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Tragedy highlights system's failure

Once again, the nation is in shock over a school shooting. Once again, a child has violated a space once thought safe, and a little girl whose life barely had begun is dead. Once again, the facts of this troubling episode are revealed, the sheer tragedy of this young man's life becomes apparent. His life, plagued with troubles, should serve as a wake up call to this desensitized society. This case is disturbing because it could have been prevented at so many turns. This child's life was littered with clues as to his family's dysfunction. Instead of the nation once again being shocked by this crime, it should be spurred into action. Steps should be taken to make sure that clearly troubled children are not lost in the system again.

Tuesday's violence was not the first time this troubled boy acted out. In fact, it was just the latest act in his violent behavior. This youth previously had been suspended for stabbing another child with a pencil. It is not clear if after this suspension the child was sent to any sort of school sponsored counseling. But when a child of such a young age is already acting out violently, it is clear that their is something wrong with his life.

If the school ever did make an inquiry as to why this child was behaving in such a way, they did not seem to uncover the instability of his home life. The little boy was living with his mother and older brother in a "flop house," where people would drop in at all hours of the day. The family was evicted from their previous residence because of financial trouble, and were living with their uncle. The boy's father was out of his life and in jail. This child's home life was obviously unstable, and he was in turmoil because of it.

In this environment, with little parental or adult supervision, a six year old child easily found a stolen handgun. It was hidden in a room along with drugs and a loaded .12 gauge shotgun. This clearly was no place for a child to be living.

Regardless, it is easy for us to make judgments about how this boy's life could have been different. There are so many "what ifs" in this case. If only the school had dug deeper into this child's home life, if only protective services had taken this child before, if only there were no guns allowed in our communities. If any, or all of these things had been done, a little boy in Michigan would not have to live with the stain of a killing on his tiny hands and a little girl would be at home at her family.

But the weight of all these missed opportunities should not prevent us from taking a hard look at how society failed this boy. What should we change? There is already legislation against parental neglect, illegal drug consumption, against leaving handguns in the paths of children. None of these laws prevented this boy's actions. The problem is not a lack of legislation, but a number of deep social problems that concern our nation.

The Michigan boy's case is filled with the toughest issue our society is facing. These issues include gun control, crime, drug addiction, juvenile crime, parental neglect, poverty and the affects of imprisonment on inmates' families. All of these problems affect American children profoundly, and their solutions will not be found easily.

Nonetheless, American children like the Michigan youth deserve to have these problem's death with. Perhaps if more schools had mental health workers on staff, or if social services had more money and social workers, a tragic case like this boy's would not escape notice again.

So many things this case brings forth must change if children are to be safe at school. For every child who takes a gun to school, there are probably hundreds more how suffer in similar conditions. These child victims deserve our best efforts in making sure this never happens again.