American schools became dangerous places at the end of the twentieth century. Children as young as twelve and thirteen came to school not to study but to shoot as many people as possible. Even as these students transformed schools into war zones, teachers and other students did what they could to restore order and to save lives. In doing so, they became unlikely heroes on America’s latest battlefield. Although violence in schools is nothing new, multiple shootings are. According to the 1999 Annual Report on School Violence, the number of such shootings increased from one in 1994-95 to five in 1997-98. Tragically, the epidemic of violence continued, and in December 1999, one television newscast called a shooting in Oklahoma the ninth nationwide since 1997 (NBC Evening News). The most serious incident occurred on April 20, 1999, when two teenagers in Littleton, Colorado killed fifteen of their classmates (Health and Administration Development Group 6). Why so many children committed mass murder in so short a time is a mystery. In the past, some crimes were justified because they were committed “against an unjust system” (Devine), but these school shootings were not attached to any worthy causes. One writer has summarized many factors that may have played a part in these shootings. He mentions parental neglect, a breakdown of societal morality, the easy availability of assault weapons, the lack of metal detectors, [and] the perverse influence of violently graphic video games and films, of certain kinds of music and of material on the Internet. (McBrien 19) To these general causes we may add a desire for celebrity. Many of the killers seemed to be copycats, merely imitating the violence they heard and saw in the news. However, ... ... middle of paper ... ...not revenge, but healing. “I’d talk to him like a friend,” he said. “I’d see why he did it and I would pray with him” (Bragg, “Forgiveness”). Mass school shootings have been a nightmare for many students, parents, and teachers. No doubt, the tragedy of this needless violence will not be restricted to the twentieth century. Psychologists and educators have looked for answers, but they have found few that really can help them anticipate and prevent random, apparently unmotivated acts of violence. Metal detectors, school evacuation plans, and improved counseling can reduce the likelihood of another tragic killing spree. However, if and when violence erupts, the first line of defense will remain heroic teachers and students who, in times of crisis, act courageously and selflessly to save others and to start the process of healing.
April 20th, 1999, Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, experienced a mass shooting. Thirteen people were injured and more than twenty were injured. Twelve were students and one was a teacher. Two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened fire on their high school for forty one minutes before turning their guns on themselves and committing suicide. School shootings are notorious for making headline news but in 1999, school shooting were not as prevalent as they are in the present day. The media blew up on the catastrophe that was Columbine and many questions were raised, who were these kids and why did they do this? Speculation arose about why they did it. Maybe they were bullied for being goth and social outcasts or maybe they
"In October 1997, a 16-year old in Pearl, Mississippi, first killed his mother and then went to school and shot nine students, two fatally; in December 1997 a 14-year old went to his school in West Paducah, Kentucky, killed three students and wounded five others; in March last year, two boys, aged eleven and thirteen, killed four girls and a teacher outside their school in Jonesboro, Arkansas; the next month a science teacher was shot dead, allegedly by a 14-year old, at a school dance in Edinsboro, Pennsylvania; last May in Fayetteville, Tennessee, an 18-year old student allegedly shot dead a classmate in the school car park; two days later, in Springfield, Oregon, a 15-year old opened fire at his high school, killing two teenagers and wounding more than twenty (police later found that his parents had been killed at home) ("Lesson"). On April 20th of this year, two teenagers enter their school and open fire, killing 12 students and one teacher before taking their own lives.
We all remember the day of the Littleton high school shooting also referred as the Columbine High School Massacre. When the flashing new lines of CNN News. 1999) stated that 25 people were killed at the High School by two heavily armed male students that also took their own lives; it was shocking and very disturbing. news to learn that something so horrible caused these students to kill their own peers. What was the reason that drove these students to kill? Was the students bullying?
Out of this research a variety of possible causes came to light consisting of arguments stating that high school bullying, availability of guns, mental illness, violent movies and video games are the cause of mass shootings. However, these researchers and debaters tend to ignore the role of massive media coverage in the increase of copycat shootings in the United States. The history of school shootings has shown an increase in mass school shootings. The very first known school shooting in the United States occurred on July 26, 1764 in present-day Greencastle, Pennsylvania. As part of the Pontiac's Rebellion, four Lenape Native Americans entered the school house and started shooting, killing the schoolmaster Enoch Brown and about nine students.
School shootings seemed like a new phenomenon, but they occurred for the majority of American history. The first school shooting occurred On July 26, 1764, when a Lenape Indian shot and killed nine children and the school master of the Greencastle, Pennsylvania school (Galvin): as noted in Appendix A. Since 1764, the number of school shootings rose exponentially. In the 1990’s, eighty-six school shootings occurred and between 2000 and 2014, 110 shootings transpired since 2000 (Killam,2008). The development of semiautomatic weapons lead to an increase in deaths. A study conducted in 1990 found through the years of 1986 to 1990; 71 people died, 201 wounded, and 242 people held hostage by school shooters(Galvin). While the area a school serves as one factor in the number of violent acts committed per year, school shootings have not been connected to this. The schools in Chicago dealt with more violent acts, but Sandy Hook Elementary, a small city school had relatively few violent acts committed by students.
It is a sad time in American history when one can easily recount recent school shootings in their own area. This ease stems from a sharp increase in the number of firearms brought into elementary and middle schools across the country, with an intense focus on the issue beginning after the shooting of 20 children from Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut. Most school shooters are male, white, and often upper middle class. They are also more, often than not, under some type of mental stress that is causing them to create this type of violence in our communities. In fact, many school shooters are never suspected of doing any harm to their peers and teachers until it is much too late.
