Here’s more evidence that the social fabric is fraying: a high school senior was stabbed to death in a fight that spilled into an Alexandria neighborhood shopping center a couple of days ago. Just as Americans seem powerless to stop tragedies like the Uvalde school shooting, we seem impotent to halt the far more common number of incidents with smaller body counts.
Several elements fuel the combustion. One is the ubiquity of guns in the United States (although it must be noted that the Alexandria student was stabbed, not shot). Another is the surge in mental illness. Democrats emphasize the guns, Republicans the mental illness, each in line with their respective desires to indict or absolve firearms. But I suspect there are other factors at play, at least in incidents like the Alexandria fracas: cell phones and the erosion of adult authority. Arguments originating in social media during the school day often get resolved outside school. As one of the parents in the video above observed, “The kids are out of control.”
And adults are helpless to control them, she could have added.
Better physical security inside schools will help prevent lone shooters from entering into the schools. (See Jim Sherlock’s recent column.) There is something to be said for that. But I question whether school “hardening” can do anything to curtail fights that take place outside schools in nearby parking lots. — JAB
