During the 1997-98 school year, the American public was riveted by the images: small town and suburban schools taped off by police-lines, paramedics rushing to wheel tiny bodies away on gurneys and kids being carted off in hand-cuffs. As the national news media poured into Pearl, Mississippi; West Paducah, Kentucky; Jonesboro, Arkansas; Edinboro, Pennsylvania and Springfield, Oregon; the magnified coverage of these highly unusual crime stories turned into what some news outlets described as "an …showed first 75 words of 223 total…

…showed last 75 words of 223 total…it: "It scares me to death that I'm sending my child to a school...and in light of getting an education, I may end up burying her."(1) A middle school principal from a community that has experienced a 26 percent drop in juvenile crime - a community that hasn't had a murder arrest of an adult or juvenile in two years - warned a reporter after the Jonesboro shooting, "It could happen any place."(2) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**