Radio 101 Presents: School, Interrupted

It is estimated that in the course of a year a student will spend about 1,000 hours in school. During that time, students are expected to learn basic skills that will allow them to succeed in life. Skills like critical thinking, reading comprehension, and problem-solving just to name a few. However, in the past decade, a growing number of violent incidents at school has prompted the need to develop a new skill: How to survive.

For this special series, our Radio 101 students at R.J. Reynolds high school spent months looking at state and federal data, surveying over 300 of their peers, and interviewing experts from across the nation in an effort to shed some light on what gets in the way of a good learning environment.

The result of this effort has been four different stories that look at familiar issues through a unique point of view: the students’. From lockdown drills to in-school suspension, sexual misconduct, and racial inequalities, these stories aim to start the conversation on how to make our schools safer.

The project concluded with a Town Hall event where students, parents, and educators came together to share their experiences and look for a way forward.

We want to hear from you now

If you have experienced an act of school violence or if you would like to share a comment, leave us a message below! We will include these messages when we release the final podcast.