Again we turn all the responsibility onto our school system and fail to address the real problem, parents, or the lack of parenting. It all begins in the home and from there it is taken into the streets.

Tim Gibson is right.

I've been a teacher and counselor in private and public school settings, and in every place where I've worked, our kids felt and feel loved. Teachers, counselors, and administrators create the environments their students live in for a very large part of their lives. While I agree that teaching ethics and morals and love start with parents or guardians, for those students who aren't so fortunate to get that at home, school personnel can and do provided a sense of belonging and love to our kids. The media sources pick up on the "bad eggs". That's not the reality for most kids who go to places where they are cared for and loved and good things that standardized tests and NCLB cannot measure take place every hour of every day. Do you honestly think anyone in education does it for the paycheck? No, we do it because we know we have the potential to touch the future by what we do with our students. The majority of us are well-trained, certified, and qualified professionals who realized a long time ago there was more to work than the money that is or isn't earned. It's all about the difference we make, the change for good we can help create, and the love we give whether anyone outside of our schools care to see it or not.

I was relocated to beautiful Evanston, IL (an affluent north suburb of Chicago) a few years ago with my 5 children. It's where I grew up, where diversity and culture meet.
The crime became unbearable, our home was broken in to, our cars a few times, my teen would call me about the beatings he witnessed on school grounds and his friend's dad was shot and killed on the street in broad daylight apparently over drugs. Two of my children were mugged for money and clothing, and my 7th grader informed me a fight broke out between his school and a rival, the rivals showed up with bricks and pipes. I attempted to approach the police for help, the community to address the issues, the school for guidance. I was informed the problems were insurmountable, the situation helpless.
Without parents unification, without the school and communities support, we will continue to read these stories to our grandchildren someday.
I since moved from Chicago to a small rural community. I sacrificed my career, but I saved my family. And I read articles like this and wonder how bad it has to get to enforce a change...it's horrifying...

This responsibility should come from the home but obviously it isn't. Something needs to be done and I think a good place to start is the trash they show on TV and the music they hear in their songs. It promotes the kind of lifestyle these kids think is acceptable. How will they have any value for life if they see it and hear it all over the place. It is made to look like rape and murder is acceptable.

I do think smaller schools like they used to have before some idiots got the idea to bus kids all over the place (to help segregation) would help. They could get better teachings and parents would be in more control over what their kids are doing and learning. The schools are also responsible for what happens in our schools, but they don't enforce anything anymore because the kids are so unruly and they are afraid of them. All the bullying that goes on is not even stopped by the schools. A lot of things are entered into it and it will really be hard to change, but we have to work on it if we want a decent country.

I've long ago given up on thinking children need and will be given a loving environment in which to grow.

So, I vote we all teach RESPECT. Respect at home, spouse to spouse as our childrens' first teachers. Respect in the classroom, and ya, that means Teacher to students. (And yes, Ive spent enough time in classrooms to know that teachers can do damage too.) Respect on the playground, respect in the parking lot-parents thats you-, respect in the drive thru waiting for food or beer, respect at the post office, the doctor's office, the dentist's office, the library, the drug dealers' corner.

Respect is SOOOO very simple. So easy. So lacking in our children and Adults.

Respect is the purest form of love that I know.

Steve you are dead on. This is a disease that has taken our schools from what once were a family to prison yards. The teaching does begin at home but the people at the schools are there to help theses young people.
This country is going to hell fast and I am sad I have a 9 y.o daughter that i fear for everyday of my life.
Steve I pray you never give up and my God in his greatest move bring morality back to this nation.

until we put the bible and the flag back into OUR school system the children of today will not have any morale values. These kids today think they are invincible no one can harm them or punich them. You keep asking how did this happen, look at the morale values in this country today. The children have no respect for each other, if they find a situation that can harm someone they will text it or take pictures of it, without any consideration of the person being harmed. WAKE UP AMERICA WE NEED THE FLAG AND BIBLE BACK IN OUR SCHOOLS, LOOK WHAT IS HAPPENING TO OUR CHILDREN....

I strongly believe that TV, movies and video games are influencing teenagers in bad behavior and it's promoting early sexual and drugs activities.

The point was brought up about the influence of violence on TV and movies. All I have to say about that is back in the 1800's, violence was rampant and there was no such thing as television. Art and media are more a mirror of our behavior than a catalyst. Blaming such violent act on the media is a cop out for parents and other bad people.

I agree with Mr. Perry. I have had the good fortune to be able to choose "smaller, caring schools" for my children and with great results. But our young people are not their parent's fault or their school's fault – they are the responsibilty and the promise of all of us. Until we decide as a country that keeping them healthy and honored by their education for the talent that each and every one of them has, and we all pitch in to fill the hours that are not able to be filled by overworked school staff members and parents struggling to make ends meet, we will continue to hear the stories of the children who find paths that we would never hope for them. Volunteer for an organization that works with kids. Be the difference.

I feel like this is the worst event since the columbine shooting, you would think by now the school system be alot harder on the events that happen in public schools. The question is where was the security or public police? And to anwser the text that was posted on the show early this morning, I think alot of the evevnts that seem to happen get pinned on media when in reality it could deal with mulitple things like former depression or some experince. I feel like movies and video games are the main focus of problems when it could be somthing different, people need to realize its not the media that influnces kids activites I feel it has more to do with the enviroment or area there in.