"Only White Schools Have Shootings"... Wanna Bet?

So, this conversation happened in my trailer:

Student: Ms W., what is this you handed me?

Me: It’s a tardy warning from the office.

Student: Does it matter?

Student 2: No, they give it to you when you have 20 tardies.

Student 1: Oh, okay.

Now, our school may be crazytown, but our policy is not that 20 tardies get you a warning. It’s one tardy, a warning; 2 tardies, a lunch detention, 3 tardies, a parent meeting, etc. But my students haven’t heard about the policy; they’re just drawing off of what they see. And they’re right: this year, twenty tardies means a warning. Maybe.

In other news, several of my third block were bundled back into class after I dismissed them today. They said they’d been told to return to class. A few minutes later, we were put in lockdown. My kids started texting; I started grading. Then their texts yielded news. Six students shot behind D Building. Nope, six shots fired, nobody hurt. Nope, two rounds fired by students. Nope, a neighborhood man angry that kids keep trespassing on his property fired shots in warning at them.

After school, and we’re still in the dark, except that we know that nobody was hit. I think back to this morning, when a student researching abnormal psych told me he’s so glad we go to a minority school, “because, Ms. W, no offense, but only white people shoot up schools" (another kid: "She's not white, she's Jewish!"). While it may be an assertion that needs a little bit of critical examination, it kept me feeling safe during our lockdown today. Sure, we might have proportionally more shots fired than primarily Caucasian schools, but we don't need to fear a mass, school-wide shooting. My student said so, and he knows.