Making sense of the shooting at Santana High

Readers respond to Salon's coverage of the latest high school tragedy.

Mar 7, 2001 | Worthless lives by Meredith Maran.

Meredith Maran has it exactly right. Our schools have become worse than factories -- they are jails; look at the architecture. My wife and I are lucky to be able to send our kids to our parish school. There are 17 kids in our eldest son's second grade class. Not only does his teacher know him, so do all the other teachers in the school. When we drop him off in the morning, the principal greets him by name.

If we sent him to the nearest and best public elementary school, he would be in a class with almost twice that number of other children -- and his class would be just one of three second-grade classes, all the same size. Tell me the teachers, let alone the principal, can keep track of all the 8-year-olds in that building. How in the world can they then keep track of five other grades the same size?

Instead of wasting the budget surplus to give tax breaks to the rich so that they can send their already overprivileged children to their luxurious and small private schools, we should be building more and smaller and better-staffed neighborhood public schools.

-- David Reilly

As a proud alumna of both Santana High School and Harvard University, I take issue with the article's casual dismissal of the learning environment there. Based on the writer's experience at other "large suburban" high schools, the writer characterizes Santana as a "factory," compares its teachers to "prison guards," and concludes that Santana's teachers and counselors do not care about their students merely because there are many of them.

It is false. It is wrong. And I am personally offended and outraged to read such unjust charges leveled against the compassionate and professional faculty and staff of Santana High School. It should not have to be said that this shooting was not their fault -- and the article's implication that those fine people are somehow to blame, that if they had cared more, or earned more, this tragedy could have been avoided, is nothing short of monstrous.

-- Laura M. Hagan
Santana High School Class of 1984
Harvard University Class of 1988

Watching the talking heads discuss tragedies like this one fills me only with disgust. They point to those who knew in advance (of an unhappy student with a desperate, final plan) as an indication that this is a problem that can be "solved" if we tried harder. They treat what is wrong with American high schools as a medical condition that early identification could cure, somehow forgetting that further alienating our children with paranoia and suspicion will cause nothing but more grief.

For once I was glad to see an article where the author is unafraid to take a long hard look at the schools themselves as a root cause. These aren't "messed-up individuals" but products of an overburdened system constantly assaulted by the media and government. But the article doesn't go far enough.

What drives these picked on, outcast, and in many cases despised, kids to the edge are their peers. The same way as it was a generation ago, except the stakes have gotten far greater. Instead of pointing the finger at those already singled out, instead we need to look at why the culture of exclusion exists and what causes it. That culture has scarred kids on both sides but only comes to light when tragedies like this occur.

-- Ted Yang

Thank you for posting this thought-provoking article on the latest school-shooting tragedy. This complex problem will never be resolved until we (parents, schools, media, kids) stop pointing fingers at each other and stop the denial and begin pointing a finger at ourselves.

I have witnessed my own 11-year-old son come home from his first-rate suburban school in tears from the daily teasing of classmates. I have stood by as he, and a small group of other boys, "play games" and "learn strategies" to toughen up against being called names like "Booger Boy" by both male and female classmates. While he has been labeled "overly sensitive" (by both myself and his teachers), we have excused his peers under the old adage "kids can be cruel." For months now, his father and I have extolled the advice: "Just ignore them. Don't let it bother you."

After this latest shooting and Ms. Maran's article, I refuse to be a co-conspirator any longer.

This kind of harassment would not stand in my workplace. If it did, I am sure I would come home in tears. I am sure I could not "ignore it," and yet this has been my best advice for my own son?

His is a good school with well-meaning and caring teachers, better-than-average class sizes and programs in place to help. Therefore I shudder to think what happens daily to kids in places that are bigger, poorer and overburdened with teachers who are less dedicated.

I am taking my responsibility in this issue. You can be assured I will be in touch with his teachers and the school to demand they undertake theirs.

-- Vicki Lankarge

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