More of this Feature • Avoiding Tragedy - Tips • Getting Help - A Checklist • Relevant Information I • Relevant Information II

Related Resources • Report School Violence • Talking to Your Parents • Helplines for Teens • Crisis Line Phone Numbers • Teens Talk: Serious Stuff • Dealing: Social Weapons

When the Columbine school massacre happened, it was the lead story on every newscast in North America. All other programming ground to a halt as an entire continent stopped, prayed, and watched a real life horror story unfold in Littleton, CO. It was outrageous, and terrifying, and most of all, shocking. But when the Santana High School shootings happened on March 5th, they weren't treated with the same urgency. It wasn't even the lead story on many local newscasts in Canada and the United States. School shootings have become too commonplace to warrant shutting down scheduled television shows or ignoring the other news of the day. Is this the beginning of a cultural apathy toward school massacres? I hope not, and yet I fear so!

"Another school shooting in the States?" my wife cries out as she watches the evening news, "What is going on down there??" She sniffles a bit and gets that tight lipped look that means she is fighting back tears. "It's only a matter of time before this starts happening with the same frequency in Canada," she says, "we've already had Taber!" She sighs and adds, "What are we missing? What are the adults not seeing?? What terrible things are going on in our schools?" I look at her as if to give answers, but I have none: "I don't know..."

The truth is that we adults aren't on the front lines. We aren't living in your world, and no amount of musing about our own teenage days will change that. When it comes to school shootings, the generation gap is wider than it has ever been! The truth is adults aren't in a position to do anything because we don't know what is going on in youth culture. We watch from the outside, but we don't live it. School officials and parents can watch for the warning signs but can't possibly know what the teens in the trenches are going through. We may know who the bullies are, we may see who the brooders are, we may know who to watch for suicide or drug use, but we don't have the inside scoop. We don't know the real deal.

You know who is "hot" and who is "not". You know how your peers treat one another and who gets singled out for an unfair share of harassment and scorn. You know what the social norms are at your school and how those norms effect day to day life in the corridors and classrooms. You hear the gossip long before it reaches adult ears, if it ever reaches adult ears. You have the power to stop bad things before they start or to end them before they escalate beyond control. All you have to do is reach out and tell someone what you know. Tell your parents, tell a teacher, tell the principal or a counsellor. If it is really serious, tell your local police -- but you must tell someone.

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