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school violence

 

            A new social problem that is starting to become very serious in America is school violence. Ever since the shootings at Colorado's Columbine High School, the media has paid a great deal of attention to violent acts in schools. In the August 29th issue of Newsweek an article titled "Creative Writing "or Criminal act?- describes Brian Robertson's two-page writing, what he called "literary art."" Brian wrote out a descriptive scenario sounding like a military commander's order to student terrorists on how to take on the school. Although no plot or characters were named in the instructions the content of the paper was quite disturbing. One line went as follows, -Make every shot count. Life is cheap, ammo is precious."" He is now being charged with "planning a violent act- which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
             According to McWhirter's level of risk I feel that Brian would be placed at "Remote Risk- for several reasons. Looking at it from the family perspective, the article clearly shows that Brian's primary social support group is very supportive in that what he wrote was just dark literature. His mother even produced a Website that describes what his son is going through and how she feels the law is wrong. On the other hand, the paper was written after the Columbine shootings and living in Colorado, Brian was well aware of the events. If he knew that the state was so strict on the laws adhering to school violence, perhaps this writing was just a cry for attention. It was saved, although in an obscure folder, to the schools computer, where a teacher or fellow peer would have eventually found it. This is an indicator that he would be on the remote level because future problems may arise.
             The type of service that would help Brian the most would be Support. With this service the helper can make sure that the family stays as strong as they have been. The article describes him losing his job that he held for two years, and many friends because their parents didn't want them to be hanging out with a "criminal.


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