AFRAID TO GO TO SCHOOL

I am a senior, so I have been in school a long time. Never once have I felt that my life was in danger, but lately I'm starting to wonder if I should. The thought of being shot at or seriously injured never crossed my mind until the recent outbreaks of shooting incidents in Mississippi, Kentucky and Arkansas.

In seventh grade, a few kids brought weapons to school, and I think an unloaded gun was confiscated, but everyone thought that those kids were just seeking attention. No one really believed that they had any intention of hurting anyone. Where once kids would fight with their fists, now they fight with guns. Influenced by television, video games and books, juvenile violence is becoming more common than ever before.

On a December morning in West Paducah, Ky., an unexpected tragedy occurred. A group of high school students had gathered in the hallway for a moment of prayer as they did every day. Michael Carneal, a freshman at Heath High School in West Paducah, had warned a few people not to attend the prayer meeting that Monday morning. Feeling that Carneal was just joking around, most of group attended the meeting and ignored the warnings. As the amen was said at the end of the meeting, the 35 members of the circle held hands, the first shots were fired.

Carneal is accused of taking the lives of three schoolmates: Nicole Hadley, 14, Kayce Steger, 15, and Jessica James, 17. Five other students were injured, one of them left paralyzed from the waist down. The nation hoped that the Heath High School tragedy was a once-in-a-lifetime event.

But on March 24 in Jonesboro, Ark., a community of less than 50,000 people, tragedy struck again. This time, five lives were lost, four of which were classmates and one teacher.

Two young boys, ages 11 and 13, dressed in camouflage shirts apparently hid in the trees in ambush fashion waiting for their unexpected victims. It is believed that one of the boys tripped the school fire alarm and then quickly ran back to the woods nearby to carry out the plan. As the students and teachers filed out of the building, they were met with gunfire from high-powered rifles. When the shots ceased, five people were dead and 11 other students and teachers injured.

About 300 kids in grades six through nine attend the Westside School in Jonesboro. The town was devastated by the shooting, and classes at the school were canceled the next day. The two young boys were taken into custody. Because of their young ages, they can only be tried for their crimes as juveniles in Arkansas. This means that even with the maximum sentence, they will be released at the age of 18.

There have been other school shootings in recent months. In October 1997, a 16-year-old boy allegedly killed two students and wounded seven others in Pearl, Miss. Another 14-year-old boy was arrested after two students were wounded outside a school in Stamps, Ark., in December.

Earlier this month, President Clinton launched a school safety initiative to keep drugs and firearms out of the hands of children. Community leaders and parents have launched a record number of programs to steer youth away from such detrimental activities such as drugs, alcohol and gangs and toward productive activities. To strengthen their campaigns, dozens of towns have imposed strict curfews.

Denver, for instance, is determined to head off a reprise of last year when a string of vicious youth crimes unhinged the city. The upshot is an activities budget of $6 million, twice the amount of the budget one year ago. Recreation programs, from swimming and camping to video production, have grown from 900 last year to 1,300 this summer.

Luring youth into parks to try tennis or rock climbing isn't just a pitch for frivolous fun. A report by the San Francisco-based Trust for Public Land documents a decline in crime in neighborhoods that provide adequate parks and recreation activities for youth. In most cities, there are plenty of parks, but in the poor areas of the city, parks are few. No one knows exactly what to do about the increase in violence, but everyone realizes that we need to do something.

I hope that in Cape Girardeau we can come up with a solution to keep violence levels low and avoid a tragedy like the murders of Kentucky, Arkansas and Mississippi. And who's to say where it will stop: our elementary schools, or even preschool? I'm not so worried about my life, because I'll be graduating soon, but I am concerned about the safety of the future students in our public school system.

Josh Ferguson is a senior at Cape Girardeau's Central High School. He is the son of Rev. Kim and Donal Ferguson.