School should be a place where students not only gain knowledge and develop their abilities, it should be an oasis where nothing bad threatens them, where they feel safe. Is it like that in American schools?
Wieslaw Cypryś
After the increasing number of shootings taking place in educational institutions across the country, this cannot be said. On the contrary – young people feel fear that something terrible will happen, an event will happen from which they will not escape with their lives. Of course, this does not apply to all schools, but to those where major tragedies have already occurred, schools in poor neighborhoods, where students are less disciplined, are born swashbucklers, or belong to street gangs and are better at using guns than in print.
In New York City, where rich and poor live separated by an invisible wall, violence explodes in and around schools. These are mainly shootings and stabbings, often resulting in death. They take place in the districts of low-income residents, where there is no shortage of unemployed and homeless people. In the 2022-2023 school year, three teenage students lost their lives and eighteen were injured, compared to one killed and eight shot or stabbed in the entire previous year.
Leaving school immediately after school is the most dangerous time for students. This is when criminal attacks most often occur. What happens inside school buildings is nothing compared to what happens outside. “As the last bell approaches, students in the classroom are sitting on the edges of their chairs, worrying about what will happen in the neighborhood on the way home,” said one Queens teacher.
Most shootings around public schools are gang-related, either attending or selling drugs to students. Some of it is the result of competition between these groups, fighting for a client and disagreement over salaries, but a lot of bullets are struck by random people who just happen to have the misfortune of arriving in the “wrong place at the wrong time.”
Such was the fatal misfortune of 16-year-old Angellyh Yambo, a The Bronx University Prep Charter HS student, when she was struck by a stray bullet a block from the school. 17-year-old Jeremiah Ryan fired a deadly bullet as a firefight broke out between rival gangs. Two other random teenagers were injured.
What else makes it so dangerous around educational institutions? The lenient law for dangerous teens is to blame for this situation. New York State passed a law a few years ago that made it impossible for minors under 18 years of age to be tried as adults in criminal courts in almost all cases. Thus, it is impossible to hold them responsible for serious crimes. This auspicious news came to them like wildfire, because it gives permission to carry and use weapons.
There is no argumentation that the reform was necessary. Because it allowed many juveniles to avoid penalties for low-risk crimes or to reduce them due to the age of the aggressor. But its unintended consequence is to increase the threat to residents, including schoolchildren, and it should be re-evaluated
Older gang members use juveniles by handing them guns, because if they are caught, they will not face serious consequences. No one wants to sentence minors as adults and punish them as repeat offenders, but some people, due to the gravity of their actions, do not deserve leniency just because they are two or three months away from coming of age.
According to police sources, about 10 percent of shooting victims in New York City are juveniles, and the number of arrests among this age group in 2022 jumped 64 percent over 2021. Another terrifying fact about teen crime is the increasingly younger age of first-time teens. weapon. Not so long ago they were 16-17 year olds, today they are 13-14 year olds and even 12 year olds.
For many students, school is an intellectual challenge, but for students in New York, especially those in the poorer neighborhoods, it is even more dangerous, as you can get beaten up and even killed for going to school.