Today's communication

I'm a teacher in a private K - 12 school in Alabama. The older kids all have cell phones. The first period of my day is with seven seniors in a math class for non-math majors, so to speak. All the students are boys and five of the seven are good athletes. Four will probably go on to play at the next level. So much for orientation. Let's get to the point.

The morning after the recent school shootings in Florida, the kids in my first period were all on their phones getting information about the incident. What they were seeing were eye witness videos from kids that were involved as victims. I'm not talking about chatter, but of footage of the incident as it was happening, with gun shots and wounded or dead people on the ground in the videos. I believe the videos were being rebroadcast from sources like Snapchat by various on line news agencies.

Unprecedented. I know European news agencies for years have broadcasted news, particularly war news, from reporters and cameras raw and on the spot. However I've never seen unedited and uncensored video coverage like this in the past. More to the point, this coverage was available to anyone with a cell phone and a search engine. Forget PG-13. This was X rated real life violence for all to see. Shots being fired. Wounded or dead people on the ground. Traumatic for adults much less older or younger teens.

The room became quiet. By the time I started class, each boy was internalizing what he had just seen. This wasn't a first person shooter computer game, this was real and they knew the difference. They knew the difference.

My take-a-ways. First: Most children know the difference between real and imaginary. Don't let those with radical views convince you that they don't. Video games are just that, video games. The kids know that.

Second: If you have children with cell phones, find a way to filter their phone access or content. I'm not an expert here, so find sources for information like cnet.com or the like.

Third and perhaps more importantly, realize that this kind of information is out there and may be seen by your children. Talk to your kids. Get them to open their feelings to you so you can give your thoughts and guidance to them about incidents like the Florida school shootings. Remember, if you don't someone else will and it probably will be one of your child's friends.

Gene Canavan is a retired West Point Graduate and Paper Mill Utilities Manager and lives in Prattville, Alabama, USA.