Hostage rescue: another reason to liberate the schools.

• Author: Hazlett, Thomas W.
• Position: Reforming the culture of American public high schools

The corpses weren't even cold when the tragedy in Littleton, Colorado, triggered yet a new assault by political opportunists. Those pushing gun control exploited the situation to greatest effect, but the crusaders against TV violence and video game brutality, along with evangelists for family values and Internet censorship, also made very strong showings.

The senseless violence we observe at irregular intervals in our public schools freezes the national psyche. Gripped by fear, we are sitting ducks for each new policy fix. We will almost certainly embrace a new gun control measure to join existing state and federal bans on firearms within 1,000 feet of a school; doubtless, the new law will prove just as effective a deterrent as the old ones.

Through Election 2000, we will read about the Special Commissions, the congressional hearings, and the White House Task Forces on Violence in the Media. No one, rest assured, will rudely call attention to the failure of previous "solutions," such as the 1996 Telecommunications Act's "V-chip" and "voluntary" TV ratings.

Time to look elsewhere for answers. Rather than wondering what Congress can do, why not ask a different sort of question, such as, What kind of institution considers it ordinary for children to daily quench a thirst for hatred?

The answer, of course, is the American public high school. In middle-class Littleton, the rights of pre-adult man have evolved such that dressing "gothic" or issuing a sensational death threat is a free and accepted lifestyle choice. Of course, the in-crowd's taunting of the socially awkward is equally respected by "authority." After all, for public schools to slap down such behavior would trample the Constitution. While citizens rightly do not want government bureaucrats freelancing with their own moral codes, our children can't afford principals without principles.

The principal of Littleton's Columbine High said he had no idea that students at his school were members of a "Trench Coat Mafia" - the sobriquet, well-known among the students, was news to him. As a government official, his live-and-let-live approach is admirable.

But this man runs a school and his abdication creates a leadership vacuum into which punks get sucked. It seems incomprehensible that the adults at Columbine were unable to recognize, much less police, the anger, confusion, and raging hormones of the young men under their charge. In delegating education to state operators, we have kidnapped...