Positive Solutions to Violence in Our Schools
During the past year, national attention has been riveted upon school shootings in Oregon, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kentucky and now Colorado.
The causes of these killings elude us, but there has to be a way to respond through the church. The following resources are provided "free of charge" from Cokesbury On-Line. They are part of the LinC series for youth and FaithLink for adults. Normally there is a charge for these services, but this is such an important topic, they are being offered "free."
You will need Acrobat Reader to download them. If you do not have access to Acrobat, phone Charlene Bailey at the conference office cbailey@cjnetworks.com or call 785-272-9111 and we will fax or mail them to you. These would be excellent materials to use with your adult and youth Sunday school classes during this time of "sorting it all out."
The videotape of the teleconference, "Kids, Guns, Violence: How to Make a
Difference" is now in the Kansas Area Resource Center. To reserve it, call
800-745-2352 (684-4927 in Wichita) or check out the Resource Center website
Cokesbury LinC for youth
(Positive Solutions to School Violence)
Cokesbury FaithLink for adults (School Violence)
Center for the Prevention of School Violence (a website)
The videotape of the teleconference, "Kids, Guns, Violence: How to Make a
Difference" is now in the Kansas Area Media Center. To reserve it, call
800-745-2352 (684-4927 in Wichita) or check out the Resource Center website
Killings underscore need for addressing roots of violence
By United Methodist News Service
Turning back the tide of school killings, such as the April 20 massacre near Denver, requires addressing the hatred, fear and spiritual poverty that cause violence, United Methodist leaders say.
The killing of at least 15 people at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., is "a horrific tragedy," said Bishop Marshall L. (Jack) Meadors, who heads a task force guiding the United Methodist Church's Initiative on Children and Poverty.
"It would remind us when the role models of our youth are the Mafia and Adolf Hitler, the result is going to be racism and violence," he said. "A society that sows violence will reap violence.
"Our hearts go out to the victims and their families, and to the families of the young men who were responsible."
Two students at the high school opened fire on classmates and faculty members at 11:30 a.m. local time, commencing a bloodbath that lasted four hours. The two students, both white males, were heavily armed with handguns, shotguns and explosives. The boys, ages 17 and 18, later shot themselves.
"The things we could never dream of are becoming daily nightmares," said Bishop Mary Ann Swenson of the United Methodist Church's Denver area. Columbine High School is only 15 minutes from her office.
Five United Methodist congregations have families with students enrolled at the school in Littleton, a fast-growing suburb southwest of Denver. At press time, one hospitalized student is a member of Columbine United Church, and the daughter of one family at St. Luke's United Methodist Church is unaccounted for.
The Rev. Steve Poos-Benson is pastor of Columbine United Church, a shared ministry of the United Methodist, United Church of Christ and Presbyterian Church U.S.A. Just as he closed a morning staff meeting at the church, a parent called, reporting that she was at a store by the school and heard shots fired. Poos-Benson, youth pastor Holly Freeman and other staff members drove directly to the school, where shots could still be heard.
As Poos-Benson moved from an open area, he saw Freeman embracing a student who had just run from the building. Shortly afterward, Freeman worked to move students to safety behind fences in the adjacent residential neighborhood. As they moved, one girl later said she heard shots go by within arm's reach.
Because of its proximity to the school, Columbine United Church quickly became a gathering place for families and various response agencies. By 8 p.m., a prayer service was under way in the sanctuary.
District Superintendent Terry Benedett-Farmer, whose area includes Columbine High School, attended the evening worship service, and began networking pastors in the area to be available to provide counseling.
At nearby Phillips United Methodist Church, the Rev. Marvin Essing was also leading a prayer service, joined by the Rev. Mike Hubbard, pastor to neighboring Heritage United Methodist Church. Rocky Mountain Annual Conference Treasurer Dan O'Neil, active in conference youth ministries and a youth sponsor at Phillips, also lent a hand, as well as establishing an account to receive contributions for assisting families
The United Methodist Committee on Relief, already busy with natural disasters elsewhere, made its crisis counseling services available to the conference disaster response volunteer, the Rev. Gary Haddock, who coordinated with the Rev. Gil Zyzniewski, a local volunteer.
The Rev. Brian Riecke, conference youth coordinator, joined the on-site response effort after advising all conference pastors to be aware that their students were likely to be affected by this trauma, given its severity and national attention. The Rev. Jane Keener, also on the conference staff and formerly a hospital chaplain, was also present to provide back-up.
