ONE IN FIVE boys took a weapon to school in the past year. ONE IN FIVE.

[DesignDawg]

Geez.

That's WAAAY too many. For a medium-sized high school of 2000, that's 400 weapons. Holy crap. --And that's just the number of weapons people ADMITTED they took to school. Of course, I am basing this stat on what I heard on the news. So, come in here and refute it based on "liberal news sources" or whatever you want to do. Say what you like about "believing everything you hear on the news." The fact is, it's a published report, and those numbers are TOO HIGH. Even if they're HALF that many (1 out of 10), it's a scary thought.

[Edit: At first they were saying "gun" but now they have changed the report to "weapon." Still scary though.]

The survey


Ricky
DesignDawg

 

[Yo Ma Ma]

Stats are too easy to mess with, especially on the news. "Weapon" in this case could mean anything including a compass and a pen knife.

 

[mjquilly]

bull

 

[DesignDawg]

See? Will it take you actually being SHOT while driving by a school for you people to believe there is a problem? Be skeptical about things. Sure. But just refuting stats so you don't have to worry about it? Sick.

Ricky
DesignDawg

 

[ThisIsMatt]

Hmmm, not good. We need better odds, should be at least 3 to 5, then at least a few could fight back.



















kidding people, kidddddddiiiiing!

 

[Yo Ma Ma]

Ricky, I'm not denying there is a problem, but for one I can't see the stats you are referring to, you posted as though you'd only heard them on the news. The news is suck, they say all kinds of horrific things but when you try to get to the meat of it it's just not there, in my experience in listening to the news. If there's something in print - great - I'll be glad to to read it.

And I'm serious about the stats, you can make them say whatever you want.

 

[Ronstang]

Where's this school? Sounds like an inner city school that is populated by nothing but little gang members, if it even exists. I doubt this info is really accurate. How was the data obtained? Just because someone admitted something does not make it true. Little punks might think it is macho to admit they took a gun to school even though they did not. Was this extrapolated data? If so then phewwwwwwwww. I agree with you that this is bad if true, but I seriosly doubt it. I bet almost noone has ever taken a gun to the High School in my neighborhood.

 

[Viper GTS]

When I was in grade-school there were lots of times I went to school with a knife. I normally carried a pocketknife, & if I forgot to take it out before I left for school I'd have it at school. Big deal. It stayed in my pocket, nobody knew.

The term "weapon" can be interpreted very loosely. Hell, a compass or even a mechanical pencil can be wicked if used as a stabbing device. Just because someone HAD a "weapon" with them doesn't mean they intended it as such, or intended to use it.

While those figures may be accurate depending on your definition of weapon, they're certainly designed to get publicity.

Temper them with reality & things don't seem nearly so bleak.

Viper GTS

 

[DesignDawg]

It's not one school. It was a survey taken of 15,000 or 25,000 students or something. Taken by the Institute of Ethics Studies. Guys, stop with the "compass and pencil" stuff. No one would consider those weapons for the purpose of answering a poll. -Unless they were taken with the sole purpose of USING them as weapons. And, what? Temper it with REALITY? The REALITY is that not only are WAAAAY too many kids taking weapons to school, they are USING THEM. -Or do you think the news about kds killing all their classmates is made up, too? Maybe you would see things as not-so-sunny if you had a loved one in gradeschool? The REALITY, polls aside, is NOT something that makes the situation seem less bleak.

Ricky
DesignDawg

 

[Plantanthera]

That seemed to be a bit too far fetch, But IMHO it is not acceptable to have even 1 gun in a school of 20000 students.

 

[Yo Ma Ma]

Haha, no the kids answering probably didn't say "yeah I carry a uziCompass in my pocket", but one of the questions might have been "do you have a sharp object in your possession" or something along those lines, then the answers are interpreted later to mean they have a "weapon" on them, etc.

Is the survey available for reading?

 

[DesignDawg]

Yo,

I'm sure it is. I'm looking.

Ricky
DesignDawg

 

[Viper GTS]

While a mechanical pencil would certainly be stretching the definition of weapon, a compass would not. The compass I had in my desk in gradeschool was a miniature icepick - 2.5" steel shank (1.5mm diameter) with a needle sharp point, attached to a thin arm, how could that not be interpreted as a weapon?

My pocketknife could certainly be called a weapon, but I did not intend it as such & certainly did not intend to use it. Did I have it at school? Yes. So technically I'd be one of those "one in five" boys that answered yes to that poll. But the reality was that it wasn't a problem.

While I understand the horror of school violence, surveys like this aren't helping any. All that's going to result is the increase of fear, a reduction in common sense, & an epidemic of paranoia.

Viper GTS

 

[DesignDawg]

BTW, if we can't find this report on the web right now, it doesn't mean it's not published. The vast majority of published, documented information in the world is NOT on the internet.

Ricky
DesignDawg

 

[datalink7]

I think that, out of 1700 students at my high school, 0 have brought guns in this year.

 

[konichiwa]

It's a frightening stat, but it's a stat, and that's the problem. My AP Statistics teacher always said that Statistics are useless, because they only reflect what the giver of the statistics wants them to reflect. And that's the truth, Ruth.

 

[Dameon]

amen to that konichiwa... took prob and stats in high school, then did work as a pollster and saw how bad it was. Man, they rig stats like no tomorrow.

"*If* I told you senator so-and-so was a alcoholic necropiliac, would that more you more likely, less likely, or would it make no difference as to whether you vote for senator so and so."

 

[DesignDawg]

here is the data on the survey

Ricky
DesignDawg

 

[KevinH]

NO offense Ricky, but you're surveying HS kids. Is there a problem? Yes. Is it 1/5 heck no. Ask any HS kid and every kid is a G, has a brother whose down. A lot of these fools just talk smack to look hard. It happened even when I was in HS, everyone's a perpetrator. Nowadays with the sh1t they see on the tele, it's cool to sound like a fuggen tough guy. Hell I grew up in San Gabriel, a hop skip and a jump away from East LA. There used to be brawls going down all the time at San Gabriel High, Mexican gangs and Viet/Chinese gangs scrapping all the time and even there the proportions weren't NEARLY as bad as that.

 

[RossMAN]

Funny you mention this, I heard about this on TV tonight in one of those sappy touching commercials.

 

[UCBPride]

"There are three types of lies: Lies, Damned lies, and Statistics" - Mark Twain

 

[JohnnyKnoxville]

If 1 in 5 students carried a gun to school,you would very likely have a shooting every week if not more.Sorry i do'nt believe the liberal media hype.Y2K anyone?

 

[DesignDawg]

BTW, enough of the speculation and crap about people just saying it to brag. It was a paper survey, done anonymously, and the wordking of the data on the press release page appears as it did on the survey.

Example:

Question #15 on the survey read:

15. It's sometimes OK to hit or threaten a person who makes me very angry.

Below were the options:

strongly disagree - disagree - not sure - agree - strongly agree

I know, I know, the poll would probably have come out slightly different if the question had been asked differently, such as "It's never OK to hit or threaten a person who makes me very angry."

You guys in stats classes aren't telling me anything I didn't learn in MY stats classes as well. But these numbers are not fun, nonetheless.

Ricky
DesignDawg

 

[DesignDawg]

<< If 1 in 5 students carried a gun to school,you would very likely have a shooting every week if not more. >>

Please. First, when there is a school shooting, there's usually at least one more in that week. Also, your post is PURE speculation. -And it's not necessarily even a logical assumption. -Unless you think guns kill people without the help of a shooter.

Ricky
DesignDawg

 

[Yo Ma Ma]

The stat was 21% said they'd carried a weapon to school at least one time that year.