By Mary Eby
On Tuesday, October 15th, author Dave Cullen came to speak to Southview High School students. The topic was said to have been about the aftermath of school shootings and what students can do to take action. But, was it possibly taken too far?
The answer to this question is clearly opinionated and everyone has their own take on the subject material that Mr. Cullen covered during the assembly. But, what is clear is that there could be some debate on whether all of Mr. Cullen’s points were acceptable topics to be discussing with high school students who are only in the building because they would like to learn.
Cullen kicked off his talk by telling the students that he was not there to sway their opinion, which could have been true but there was still no doubt that some of his ideas were presented in a largely biased manner. One of the first things presented to the students was a video of the March For Our Lives demonstration in Washington D.C. The contents of the video was bearable to say the least and a pass could easily have been given to Mr. Cullen for the contents being somewhat biased. It was largely about the Parkland students’ speeches on the NRA and why they believed there needs to be stricter gun laws, some also said that guns need to be taken away from citizens all together. But, the video was not the conclusion of these biased ideas being shown. There were multiple other segments of Cullen’s address to the students where light started to shine on certain political leanings.
It is important to note that Mr. Cullen was never truly in the wrong in any way, shape, or form. His presentation was about what he believed and about the story of the Parkland students journey, and he has probably delivered this presentation many times before to different crowds. But, it just so happened that this time, the audience he was addressing may not have been the most suitable. If there was a wrong done by having Mr. Cullen speak, it would have been conducted by the district or the deciding people in bringing him in to speak to high school students.
It is true that it is beneficial for students to hear debates, and hear political discussions. However, those things should be conducted in a flexible and comfortable manner where there can be a two-sized open discussion, not in an environment where the discussion is one sized and could potentially disturb students or make them uncomfortable and feel singled out.
This experience could have been a good lesson for the school and the district. Some good did come out of the assembly. Discussions took place in classrooms about the topic and about Mr. Cullen’s ideas, which is extremely beneficial. It is always beneficial to have insight on things even if they are not necessarily the ideas and ideologies you want to believe or want to hear about. This could also be seen as a learning experience. Possibly the school could decide that bringing these politics into the school was not the best of ideas and choose to not do it again. Whatever the positives and negatives were of Dave Cullen coming to speak at Southview may be, it does stand true that either way, valuable lessons were learned and knowledge was gained in one way or another.
Southview Catalyst 