers, you know, generally normally would go and run to the fight and cheer it on, you know, like, you know, fight, fight, fight, go, go, go, taking the boot bags off the

students so they can fight better. But instead, where this program has been implemented, the students go to the fight and boom. Or try to tear them apart and say, hey, go to peer mediation. Let's go work this out. So it's a really good way of using that positive peer pressure that I spoke about earlier to really take advantage of the pressures that we can put on each other as students. And I would imagine within the capers that you like, that's the kind of peer pressure you like to see that positive peer pressure that's kind of pushing students in the right direction. That's the type of peer pressure we love to see. Matter of fact, I commend the young man for the simple fact is that he is doing something positive in his school. And I hope everybody else has taken note to some of the things that he's saying. Because young folks listen to young folks. They're more subject to react to young folks. To me, the fact that you are getting there to a fight, getting them separated, and getting kind of calmed down before the administration, or there's arguments there, I mean, there's hope for keeping them in school. Well, I think we brought up some good points this afternoon. How about you guys? Do you feel like you've gotten some good advice here? Do you listen to

other students? Is it important to get ideas from what other schools are doing? Yes, I think it helps a lot when you're trying to think of something to do in your school to prevent violence if you listen to other schools that have some great ideas. What do you think is the bottom line here? Well, we're talking about preventing violence in North Carolina schools. What is it going to take? I think you need to think about how you treat people and what you say to them because with one word or one comment, you can shout out to someone self -esteem and you don't know how they're going to react to that. Thank you very much. That is the bottom line. We want to thank all of you guys for joining us this afternoon. We've had a great studio audience. We've had a wonderful group of panels. We also want to thank all of you at home for watching this exciting edition of High School Assembly this afternoon. If you would like additional information about Save and about the Center for the Prevention of School Violence, you can write to the Center for the Prevention of School Violence at 1313 Chapanoke Road, Suite 140. That's in Raleigh, North Carolina. The zip code is 27602. Or you can give them a call. That number is 1 -800

-299 -6054. Or you can go online and visit UNCTV's website. Our address is www .unctv .org. When you get there, simply click on the school violence icon. Or you can write to us here at High School Assembly and care of UNCTV, PO Box 149 -00. Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, 27709 -4900. Or you can give us a call as well at 919 -549 -7161. The bottom line is we love to hear all of your comments here on High School Assembly. Well, thank you for joining us for today's show and we'll see you again on the next High School Assembly. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you

very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you

very much. This program was made possible by contributions to UNCTV from viewers like you. Thank you. Thank you very

much. Thank you very much. Thank you very

much. Thank you very much. Thank you very

much. Thank you.