What the hell is wrong with our parents today, allowing this crap to happen?

Now police will be in schools doing what parents should be doing instead of out in the streets. What the heck needs to happen to give these kids a chance. Parents stop having kids if your unable or not willing to lead them to be the best they can. DISGUSTING!

most of these kids any more are no more than a check every month for a drug infested parent charge the parent not the child

Ass backward thinking Kamenetz...metal detectors are a joke and creating a police state because of a couple of troubled kids is literally a cop out. You can throw all the cops on the force at this and there will still be a few problems every year. Pull your head out and lead for a change that will make a difference.

Install a "No Packpack" rule, or clear packpacks only.

Troubled people will always find a way to lash out. Put all the metal detectors you want up in schools. Kids will use utensils from the cafeteria. Make them eat with their hands, and they will use pens and pencils. If you cannot stop violence and murder with weapons in the most secure prisons in America, how on earth do you think you can stop it in schools? I Don't know how you stop it, but metal detectors and more police in the schools is not the answer. We spend too much time and money on the touchy-feely cures, not enough on real cures.

The reason that things have come to this point in society is what needs to be addressed, not more cops or metal detectors. Those are loser solutions that will never address the issues. Why was it not this bad 5 0r 10 years ago? What has changed?

Maybe the public will start to acknowledge that too many kids are damaged before they even enter the doors of the schoolhouse and give us the funds and means to help them. Thank God we have teachers like Mr. Wassmer et al and the female teacher from Stemmers Run that once again put their personal safety and well being aside for the good of the children in the schoolhouse.

I think that it should be as difficult to have a child as it is to adopt a child. I know I am talking about a perfect world, but if "parents" had to go through some type of process to prove they are capable.
Other tim, I agree we are much too touchy- feely.

Oh heck i wonder where the School Police Ofc. was at during both of these cases in baltimore county... we are paying i am sure hundred of thousands of dollars to have these school officers and still have these type of cases andworseyet iswe are haing more than ever ??? How about spending less on the useless S.O.R List and use someof that money to beef up school security and protect our kids against each other.

a question to the schools and police, are each and every person entering the school going to be searched?( students, teachers, visitors)

What needs to happen is our perceived leaders need to quit making knee jerk decisions...like ..lets add one more police officer to every Baltimore County school...what a lame, and expensive stunt that will never make a difference.
If Kamenetz would urinate into a stiff breeze he'd get the same result...

To Other Tim,

I agree this is a knee jerk reaction, but so are the speed cameras that you defend over and over, they are touchy feely and yet to be proven effective. If you really wanted to slow people down, then engineer solutions, not just photograph infractions. So at least the speed cameras have freed up the police to do stuff like this, isn't that what we were told the cameras would do?

The reason that these incidents seem worse is because of the instant media attention that was not around 10 years ago....same problem, only sensationalized by the media instantly....this is what today's youth experience that those in the past did not. While I guess instant news might be good in weather related issues, I'm not really sure that it doesn't contribute in some way to current events..

As a parent, you should feel that putting your child on a school bus and sending them to school is a safe place. But with these incidents you can't help but feel concern. Gun laws need to be enforced. I am not a fan of guns in a house with children. Why you need a gun when you have children living in or visiting your home will never be something that I understand. That being said, the black market for guns, and the actual process for obtaining a gun needs to be revisited by law enforcement. Locks need to be mandatory, maybe instill a gun registry system that every household with a gun needs to have it registered and periodically checked to ensure it is safely stored. Maybe the right to bare arms in general needs to be revisited. A 13-year-old should not have access to a gun or hunting knives or anything like that. A real question is why did he need this? Why didn't his parents provide support to help him understand that playing with guns is wrong and can hurt someone, why was he bringing these weapons to school in the first place. Parents need to be in control, take responsibility for their child's actions. I'm glad they've charged the grandfather. Something needs to be done to address this, and anti-bullying campaigns need to be stepped up so that kids don't feel they need to take a weapon to school to defend themselves. It's a horrible, scary world we live in. How do we protect our kids and make the world a better place to grow up?

Unfortunately, it's never going to happen in this country Stacey. There are too many Elmer Fudds in this country.