HOW easy is it to forget the past SERIOUS ACTS OF VIOLENCE

Is Teen Violence Really Growing? Last April at Winnipeg's upscale Windsor Park Collegiate, teens with machetes, baseball bats and pipes gathered for a fight and turned on teachers who tried to break it up. Four youths were treated in hospital and two 18-year-olds and three 17-year-olds have been charged with assault with a weapon and possession of a weapon for dangerous purposes. "About eight years ago we saw an increase in youth gangs, and the weapon of choice was a cue ball in a sock, which is pretty devastating," says XXXX. "Now there's an inclination to go to more lethal weapons such as knives and guns." It's that propensity for dangerous weapons that worries Ontario Family Court Judge Marvin Zuker. "It should force all of us to ask some hard questions: Why is a knife a common weapon?" Zuker asks. "We have a society that has normalized, even glamorized, violence and weapons, fed by a popular culture that attributes credibility and prestige to the images of gangs and violent criminals through popular music and video games." Because schools are a prime battleground, authorities have taken dramatic steps to ensure safety within their walls. A 2000 amendment to the Ontario Education Act set out to ensure safety and security in schools, with strict guidelines for suspensions and expulsions."Safety has trumped literacy as the No. 1 concern in many school boards across the country," says Stu Auty of the Canadian Safe School Network (CSSN), a charitable organization raising awareness about school violence and creating prevention programs.