Stabbing in Pensylvania School

Again, we hear of violence in a public place in America. This time, a 16-year-old high school boy stabbed 19 students and at least one other person at a Pennsylvania high school. It’s another case, in a series of cases, where people have been senselessly attacked just for being present in the wrong place at the wrong time, while doing what they had every right to be doing. These kinds of senseless attacks seem to be more frequent lately. Perhaps the big one that kicked it all off was the shooting at Columbine several years ago. That was a shock then, but now it almost seems commonplace.

There are a couple of things we can learn from this latest attack. One thing that we can learn and perhaps settle once and for all is that it isn’t guns that kill people. This was a case of kitchen knives used to attack students, causing serious injuries and could have caused death. We could have learned this lesson back in 2001 when thousands died, not because of guns, but passenger airplanes. It is always people that carry out this kind of senseless violence.

The other thing we can learn from this is the obvious: we have problems in America. Are people the problem, though? We can’t very well ban people. Individual people aren’t even the problem as much as cultural forces that lead people to carry out such acts. This doesn’t relieve individuals from their own responsibility. But when things like this start growing in number, we must acknowledge there are other factors in addition to the individual.

Some might be tempted to blame mental illness, but in most cases of mental illness, people don’t go to these extremes. Could it be drugs or alcohol? Drugs and alcohol have contributed to violence, but again they are not the key factors that lead individuals to this kind of violence. Generally, people don’t just invent violent acts like this, even with mental disorders or when impaired by substances. For the most part, it is sufficient exposure to the idea of violence that makes this sort of thing possible. That is when mental disorders or chemical impairments can amplify the violence already seeded in the mind. Even excessive stress or other emotional challenges may amplify the violence previously sown in the mind.

It seems obvious where some of these seeds of violence can come from. We live in a time when violence on the screen is glamorized, earning millions for producers and actors—they make their money by feeding us violence. Another source of seeds of violence is the free press, which always does its “duty” to let us know about every horrific act that takes place in our country and the world. Again, shocking news makes money. Certainly, we can’t exclude violence simulated in video games or recounted in certain types of music—again for the sake of money. Parents who don’t intervene in their children’s exposure to all of the above also contribute to the problem. Children don’t always have the maturity to avoid what is harmful.

Some parents and others seem to believe that parents have no right to interfere with a child’s access to media or other influences. But limiting children’s exposure to the vile influences that exist in our culture isn’t a crime—it’s essential to help children grow with healthy attitudes. It’s a parent’s job to protect their children from physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and moral harm. Parents must keep an eye on what sorts of influences sway their children toward unhealthy choices and take steps to minimize those influences. Obvious improper influences should be shunned automatically.

While parents have the most direct obligation to protect their children, other individuals and organizations must accept the responsibility to avoid doing anything that is likely to harm children or influence them in a negative way. In cases of doubt, we should always err on the side of caution and avoid something that a portion of people believes is harmful.

We must always remember: the harm we do to children is harm we do to our own culture and to our nation.