Unfortunately, the list of banned weapons--guns, knives, bombs--doesn't include the instruments actually triggering those tragedies: intolerance, ridicule, bigotry, bias.
Despite the efforts to humanize school experiences, students still split into factions based on social and financial status, appearance, athletic prowess, popularity, race, ethnicity, religion, culture.
Schools still harbor the same old cliques: the socials, jocks, nerds, geeks, dopers, the ins, the outs.
Even simple efforts to break down those barriers meet with great resistance from students and parents. Witness the backlash generated by suggestions that student uniforms would eliminate preoccupations with appearance and status.
And in honoring and promoting "diversity," educators instead encourage the balkanization of America's campuses.
The goal of "diversity" actually works against assimilation of students into the mainstream, contradicting the image of America as the world's melting pot.
Expel school cliques. (2 MAY 1999)
