photo by Boyd Loving
Readers say Tragic Window Jumper give cause for Concern ,but does over protection of kids do more harm than good ?
…..An upstairs window that can easily be flung open is a hazard. Children do not understand all the risks, they see super heroes flying on TV, they are melodramatic. It is the job of adults to protect them in reasonable ways. Making windows difficult to open wide makes complete sense, and it should be done at the schools. This horrible tragedy could have been prevented. This poor child’s impulsive fatal act would never have happened. Let us learn from this . I can guarantee that if this had been a Ridgewood incident, windows would be secured immediately.
When we over-react to incidents we create unexpected harms and we create tax burdens. In fact, were it an event we should react to, it would likely not even be a news story. Suicide, obesity, drug addiction, car accidents. These events really kill kids. Falls from windows?–Not so much. Spend those precious resources where they do the most good, not where the latest news story points.
Also note that in most schools k-2 are downstairs. So we are talking about kids that are at least 8 years old. These are not accidents where a toddler leans against a window in a tenement and falls 10 stories.
We are talking about kids who are 8-10 who are climbing on chairs or furniture to lean out the window or to jump out the window. So this supposed “risk” only exists when a teacher has completely lost control of the classroom and a kid is doing something he/she is old enough to know is dumb/wrong. You cannot protect people against every possible harm they can do to themselves. Sometimes a tragic accident is just that, a tragic accident.
9:17 – some tragic accidents can easily be prevented. Your thinking is flawed.
12.41: Not when someone has decided to kill themselves. There will typically be something fairly close at hand that will be the suicide method of least resistance.
12:41. If the person is acting irrationally anything can happen. We can’t bar all windows to prevent this from happening again. It is hard to imagine that this action was done by a child with no other underlying issues. Maybe the school was unaware, but something was going on.
Schools and teachers are not responsible for the actions of individuals.
The more methods you eliminate, the less likely the suicide will happen.
the more freedoms you eliminate the less likely the suicide will happen…
…the less likely anything will happen