Summer break for students is usually a pretty good time.

Some students have to work, but lots of others just sleep in, get up and hang out at the beach.

Lots of teachers pick up summer jobs to supplement their income. Others play lots of golf.

Also in the summer, some states offer training programs for educators to hone their teaching skills.

But this summer, the tragedies in Mississippi, Kentucky, Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Oregon have raised the bar on these summer sessions.

Now states are offering training programs like "school safety" and "crisis management."

The following tidbits were gleaned from a story that moved on Scripps Howard News Service.

• Florida is helping large and small, rural and metro school districts develop localized school safety programs.

• In Missouri, school and law enforcement officials got together to develop a plan to address school violence and juvenile crime.

• In New Jersey, training teachers to deal with violent situations is a year-round process. In the summer, additional sessions help teachers devise strategies for dealing with conflict and violence in the classroom.

• In Tennessee, a recent school safety clinic trained administrators to respond quickly to violent behavior by students.

• Also in Tennessee, the "Peaceable Schools Program" integrates conflict resolution and mediation skills in the the curriculum.

• The National Parent Teacher Association recently released a violence prevention packet that advises local PTA on how to implement change.

And right here in Kosciusko County, Warsaw schools put a pilot restricted access program in effect at the high school a couple years ago.

The program was expanded to include all the schools in the corporation during the last school year. The program calls for having all the doors to the school locked - except for one main entrance - during the day. The idea is to create a more secure environment for the students.

Superintendent Lee Harman said the plan generally has received a good response from the public.

WCS has a crisis manual that continues to be revised and all staff members are trained in what action to take under a variety of circumstances.

"We try to be prepared, but we still have work to do," Harman said.

Another pilot program at the high school will place video cameras on the exterior of the high school to monitor the parking lot.

The school may look at more cameras on entrances and perhaps a keyless entry system.

"We can't cover all the bases," Harman said. "There are too many variables. But at least we are taking some commons sense measures."

The problem with all this, Harman said, is that it is eating into the dollars the school would like to use to teach reading and writing and arithmetic.

"We have no choice. It's just another way our resources are channeled in a different direction than we would like to see them channeled," Harman said.

And you know what? My guess is that an increasing amount of resources will be channeled toward those types of programs in the future.

It's just the way things are going.

In the 1950s teachers reported the top three problems with students were talking out of turn, chewing gum and cutting in line.

Today the top three complaints are weapons, drugs and teen pregnancy.

My what a long way we've come. We've become so enlightened.

Lots of people don't teach kids right from wrong any more.

And when a kid screws up, we certainly can't administer any discipline. Especially teachers. If teachers administer a little discipline, they can wind up in court.

We are immersed in moral relativism - no absolutes. No rights, no wrongs. What's wrong for me is not necessarily wrong for you.

That might work for some insignificant issues, but when it slops over into the realm of shooting up a classroom I think we can all agree its wrong.

Somewhere along the line, the wires in the mind of that young person got crossed. Shooting up a classroom is not something that comes naturally. It's learned behavior.

It comes from practicing situational ethics. You know how that works. We all can agree that stealing is wrong, but what if you steal from the government? What if you cheat on your taxes, even just a little?

Hey, that's OK. The government deserves it.

It has become possible for a twisted young mind to rationalize murder given the proper situation.

We, as a society have worked very hard to remove morality from our landscape.

There was a political cartoon in this newspaper a week or so ago. It showed a White House spokesman at the podium. He says, "Sen. Lott says that homosexual behavior is a sin. Where does he get such a misguided, backward, irrational idea?"

Next to the panel is a drawing of the Holy Bible with Trent Lott's name embossed in small letters on the cover.

I thought the cartoon was a breath of fresh air because generally, when people like Lott take a stand, they are roundly criticized in the press. It's not politically correct, you see. We are not allowed to offend anyone.

Lots of people have worked very hard to make sure Biblical principles are not forced on anyone in this country.

I believe they are now beginning to reap the fruits of their labor.

It is those principles that bind this country together and give us a thread of civil continuity. The farther we stray from them, the farther we stray from the founders' intent, the more violent and deviant society will become.

Some of my liberal friends say this is the price we must pay for liberty, progress and enlightenment.

If that's the price, then the price is too high.

A question for the enlightened.

Wouldn't it be nice if the most troubling thing that happened to your kid at school was someone cutting in line in front of him? [[In-content Ad]]