How Can Bringing Christ and Prayer Back into Schools Stop Shooting Sprees?

The MSN message board regarding the Virginia Tech shootings is chock-full of people insisting that Christ and prayer be brought back into the public school system. Somehow, this would prevent children from growing up to go on shooting sprees.

Would someone mind telling me just how reciting prayers in unison, like a bunch of little robots, will teach kids to value all human life? And how will pictures of Christ hanging by the ABC's teach kids to appreciate human life? I know exactly what I'm talking about, because I went to a Catholic school for grades 1 through 6, and then again, for grades 9 and 10.

In grade school, some of the teachers were nuns. But they were no nicer than the "lay teachers." In fact, Sister Rose pummeled her fist on the back of any boy who had trouble with math. Yes, spare the rod so that kids can excel in math.

We recited prayers at the start of each class, plus the Pledge of Allegiance. Every so often someone asked for a prayer for a particular individual, such as someone's sick grandma, or the baby who was born with two heads.

Every Friday was Mass. It was the same thing every week. It was all ritual. We were like ants on an anthill, responding to cues to sit in Mass, then kneel, then stand, then sing, then bow our heads.

Yet despite all that, the kids were no nicer than any other kids from any public schools. There were still school yard bullying situations. There were cliques. Some kids got teased. The Catholic kids were no more appreciative of human life forms than the public school kids who didn't have to wear uniforms to school.

High school was a joke. It was an all-girls Catholic school. Some of those girls were vicious! Father Lenny visited classrooms from time to time, but that had no impact as far as how un-nice some girls were.

Girls smoked in the bathroom. One day, a group of girls was marching down the hall, singing out cuss words of a popular song. I'm not saying these girls were homicidal; but the point is that just because pictures of Christ adorned the walls, and rosaries hung in classrooms, and every morning prayers were recited, doesn't mean that the students were morally better developed than kids from public schools.

For grades 10 and 11, I went to a public school. I have to honestly say that the girls there were nicer than the ones from the Christian school.

So to anyone who believes that "bringing Christ and prayer back into school" can stop shooting sprees, I say: PROVE IT.