My Question of the Day: School violence is more of a reality today than it has been in any other generation. Imagine your child comes home and tells you there’s a rumor floating around that some disgruntled students have been overheard plotting a shooting spree at the school the next day. You also know that your child has a very important standardized test tomorrow. It’s the last test being offered for the school year, and your child needs the test score as the final requirement for the college s/he wants to attend.

You call the school and ask to speak to someone who knows about the rumor, and you’re assured that the information is NOT true. You ask whether the standardized test will be postponed, and the person tells you that the test will happen as planned, no exceptions.

You tell your child s/he must go to school the next day, and you make it clear that you hope s/he isn’t telling you this story about a shooting spree to get out of taking a test. Your child asks you to call some of the other parents, and you find out from them that their children are saying the same thing. You’re inclined to believe them because these are parents of other children who are not the friends of your child. You just picked names at random from the school directory.

You go on the school’s website to see if there are any notices about the rumor. Someone has posted that the rumor is false and that all school activities will run as planned the next day. Later that night, while you’re watching the news, the local stations have learned about the rumor and are reporting it, even though they’re emphasizing it’s just a rumor and no one has confirmed its validity. Your child comes to you before s/he goes to bed, tells you s/he is scared to go to school the next day and asks you not to make him/her go.

What  do you do?

My 2 Cents: If my child were truly afraid, I’d go to school with him/her, sit outside the testing area until s/he was done with the exam and we’d leave the school building quickly after s/he was excused from the testing area.

I don’t know how I could forgive myself if didn’t listen to my child’s fears, forced my child to go to school and sent my child to his/her death because of a test.

Yes, the future is important, but if my baby were killed now, s/he would have no future and neither would I.

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Take a few moments to check out the tweets from Twitter on this subject:

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JoshDamage I make them go and pick them up immediately after the test

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