SCHOOL VIOLENCE NEWS REPORT скачать в хорошем качестве

SCHOOL VIOLENCE NEWS REPORT

September 8, 2008 Warren Gerds column: Public TV documentary details East High School shooting threat in 2006 Coming at a difficult topic from many angles, a new TV documentary examines the 2006 threats of violence against Green Bay East High School. "Any School, Any Time" is a compelling hour. It seeks balance and perspective in a case where deadly harm appears to have been averted. Everything is told through a sophisticated technique that uses no narration, which could take on a slant. Rather, only the voices of people interviewed or recorded in news conferences, court or jail are heard. Also, instead of quick sound bites, key people are allowed to be heard at length so explanations are fleshed out. This includes the Brown County district attorney, a representative of the U.S. Secret Service, Green Bay police chief, defense attorneys, a forensic psychiatrist and presiding judge. Also appearing are East High administrators, teachers and students, the Green Bay school superintendent, experts and the defendants (in jail or court). Woven in is news footage from the case, with references to the shootings at Columbine and Virginia Tech. "Any School, Any Time" is fascinating for how it brings out controversies, dilemmas, theories, contradictions, paradoxes and issues involving school shootings. Producers and editors Dean Thomas and Alex Zacarias expertly create a valuable resource for schools and source of information for the public. The program traces the East case from discovery through the trial and aftermath. A few notable points: • Georgeann Rooney, threat assessment specialist with the Secret Service, says there is no clear profile for school shooters. They vary greatly, she says. • The camera follows a lockdown at East. Students silently gather to the side of rooms. For anyone who has not experienced a lockdown, it's a chilling scene. • The history of East is recounted, from it being one of the earliest high schools in the nation to its ties to the Green Bay Packers. Brown County Circuit Court Judge J.D. McKay's defense of the school became the source of the title when he said. "This could have happened at any high school, any time." "Any School, Any Time" is made by Educational Television Productions of Northeast Wisconsin and 3N Productions. The Web site www.anyschoolany time.com provides resources. The documentary came out of a conversation between Thomas and Zacarias about the incident at East and its aftermath. They decided "to look behind the scenes, see what's going on and cover it for a long period of time, kind of go behind what all the news stories are," Thomas said. "This is the kind of thing we're here to do — the in-depth pieces and to tell the greater story." The entity that Thomas heads is the product of community response a few years ago to keep a public TV documentary unit going in Green Bay. "School violence has been in the news quite a while," Thomas said. "We wanted to tell that story right in our own backyard — to look at that specifically — but then to touch on all the greater issues that are always coming up — guns in schools, metal detectors, cameras and 'That's the answer,' 'This is the answer' and 'What can be done?' 'Are we more violent?' — those issues that arise that we keep talking and talking about."