Restoring Order: How Discipline and Moral Foundations Can End School Violence

School violence isn’t just a statistic—it’s a national crisis. The recent tragedies in Uvalde, Texas and Nashville, TN shocked the nation. But while mass shootings dominate headlines, daily violence—stabbings, assaults, and threats—plagues American schools in quieter, yet equally devastating ways.

In Colson’s essay, Guns at the Door, Please, he paints a grim picture of this reality. A Chicago high school math class becomes a crime scene. A student is fatally stabbed. Metal detectors and security guards stand as grim sentinels in hallways that should be filled with learning, not fear.

How did we get here? And more importantly—how do we stop school shootings?

The Collapse of Discipline and the Rise of Chaos

Their was a fundamental shift in the 1960s when the Supreme Court began granting students legal rights akin to adults. Schools, once extensions of parental authority, became battlegrounds of litigation. Teachers, fearing lawsuits, hesitated to enforce discipline. Students learned they could defy authority with little consequence. The result? A generation that struggles with basic literacy but excels in violence. A previous cites a study showing:

One-third of eighth graders can’t calculate a meal’s cost from a menu.

One-third of eleventh graders can’t write a coherent paragraph about themselves.

Yet, 1 in 5 twelfth-graders was injured in school last year, often due to weapons.

Rubber bands and spitballs have been replaced by handguns, knives, and brass knuckles. Schools now resemble prisons, with metal detectors, ID scanners, and armed guards—band-aid solutions that don’t address the root problem.

Uvalde: A Symptom of a Broken System

The Robb Elementary shooting in Uvalde wasn’t an anomaly—it was the horrific culmination of a culture that has lost its moral compass. While debates rage over gun control (an important discussion), we ignore the deeper issue: the erosion of discipline, respect, and moral teaching in schools.

Imagine if the Uvalde shooter had been raised in an environment where authority was respected, where conflict was resolved without violence, where he was held accountable for his actions long before he ever picked up a rifle. Would things have been different?

The Parochial School Model: A "Pocket of Excellence"

But there lies a striking contrast: in the same violent Chicago neighborhood, a parochial school, ones similar to the Intercultural Montessori Language School, thrives with strict discipline, high academic performance, and minimal violence. Why? Because it operates on unchanging moral principles.

Teachers aren’t paralyzed by fear of lawsuits. They enforce rules firmly and fairly.

Students are taught respect, responsibility, and self-control—not just algebra and history.

The school sees education as character formation, not just test preparation. This is about restoring order and expectation to teach respect and courtesy to reflect the image of God. When students know there are consequences, when they’re held to high standards, they rise to meet them.

How Do We Fix Our Schools?

Restore Teacher Authority

Stop treating schools like courtrooms. Teachers must be empowered to discipline without fear of legal retaliation.

Implement clear, consistent consequences for violence and defiance. Right now, most students know they can virtually get away with immoral behavior because there's almost no discipline or punishment. Thanks to our spineless school administrators, this students cause endless trouble and are never properly taught.

Bring Back Moral Education

Schools should teach ethics, respect, and conflict resolution—not just STEM.

Programs like character education have been shown to reduce violence and improve academic performance. Such as the ones taught by the group "Character Counts". https://charactercounts.org/

Parental and Community Involvement

Schools can’t do it alone. Parents must reinforce discipline at home. If the parents are not involved at all with their kids, they feel neglected and take their frustrations on others.

Communities should support after-school programs, mentorship, and counseling to address root causes of violence. Metal detectors and guards are temporary fixes. Real safety comes from a culture of respect, not just surveillance.

Conclusion: A Call for Radical Change

The Uvalde and Nashville shootings, the Chicago stabbing—these aren’t isolated incidents. They’re warnings. A society that abandons discipline, dismisses moral foundations, and strips authority from educators will reap chaos.

But there’s hope. Schools like the Chicago parochial example prove that structure, high expectations, and moral clarity work. We don’t need more metal detectors—we need a return to order.

If we want safer schools, we must demand a system that teaches Johnny not just how to fight—but how to think, how to respect, and how to live.