If it had been a plane crash rather than a school shooting

that took the lives of two students in Springfield, Ore.,

the federal government would have sent teams of experts to

dissect the incident to prevent it from happening again.

It’s time to give the same attention to school violence, a national

safety expert said Monday at the Governor’s Safe Schools

Conference at Cobo Hall.

Peter Blauvelt, president of the National Alliance for Safe

Schools, a nonprofit research and training organization based in

College Park, Md., called for federal teams to scrutinize the

people and incidents that led up to the Springfield shooting, in

which a 15-year-old student who had been suspended for

bringing a gun to school is being held as a suspect.

Speaker after speaker Monday referred to the event and urged

parents and people who work with children to reach out to kids

before they threaten to hurt someone — or actually do.

“I’m tired of going to funerals of our young people,” Detroit

Police Chief Isaiah McKinnon said.

Several top law enforcement directors decried the barrage of

violence and the attitude children see and hear in the media that

guns solve problems.

“Some of the music and some of the movies we allow our kids

to listen to and see is pure junk,” said Darnell Jackson, director

of the Michigan Office of Drug Control Policy. “Garbage in,

garbage out.”

Still, it’s not fair to place blame only on the media, Col. Michael

Robinson, director of the Michigan State Police, said. Adults

often send conflicting messages.

“We as parents can’t talk to children about drugs and alcohol

after our sixth Budweiser,” he said. “We can’t talk to young

people about obeying the laws of the land after installing a radar

detector.”

Gov. John Engler gave an address highlighting his three-part

plan to expel students who assault teachers; punish school

administrators who fail to report the number of weapons-related

student expulsions, and require courts to tell schools when

students get in trouble with the law.

“I don’t want some child to be in court on a sexual-assault

charge one day and be walking down the corridor of a school

the next without school officials knowing about it,” he said.

To that end, Blauvelt called for state governments nationwide to

relax confidentiality laws.

“In Prince George’s County, we have five agencies working

with families, and by law, they can’t talk to one another,” he

said. Some parts of the governor’s plan played well in the crowd of

about 800 officials representing schools, law enforcement,

courts and social agencies. Most seemed to agree that students

who hit teachers should be expelled for a school year.

However, many took issue with the idea of schools sending

clearly troubled students home to cause problems in their

neighborhoods.

“We need alternatives for these kids,” Greg Baracy,

superintendent of Wayne-Westland Community Schools, said.

Baracy said educators fear the state will expect them to pay for

the programs out of their existing budgets — which in many

cases would mean cutting programs for kids who don’t get in

trouble.

Todd Lipa, director of youth and family services for the City of

Farmington Hills, said he was concerned Engler’s proposals

weren’t aimed more toward prevention.

“These things don’t happen overnight,” Lipa said. “There’s

usually a trail of things leading up to it. That’s what we’ve got

to do something about.”

Tracy Van Moorlehem can be reached at 1-313-223-4534 or

by E-mail at vanmoo@det-freepress.com

– Tracy Van Moorlehem – Free Press Education Writer