Staff at The Upper Room, a division of the Board of Discipleship, called to say they were sending resources for grief counseling and devotionals focused on loss and tragedy.
St. Luke's United Methodist Church, announced its presence as a "safe place" for the community, and scheduled evening prayer services through the rest of the week. United Methodist churches throughout the metro area, including St. Andrews, Parker, Heritage, Wheatridge and Hope, had scheduled prayer and memorial services by noon the following day.
Bishop Swenson, arriving in Denver only hours after the shooting, learned that the gunmen had targeted minorities and "jocks," and that the incident occurred on Hitler's birthday. "All of the issues of race and violence immediately come forth.
"Hate is the visible cause of this tragedy, but the hidden cause is fear," Swenson said.
"One of our pastors talked with families with kids involved, and he said, 'The word is these kids were outcasts. They didn't like anyone and no one liked them. Our youth have talked at church about how we treat each other....'
"My prayer is for the day when there are no outcasts, when we can move beyond our barriers and the cliques and groups. We pray for a time when all are insiders, when everyone knows they are included, welcomed -- even those out of the mainstream and on the margins. Maybe then, if we can reach out to the margin and welcome every child of God as a child of God, maybe then we can put an end to violence and hate."
The Initiative on Children and Poverty was launched in 1996 by the Council of Bishops. It is focused on addressing the needs of children worldwide.
"With the Initiative on Children and Poverty, we recognize that violence grows out of spiritual poverty as well as material and economic poverty," Meadors said. "The goal of our initiative is the proclamation in word and deed of God's love for all people and especially for children and the poor, and that does include (people in) spiritual poverty, which sounds like the case here.
"The seeds of poverty include lax gun laws and racism and white supremacy," he said.
"The incidents of children declaring war on society and on their friends is escalating, like the violence in the world, as long as seeds of violence are being spread," he said. " ... These kinds of incidents are symptoms of a deeper problem. The church is called to deal with those root causes, those basic issues.
"The church is called to situations like this, to be the sign and the instrument of God's love and God's peace in the world.
"We must pray, and we believe that this is God's world and God is a God of peace, and God calls us to be instruments of peace."
To make a donation for assisting families affected by the shootings, send a check payable to the Rocky Mountain Conference, marked "Columbine," to 2200 S. University Blvd., Denver, CO 80210.
Violence a community problem,
not just a school problem
April 22, 1999
By United Methodist News Service
Student shootings are not just problems for schools but for the entire community, says the
director of the Center for the Prevention of School
Violence in North Carolina.
Schools must be taken out of the center of the circle, Pamela L. Riley told United
Methodist News Service in a telephone interview. "Schools need to join hands with
faith communities, law enforcement officials, juvenile justice professionals and civic
organizations, and then we need to put our young people in the middle of the circle and
focus on our need to provide schools that are safe and secure, free of fear and conducive
to learning." While safety and security are important, she said, "We don't
need to turn our schools into prisons."
A former school principal who lives in Raleigh, N.C., Riley warned against jumping to
conclusions about what is needed. "Walk-through metal detectors, fencing, lighting
and surveillance cameras are tools we can use, but there are other things we can do. We
need to focus on the 'people aspect' of school safety, what we usually refer to as the
'school climate.'"
The challenge, she continued, is to encourage positive relations student to student,
student to teacher, parent to teacher, staff member to staff member. "It is
important that the adult community provide positive role models and choose healthy
behavior over unhealthy behavior."
Adults expect more from young people than from themselves, Riley said. "What can we
expect when young people see that adults deal with conflict by waging
war or emptying sports benches for a brawl in the middle of a court or field? I know
adults say 'do as I say, not as I do,' but everyone pays attention to actions."
"Each of these strategies is peer-focused," she explained. "Young people
are paying more attention to what other young people are saying and doing than to what
adults are telling them.. Our hope is that using peer pressure in a positive way will help
get some of this turned around."
Churches can open lines of communications with the schools and offering assistance in
order to ensure safe environments for learning, Riley said. She commended churches that
have worked with schools to create church-based alternative learning programs for young
people in trouble at school. "It certainly beats putting these kids out on the
street," she said.
More information is available at the North Carolina Center for the
Prevention of School Violence's site, www.ncsu.edu/cpsv,
on the Internet.
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