Shooting at a Cleveland School

The Cleveland Plain Dealer and newspapers across the country are reporting on a shooting at Cleveland High School, Success Tech Academy. The Cleveland paper states, "People have been shot at Success Tech High School at 1440 Lakeside Avenue in Cleveland. Paramedics were called to Room 310, where one person was shot, and Room 415, where another was shot in the lower chest." The article concludes, "A SWAT team swept through the building at 2:20 p.m. to make sure it was cleared. Students and a growing group of parents had not yet been reunited. Counselors were with the students. The SWAT team and sheriff's deputies began sweeping the second floor at 3:09 p.m."

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Questions for Younger Students

• Ask your students to recall a time recently when they got mad. Why did they get mad? How long did it take for them to stop being mad? Can students think of anything that somebody could do when they are mad to help themselves stop being mad? Explain!
• Consider asking students to develop skits in which they demonstrate what somebody could do to stop being mad.
  
• Do your students think it's OK to become angry? Why/why not? Sometimes when people become angry they try and hurt other people. Is there a difference between being angry and trying to hurt somebody else? Ask students to explain this difference.
  
• Ask students to write the word "Angry" across the top of a piece of paper. Now they should write words that begin with each letter in the word "angry."
  
• Ask your students if they like being punished. Encourage them to explain why they don't like being punished. What can students do to avoid being punished. Who's fault is it when a student is punished?
  
• Consider asking students to list appropriate ways to behave, so that they don't get punished.
  
• Do your students think they should listen to any adult, even adults they do not know? Why/why not? Is there a difference between listening to an adult and doing what the adult says? Ask students to explain the difference.
  
• Consider asking students to draw a picture of what it looks like when one person listens to another person.
  

Discussion Starters for Older Students

• Vocabulary terms to discuss: Allegedly; Self-Inflicted; Potentially; and, Custody.
  
• Ask your students why somebody would want to hurt/kill other people badly enough to shoot them. If a friend tells them that they plan on hurting somebody what kinds of options do they have in reporting this? Help students understand that they are not tattle-tailing when they report on a friend who plans on causing harm to either him/herself or others.
  
• These questions can be discussed in class.
• It's very important that students have an opportunity to share their feelings with regards to the Cleveland shooting.
  
• Ask students to write either essays or songs describing how they feel upon hearing this news. They might read these writings to the class.
  
• If students could do one thing in society to eliminate violence, what would they do? Why would they do this? Do they think it's realistic to talk about eliminating violence from society? Why/why not?
  
• Students might discuss their plans in small groups and then report back to the class.