Students Throw Away Violent Games to Protest Virtual Violence

Students in a private school in Florida tossed out their violent video games in an effort to take a stand against virtual violence following the school shooting that occurred in Parkland, Fla.

The Cushman School, a private school in Miami that teaches age groups ranging from pre-kindergarten to high school, led the initiative that prompted students to discard their video games. The video above comes from local network WSVN 7 News that shows the school's "One More Parent" pledge in action. Arvi Balseiro, the head of The Cushman School, discussed the school's pledge through a blog post while mentioning previous shootings, research, and the need for parents' help.

"Shortly after the Sandy Hook shootings in 2012, all Cushman faculty and staff attended an 'Active Shooter' workshop that was delivered by the City of Miami Police Department," Balseiro said. "Our faculty and staff will, once again, go through this training. While there are critics, the police department shared research stating that there are common characteristics of an active shooter profile: 1.) engagement in violent video games and 2.) emotional disconnectedness. My administration, faculty and staff remain steadfast in serving your children's emotional needs by providing multiple opportunities for them to become 'connected' in this very disconnected world. We do our best to ensure our school's technological infrastructure has strong controls and filters intended to protect them. But the faculty and staff cannot do it alone."

Balseiro continued by asking parents to join the school by working towards several goals that included more communication at home and emphasis on better behavior, but the number one item on the agenda was the removal of violent video games entirely with a restriction on all other games.

"I will not permit my child(ren) to play violent video games and will restrict their time on other video games," the first guideline for the five-point pledge read.

To help parents make sure that their children wouldn't be playing these violent games any longer, the pledge post continued to say that the school would have a bin situated near the school's office where parents or students could discard their violent video games. It's unclear exactly what happened to these games when they were discarded after kids tossed out titles like Grand Theft Auto V, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Battlefield 1, and Titanfall as shown in the video above.

The rest of the pledge didn't reference video games but did reference other forms of entertainment like cell phone usage and media viewed through a variety of platforms.