FULL TRANSCRIPT OF THE ROBERT LANE INTERVIEWS

FULL TRANSCRIPT OF THE ROBERT LANE INTERVIEWS

(FIRST INTERVIEW: 2 MINUTES IN LENGTH)

REPORTER (QUESTION): I have just one simple question. As a parent, as a resident, citizen, what would you do about school violence? What’s the answer?

ROBERT LANE, PARENT (ANSWER): (Pause) Boy. (Pause) That’s a big question (Pause) First off, I would make zero tolerance. If anyone has a gun or a weapon in school and is caught with it, they are out and permanently.

Secondly, I think that metal detectors are a pretty good idea and I don’t think they’re that intrusive or you have to give up that much freedom to have them in a school.

And then I think somehow making the parents more responsible. Making them, I don’t know how you link their kid’s actions with what they do with their kids, for their kids. But I think there needs to be some link, strong link, between what the kid does in school and what the parents are or are not doing for them out of school.

REPORTER (QUESTION): Do you think society’s just too lenient on kids?

ROBERT LANE (ANSWER): (Pause) I don’t know. (Pause)

How do you define society? I think that when a kid can go out, a thirteen or a fourteen-year old kid, and rob a store, steal a car or something like that, and then be charged as a juvenile, then I think society is being lenient in some respects to these kids. But in general I think that’s about the only type of example I could give where I think they are being lenient.

(END OF FIRST INTERVIEW)

(SECOND INTERVIEW: 13 MINUTES IN LENGTH)

RICHARD HARWOOD, PRESIDENT, THE HARWOOD INSTITUTE (QUESTION): How long have you lived in this area?

ROBERT LANE, PARENT (ANSWER): We’ll, I’ve been (here) since 1980 but I’ve been in the area since 1972.

RICHARD HARWOOD (QUESTION): What kind of community is it, just around here?

ROBERT LANE (ANSWER): It’s a very nice community. It’s a very nice neighborhood. We’ve certainly enjoyed the time we’ve spent here.

RICHARD HARWOOD (QUESTION): Do you have kids?

ROBERT LANE (ANSWER): I have two. A son, eleven, and a daughter, ten.

RICHARD HARWOOD (QUESTION): What school do they go to?

ROBERT LANE (ANSWER): (Names school and its location)

RICHARD HARWOOD (QUESTION): Is that far away from here?

ROBERT LANE (ANSWER): It’s within walking distance. It’s a hike. It’s probably three-quarters of a mile.

RICHARD HARWOOD (QUESTION): Do they walk by themselves?

ROBERT LANE (ANSWER): Sometimes. But most of the time we take them.

RICHARD HARWOOD (QUESTION): I don’t know if you’ve been following these stories in Littleton, Colorado, with the shootings and down in Atlanta, Georgia, and some other places where people keep talking about school violence. What do you make of what’s going on with violence in schools? What do you think is happening? What do you make of all that?

ROBERT LANE (ANSWER): Well, something’s clearly out of whack. I think that when children think that they can, first off, when they think that they can bring weapons to school and then when somehow the administration of these schools allow them to do it then, you know, something is out of whack.

RICHARD HARWOOD (QUESTION): What do you mean, “out of whack?”

ROBERT LANE (ANSWER): Well, I mean, I certainly, you’re probably a little bit younger than I am, but certainly during the years that I was in school I wouldn’t have thought twice about it. You know, it never would have crossed my mind to bring a weapon to school. I mean, it’s just something that’s totally unheard of. Now it seems to be something that is, I don’t want to say it’s the norm, but certainly there’s… It happens quite a bit.

RICHARD HARWOOD (QUESTION): Do you think that all kids are like that or some kids?

ROBERT LANE (ANSWER): Oh, I don’t think all kids are like that. I think there’s always a tendency to generalize based on the one or two bad apples. But they’re enough out there that are doing it that it’s a major problem.

RICHARD HARWOOD (QUESTION): For whom?

ROBERT LANE (ANSWER): Well, I think for the kids in school that are trying to get an education, that are just kids, and they’re not there to fight. They’re not there for confrontation. They just want an education. That’s the first step. I think the problem is for society in general once these kids get out of school.

RICHARD HARWOOD (QUESTION): You know, you hear a lot of different things about why people think all this stuff is happening. What do you make of what you think some of the causes might be?

ROBERT LANE (ANSWER): Well, I think certainly violence in the media, in movies and in video games, have something to do with it. I think over all permissiveness in society has something to do with it. Single parent families has something to do with it. Two income families have something to do with it. I don’t think there’s any easy answer but I think there’s a lot of things that piece together to allow this type of situation to exist and to, as we’ve seen, to perpetuate itself in a number of different schools.

RICHARD HARWOOD (QUESTION): I’m curious. You used the word permissiveness. What do you mean by that?

