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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 3, 1998)
CONTACTING US NEWSROOM: ADDRESS: (541)346-5511 Oregon Daily Emerald E-MAIL P.O.BOX 3159 ode@oregon. uoregon.edu Eugene, Oregon 97403 ONLINE EDITION: m uoregon edu/-ode EDITOR IN CHIEF Sarah Kickler editorial editor Mike Schmierbach MIGHT EDITOR Nicole Krueger Sarah Kickler Children should be held responsible for violence Recent incidents of juvenile crime cannot be blamed simply on the media or ‘Southern culture’ Rambo’s got nothing on these kids. Ten days ago, two youths gunned down their classmates at Westside Middle School in Jones boro, Ark. When the chaos ended, four girls and a teacher lay dead, apparently the victims of two boys not yet old enough to drive away in their getaway van. Dressed in camouflage, Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, are accused of hunting their peers with OPINION Jonas Allen an arsenal worthy of Hollywood’s most spectacular action movies. But while the tragedy shocked the nation and the small town of Jonesboro, Johnson and Golden are not alone on the chain gang of murder ous minors. On Dec. 1, 1997, rvucnaei i^ameai, 14, waiKea into Hearn High School in West Paducah, Ky., ready for a test. According to U.S. News & World Report, what he tested were the limits of a pistol, two shotguns, two rifles and 700 rounds of ammunition. Cameal was accused of killing three classmates and wounding five others, one of whom was left paralyzed. Nearly two years before Cameal’s rampage, 14-year-old Barry Loukaitis aimed an assault rifle at an algebra class, killing two classmates and a teacher at Frontier Junior High School in Moses Lake, Wash. Despite the elements of a Hollywood shoot-’em-up blockbuster, these stories have no happy endings. The victims are not extras; they are real people with real families. Some are left really dead. The only prequel we have is recounted in the history of school records and family memories. And the thought of a sequel makes the nation shudder. Child violence is not a new topic, al though the extent to which it is being car ried out is not ordinary. For decades, people have blamed delinquent behavior on numerous things. First it was ghetto life. Then it was the infamous media, from music to television and movies. But while the youths’ arsenals resembled those in "Rambo,” the chances of the stu dents being old enough to even remem ber that movie are slim, at best. The most recent shooting spree has been blamed on a “Southern subculture of violence,” according to U.S. News & World Report. So why will the next stu dents be out for first blood? Who or what can we blame for these violent behaviors when they happen again? The transition from a “Field of Dreams" to a “Children of the Com” so ciety did not happen overnight. Accord ing to U.S. News & World Report, the ju venile homicide rate rose nearly 57 percent between 1990 and 1996. With such violent crimes over the last two years, it is ignorant to think the most re cent actions will end up as isolated inci dents. What people have ignored is that the scapegoat for these crimes has wandered through the gates of nearly every demo graphic in America. The most common excuse for criminal behavior is an unsta ble family. But according to The Associ ated Press, one successful security sys tem used parents and grandparents as hall monitors at a high school in Alexan dria, Va. So it must have been an anomaly when three youths beat a Eugene man to death for $90 last July. After all, one of the as sailants was tie victim’s own grand daughter. There was no “Southern sub culture,” no ghetto and no violent movie. Rather, there were three teens, unable to vote yet able to violently rob an elderly man. What has troubled the nation more: that these crimes were committed at all or that they were committed by children? Johnson and Golden, Jonesboro’s sus pected schoolyard assassins, thought like adult criminals. According to U.S. News & World Report, the suspects robbed Golden’s grandfather to get seven of their 10 guns and barreled down specific girls. They packed sleeping bags and a radio and even stole a getaway van. They also packed two bags of potato chips and a stuffed animal. These delinquents are truly children, but they are also criminals and victims. Robbed of their youth and innocence, these children must be reprimanded for robbing others of their lives. There is no one to blame but the students them selves. The future of these juveniles is in the legal crosshairs, and the courts must not fail to pull the trigger on accountabil ity for these murders. Children used to play Cowboys and In dians and tie each other to trees. Now they choose to hide behind trees and exe cute their classmates. Scraped knee or broken law, youths must accept the con sequences of their “games.” Jonas Allen is a columnist for the Emerald. His work appears on alternate Fridays. His views do not necessarily represent those of the newspaper. Thumb TO THEU.S. HOUSE: Surprisingly, the full House voted down a proposal by Oregon Rep. Bob Smith that would have made it easy to cut down “un healthy" forests. Un der Smith's proposal, forests would have been rescued from the dangers of fire and dis ease by clear cutting. Smith's plan and oth ers like it are ways for the timber industry to circumvent environ mental laws without penalty. Thumb TO CHANGES IN OREGON UNIVERSITY SYSTEM FUNDING: Oregon’s public in stitutions will begin keeping their own tu ition money instead of pooling it. The Register-Guard ac curately pointed out some of the prob lems with this in an editorial. Its biggest fear is a legitimate one: Smaller schools that charge less tu ition and attract few er out-of-state stu dents, such as Southern Oregon University, will lose funding from already tight budgets. An ad ditional concern not raised by The Regis ter-Guard is also cru cial: The proposal would hurt many vf tai programs. Be cause schools will compete for stu dents, especially out of-state students, programs that ap peal to only a few students and that don’t attract wealthy students or non-Ore gonians will likely be cut, while those classes that prove popular will become redundant features at all Oregon universi ties. finally, the greatest risk is that large portions of scholarship funds will go to attract first year, out-of-state students, who will then lose their fund ing In following years (after they have set tled into Eugene). CORRECTION The Programs Finance Committee funded an across-the-board increase of 1.9 percent—just below its benchmark of 2 percent. The article “Senate ap proves budgets, sets measures” (ODE, April 2) quoted one RFC member as say ing the committee had come in just over its benchmark. In addition, the tag ac companying the story should have said ASUO Student Senate. The article titled, “OSPIRG survey protests surcharges at ATM machines" (ODE, April 2) should have said the U.S. General Accounting Office reported that banks earned $2.5 billion in profits from ATM surcharging in 1997. The Emerald regrets the errors.
