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By GARRET MATHEWS, Columnist
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Something should be done when area schools reopen to show that the murdered students in Littleton, Colo., have not been forgotten. Not just another symbol of grief.
A policy something.
The slain at Columbine High School have had enough memorial services.
Enough wreaths.
Enough little white crosses.
What better way to remember that these youngsters lived — and died — than to make at least a temporary change in the way some schools conduct pageantry.
The color guard.
Disarm them.
The Columbine students were killed with guns.
Since the shootings, there’s been a national call — make that a scream — to reduce kids’ access to guns.
And, yet, some high schools continue to include dummy rifles — sometimes painted white to match their handlers’ gloves — in the color guard’s regalia during assemblies and other ceremonial functions.
Let the ROTC students march in. Let them present the flag. Let them go through the right-face, about-face routine.
But do it without the guns.
Need a resolution?
I’ll give you a resolution.
WHEREAS, April 20 was the worst school shooting in the country’s history, claiming 15 lives including the two young gunmen. The crime scene looked like a war zone.
WHEREAS, the murders at Columbine High School have increased our awareness of violent images targeted to the youth market. Since the slayings, some of these image-shapers in TV and the movies have voluntarily scrapped productions dealing with guns in schools.
There’s even been some movement in the worst of the worst — the merchants of gore who supply arcades with those blood-splattering video games.
WHEREAS, if the money-driven executives in the entertainment business can rethink what they’re feeding our children from afar, school officials should be equally sensitive to a troubling image that’s displayed right under their noses at some school gatherings.
WHEREAS, the colors can be effectively presented — and respected — at school ceremonies without weaponry, however artificial.
WHEREAS, in tribute to those students who fell at Columbine — as well as those who lost their lives in school shootings in Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi and Oregon — it seems a fitting tribute to conduct assemblies and other mass gatherings at EVSC high schools as if one or more of the slain students’ parents were in attendance. No symbols of mass destruction. No guns, even dummy ones.
WHEREAS, this doesn’t seem like much to ask, given that these parents have had their insides ripped out by what happened to their children.
WHEREAS, a student would probably not only be suspended, but arrested if he or she brought to school the same facsimile weapon used during assemblies, does the thing suddenly become okey-dokey if it’s considered school property?
WHEREAS, the disarmed color guard member will need something to carry during school ceremonies.
WHEREAS, a flag with the names of all students murdered at schools would be a fitting substitute.
And a reminder that we must redouble our efforts to prevent future tragedies.
Too many little white crosses have been stuck in the ground already.
Got this from: http://www.courierpress.com/cgi/view.cgi?/199906/20/+gmat_features.html+
