Time to reflect over school safety

December 14, 2012 was a sad day for the world. A young man in a small US town in Connecticut killed 28 people including his own mother with four weapons. On the same day on the opposite side of the globe, a 36-year-old man injured 22 school children with a knife in Guangshan County, Henan Province, China.

When President Obama mourned the victims of this tragic event in the US with tears in his eyes, he admitted this kind of tragic event happened too often, listing all the recent killings in the US. It is time for world leaders as well ordinary people to pause and reflect on what is going on in our world.

Some people have continued the fight to advocate gun control again, blaming the availability of guns for the killing. US law has allowed citizens to bear arms since the founding of the country. But even people who do not have guns can kill with other weapons, like the man in China with a knife. We can ban guns, but can we ban kitchen knives?

On Thursday, the day before the killing, I was asked to interpret for a Chinese parent, whose six year old son was having trouble in a local school where I am residing in the US. The six year old Chinese boy was born and grew up in the US even though his parents both came here recently. His father owns and runs a Chinese restaurant, and his mom owns and runs an alteration store. Because they had been busy every day from early morning to late night, they left their son in the care of an elderly family friend who served as the nanny for their son for five years. The nanny’s job was to make sure the boy got everything he needed, and she had done a good job of satisfying his every wish. But the young boy was spoiled, and he thought that every one of his wishes should be met in life.

After he started school last year, he wanted to have his own way. If he could not have his way, the teacher said he would kick the wall, push down the tables and chairs in the classroom. Occasionally, he would bump his head against the wall. His mom was called in to the school to discuss the boy’s behavior with his teacher, the principal, the school’s social worker and counselor, because the boy turned on his classmate when he lost his temper the week before. The school wanted to learn from if there was any connection between the boy’s behavior at home in an effort to understand better and find ways to help him.

I was very impressed by the school administrators’ effort to help the boy, but I doubt they would be able to solve the problem because it is a social problem, which is beyond the school’s ability to solve.