School violence hurts us all
The stabbing rampage at Franklin Regional High School last Wednesday left us all stunned and saddened. Everyone involved in the senseless tragedy has been in our thoughts and prayers.
We all identified with local officials trying to make sense of this senseless tragedy. We could only imagine what was going through the minds of those boys and girls watching as one of their classmates did the unthinkable act of brutally attacking his fellow students.
We applauded the plucky attitude of school officials and students who acted heroically to save the lives of others. We also watched the community come together to support each other in their time of need, wondering why such togetherness wasn’t more commonplace, even in our own communities.
But this was all a little too close for comfort. This didn’t happen somewhere hundreds of miles away in a place we never heard about. This was in our neck of the woods, about an hour or so away from Uniontown.
Many residents are familiar with Murrysville, where the school is located on Route 22 near Monroeville. Uniontown, Albert Gallatin and Laurel Highlands high school football teams played in the same conference with Franklin Regional as recently as 2011. The school is also known for its massive gym, with many basketball playoff games involving local teams being played there over the years.
And this was an upscale school district located in a well-to-do community. Everyone realized if something like this can happen in a place like this, it can pretty much happen anywhere, even here in Fayette County.
As we all struggle to make sense of this insanity, most of the attention will center on the accused, 16-year-old Alex Hribal, said to be somewhat of a loner but a good student with an “Ozzie and Harriet” family, which ate together every night.
It’s likely that we’ll learn more about what motivated Hribal to bring those 2 8-inch kitchen knives to school, but it’s also possible that we’ll never know the real reason for his plunge into madness.
It was good to see Gov. Tom Corbett and President Obama both show their support and condolences for those involved. But what’s really needed now is for some type of state or federal investigation into what happened to determine what can be done to prevent such incidents in the future.
There should be a task force charged with coming up with recommendations for school officials on what types of security measures should be taken. Local school officials are currently wrestling with things such as arming school guards. They shouldn’t have to decide these things on their own. They should be able to rely on federal and state experts who can help them in making such crucial decisions.
Guidelines should be developed in a transparent manner, with parents and taxpayers involved, so everyone can feel that students are being protected as safely as humanly possible.
Another task force should be formed to deal with the problem of mental illness among teenagers. Parents and teachers need help in looking for signs that teens might be in trouble. Ways have to be found to get those teens the help they need.
Of course, there’s not just one solution to this complex problem. Certainly, there has to be room for flexibility. But there’s been enough of these attacks that there has to be some common denominators between them. We have to start coming up some best practices that can be followed across the board.
As a nation, we all share in the hurt and outrage that accompanies these attacks. We all know our school could be next. We may not be able to keep our students completely safe, but we should be able to keep them safer.
Mark O’Keefe is the editorial page editor of the Herald-Standard. He can be reached by email at mokeefe@heraldstandard.com, by regular mail at 8 Church St., Uniontown, Pa., 15401 or by phone at 724-439-7569.