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Guns in School
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It is unfortunate, but probably inevitable, that the issue of guns in school should come to Rappahannock.
Most of society’s problems land here eventually.
It is, however, somewhat unsettling to learn that last week’s incident is not the first, and that others were not reported to the public.
It is even more unsettling to realize that we will not know how this or similarly serious cases come out. If the School Board votes to expel the student who brought a gun to the elementary school last Wednesday and Thursday, the minutes of the meeting will read something like this: “The School Board voted to accept the Superintendent’s recommendation on Pupil Personnel case Number 147.”
If the girl is sent to juvenile detention, that will happen in a juvenile court hidden from the public. If the judge orders the school system to accept the student back into school, that will also be hidden from the public.
New laws do require that such a record go with the ( student to another school but keep knowledge of such a situation hidden from public view.
We have watched the increasing frustration of school authorities, Commonwealth’s Attorney Peter Luke and the Sheriffs Department with a juvenile justice system not equipped to deal with the seriousness of today’s juvenile crime.
Laws to keep the names of juveniles out of the record were enacted when many juvenile crimes were for things like playing hooky and running away that wouldn’t even be crimes if they were committed by an adult. Now juvenile murderers are protected from public exposure.
The intention was to keep juvenile offenders from becomming adult offenders. It is increasingly obvious that this isn’t working. Juvenile offenders learn that their actions won’t have serious consequences. Unfortunately their offenses tend to becomed more and more serious, until eventually they do have consequences.
Perhaps the entire system should be scrapped and juvenile offenders should be publicly identified.
However, even if the names are kept out of the record, the incidents should be reported to the public.
In the meantime, parents, the school administration and sheriffs office deserve commendation for the handling of this case. They have treated it as the serious matter it is without over reacting or causing panic.
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