ROBERT LANE (ANSWER): I guess just in terms of lack of discipline. Certainly it starts at home. Goes to schools, the administration of schools. I mean, given the society that we live in where there’s a lawyer ready, willing and able to sue at the drop of a hat, I think a lot of school administrators feel they have their hands tied and aren’t in the position to perhaps do some of the things that were taken for granted with discipline when we were going to school many years ago.

RICHARD HARWOOD (QUESTION): I’m curious. When you hear elected officials and the news media and other folks talk about solutions after the Littleton shootings and some of the other things, what do you make of what’s being discussed in terms of solutions?

ROBERT LANE (ANSWER): I don’t think there’s any one magic thing that you can do that is going to solve all the problems. I just watched ABC Good Morning America the other morning that had a segment with the president and first lady and a whole host of people from all walks of life. Students and police and the whole nine yards. Everybody that could conceivably have a point of view on the issue. And they were struggling, you know, to come up with ideas. I think we’re at a stage right now where we’re all, everybody, struggling to, first off, ask themselves why and how this could possibly happen. And secondly, what can you do after that to hopefully make sure it’s not going to happen again?

RICHARD HARWOOD (QUESTION): When you struggle with the question of what do we do next, what do you find yourself struggling most with? What’s sort of at work there for you?

ROBERT LANE (ANSWER): I guess I would like my kids, you know, and all young children, to have the same educational experience that I had. And the same freedom that I had. And it’s apparent that that’s probably not going to be possible in this day in age because you’ve got, however it came about, you’ve got these problems that are in the schools. And in order to hold them in check, you have to do things that are going to be counter to the way I certainly came through school and grew up. I don’t know if that’s necessarily a direct answer to your question?

RICHARD HARWOOD (QUESTION): How does that make you feel?

ROBERT LANE (ANSWER): I’m frustrated in some respects, sad in others, you know. I guess things aren’t always going to be the same. You’re not frozen in time but change, you’d like to believe, is good. But this type of change can’t possible be good.

RICHARD HARWOOD (QUESTION): I’m just curious. I’ve heard a lot of people put forth solutions, I’ll just reel two or three off, and, considering what you said, wonder how you respond to them?

I’ve heard some people in a school district not too far from here actually say we need metal detectors. I’ve heard other people say we need to try the kids in Littleton as adults and hand out the harshest penalties we can. That we need to put more police in schools. Do you think if we did one, or all three, of those things that that would deal with the issues we’ve been talking about?

ROBERT LANE (ANSWER): Well, certainly a loss of freedoms. That’s one of the issues that I had said before but that I was somewhat concerned about because it’s not the same type of experience that I had growing up in school as a youth. I think metal detectors are certainly good. As I mentioned earlier, I think a policy of zero tolerance is good. It will help. And I think, of course the fellows in Littleton are dead but to the extent that others are implicated, I would say try them to the fullest extent of the law and make an example out of them.

RICHARD HARWOOD (QUESTION): Would that give you confidence or a hope about meeting the challenges you’ve been raising?

ROBERT LANE (ANSWER): I think it’s a move in the right direction. I don’t think it’s one or two things that necessarily are going to solve the problem. You try one thing and you stay with it a little while and see that it works. If you get some feedback that it is working you keep doing that. If you get feedback that it isn’t working you try something else. Maybe you try other things. So there’s no easy answer here.

RICHARD HARWOOD (QUESTION): After this I’m going up to talk to the superintendent of schools. They’ve had some school violence and I’m curious. What would you want to know from her about what they’re doing and how they think about this?

ROBERT LANE (ANSWER): Obviously that they believe this is a serious problem and that they are mobilizing to the greatest extent possible to deal with it. And look at involving the parents, involving the police, perhaps involving whoever should be involved and addressing the problem comprehensively. So if I have some assurance that they’re doing that, then that’s a step in the right direction.

RICHARD HARWOOD (QUESTION): What other steps do you think this community needs to make in order to move forward and deal with some of these issues? Beyond the schools?

ROBERT LANE (ANSWER): Again, this is a real difficult problem and I’m not sure there is any single thing you can do inside or outside the school that’s going to resolve the problems.

I think that certainly children, young children, out of the streets late at night, is unacceptable. I think there should be some mandatory curfew for children so that they’re not out. You can drive around this city, some parts of the city are worse than others, and see children that aren’t much older than my son hanging out on street corners at eleven, twelve, one o’clock in the morning. That’s asking for trouble. So, if something could be done to keep the children off the streets. If something could be done to give them some other outlet for all this energy they have.

We don’t have good playgrounds. I took my son to a baseball game that he was playing in the other night and they’d scheduled the field for them to play. And it turns out the field had been double booked. There were actually a total of four teams scheduled to play on this field and the grass was about a foot high.

If you don’t provide children with facilities they can go to and feel safe and that are somewhat quality facilities, they’re going to look to do other things with their time and with their energy. Certainly that would be something that I think deserves some attention.

(END OF SECOND INTERVIEW)