On Tuesday, Sept 16 Shantorria Herring was arrested after stabbing her “good friend”.
As reported by the Tallahassee Democrat, Herring, a 16-year-old sophomore at Rickards High School in Tallahassee, stabbed the victim with a butterfly knife during their Social Studies class.
The altercation was over a boy with whom the vctim was involved. The stabbing occured shortly after Herring and the victim had a verbal disagrement about the boy.
Was it really that serious?
Violence among our youth is becoming more and more absurd. Since when did people stop settling their disputes with words or -if it came to that- fists? When did semi-automatic weapons and steel blades become a common part of school altercations?
Even after Columbine, children are still finding it easier to bring a knife to school than to sit down and talk with someone about their anger.
If children are the future, what exactly have they learned from the past?
Who is teaching them that settling squabbles with weapons and fists is the best solution?
Who should be held responsible for teaching our children right from wrong?
Is it a school’s responsibility to teach children how to settle their disputes with words as opposed to violence?
Apparently, Herring’s mother, Ruth Frazier, feels that the school should have taken a stronger stance. She told the Tallahassee Democrat that her child is not bad, and she is surprised that it even reached that point.
Frazier feels that if the adults at Rickards High would have stepped in. the stabbing could have been avoided.
But shouldn’t she have instilled the values that would have kept her daughter from bringing a knife to school in the first place?
At this point in a teen’s life, shouldn’t they have a better grasp on good judgement? Yes, it is the responsibility of parents to take on the role of disciplinarian and teach their children how to be upstanding citizens, but where does society come in?
Is our society so comfortable with violence that it has instilled in our youth the same comfort? In the end, someone has to step up to the plate and take responsibility. Herring will have to, in prison. Her mother has to deal with the years she will lose with her daughter. And society suffers the loss of one more youth.
Shouldn’t everyone take a more active role? After all, there are children out there stabbing and being stabbed.
-Bridget Nance for the editorial board. Contributing: Lindsay Pollard.