Playing Catch Up: Chapter 4

I hope that you all don't mind, I am going to be posting about a few subjects that we have already covered on the blog because I'm trying to catch up on my posts. In chapter 4 Christenbury talks about a diturbed study hall student that threatens her with a lighter. This seems like a horrifying occurance but it raises questions to those of us who are deciding to make teaching our career. Are you prepared to deal with highly disturbed individuals who could care less whether they harm a teacher? When I was a teenager I went to three different High Schools an inner city High School in Las Vegas NV, a suburban High School in Henderson NV, and a small town school in Buffalo, MO. When I was at the inner city school I witnessed a lot of gang activity. The students who were in these gangs had no moral opposition to committing violence. I really would like to hear from an inner city teacher who has experienced this activity first hand. I know that many of us will probably end up in a rural school where these things won't be prevalent, but some of us are bound to be faced with this at some point. So I pose a question, how would you deal with gang activity in your classroom?