There have been many horror stories in the news about mass shootings at schools. The public, and even the president of the United States, is asking if anything can be done to prevent these tragedies. There are many theories on why students kill their peers at schools; these range from increased violence in video games and movies to bullying troubles at school. Almost always, the perpetrator suffers from some form of mental illness (Khadaroo). Because of this, motives for these crimes are extremely difficult to discern. Although the theories for the causes of this dilemma are tenuous at best, the effects are very perceptible. Can anything be done to prevent these massacres? School shootings are a complex problem that cannot always be prevented, but there are a number of actions we can take to reduce the frequency and extent of the damage caused. These actions include placing more restrictions on firearms, creating detection programs for shooters, hiring more counselors for unstable students, and placing guards or police in schools. School shootings are a serious problem, and a solution is needed in order to prevent these calamities.
Family environment and the press are two major influences resulting in the recent tragic school shootings. As much as society continues to focus the killing rampages on factors such as television and music, what children are exposed to in reality contributes to the violence. The most recent school shooting in Michigan involved a six-year-old first grader who killed a classmate with a .22 caliber pistol. The news coverage had vanished after two or three days, and I was left wondering what had happened. Considering the fact that the media wore the Columbine incident out, I wanted to know why they did not pay more attention to this school shooting. As evidence did arrive, it was discovered that the child lived in a household where cocaine, heroin, and many other illegal drugs were commonplace. Also in this “home” guns were easily accessible to the child. Children growing up in this type of environment certainly are likely to be held accountable for future violence. Even though I am against the news media presenting too much school violence, Americans should have been deeply disturbed by this shooting because of the child’s young age. The Michigan shooting should have enlightened Americans to the dilemma we face in this country. Two weeks after the Columbine High School shooting, information on the mass murder was still being broadcast on television. The press was feeding young viewers ideas on how to kill their classmates. News was reported how the teenage murderers acquired information regarding building bombs, obtaining guns, smuggling guns into the school, and proceeding to kill their classmates. A mentally unstable teenager could simply watch these news reports and write a book entitled, “How to Slay Your Classmates”. This onslaught was ridiculous and the news coverage should not have been permitted to continue for countless weeks. Society has determined three reasons on which to blame the shootings. First, the nation blamed it on television’s violent programs. Following that, Americans gave the music recording companies the evil eye as well as attacking the gun manufacturers. All of these reasons involve material objects that are unable to think for themselves. Televisions and CD players do not control themselves, people control them. Finally, boundaries controlling the television programs children view should be set by the parents. The same explanation applies to firearms. How can it be a gun’s fault that a person killed another human being?
Since 1980 till now, there have been many school shootings. Many innocent lives have been taken. Schools have become less safe. People blame either bad parenting or video games. Bullying is another factor as to why students end up shooting at schools and then ending their own life. It is so tragic and must be stopped.
The first school shooting dates all the way back to the 18th century (List). School shootings are becoming a devastating epidemic throughout the United States. Why do the teens resort to such violence? Maybe its because they are bullied and they feel there is no where to turn. The violence that the teens display is typically blamed on and is explained to be caused by many different events or factors, bullying being one of the main factors that cause school shootings. Bullying isn 't the only factor though. Relaxed gun laws, the wild west, mental break downs or illnesses, violent video games, and many other factors can be what cause school shootings to happen so often.
The most infamous and deadly act of violence to occur in a U.S. school were the events of April 20, 1999. In Littleton Colorado two teens went on a shooting and bombing spree that left 15 dead and 24 wounded before they shot and killed themselves. During the rampage, the two fired about 900 rounds of ammunition from two sawed off shotguns, a 9-mm semiautomatic carbine, and a semiautomatic handgun. Police also later found more than 30 bombs placed throughout the school (Brock, 2001).
Although most security measures passively make schools safer, it is not nearly enough to prevent an individual who intends on creating mass violence from completing his or her task. State representatives, national organizations, school staff, and parents need to come together to figure out the most reliable ways to prevent an active shooter situation from occurring in their schools. One solution that has been active is many schools have partnered with local law enforcement agencies to provide a police officers to patrol school grounds....
Now more than ever the increase of in school massacres are starting to become more evident. The Sandy Hook and Oregon shootings are sending people searching for a way to keep their children safe when they are away from home receiving an education. This poses an issue, some people see it is fit for teachers to be armed with a gun in case of future attacks on the school. The outcome that will follow from arming teachers will be negative, but there is a solution that involves the protection of students without handing guns over to teachers.
How safe do you feel when you attend school everyday? Many students and faculty don’t really think too much about school being a dangerous place; however, after a couple of school shootings had taken place their minds and thoughts may have changed completely. On April 16, 2007, in the town of Blacksburg Virginia, a college student who attended Virginia Tech, opened gunfire to his fellow classmates. This shooting has been considered to be the biggest massacre in all of American history. There are many things to be discussed in this major tragedy. Some of them include the events leading up to the shooting, the timeline that the shootings occurred, the causes, and the significance in this particular shooting. The Virginia Tech is only one of the several examples of the horrible behavior and violence in our school systems today.
The issue of school safety has become a controversial topic in the United States, due to tragic acts of violence occurring on a daily basis. American citizens should never have to cope with the negative impact of school violence, no matter how often they hear about the tragedies (Jones, "Parents" 1). In the past, schools were viewed as a safe place for children to get an education. Recently, the concern over violence in schools has taken a toll on many parents, school administrators, and legislatures (Eckland 1). Studies have shown that there are over 3 million acts of violence in American public schools each year. Not all occurrences are serious and deadly, but they occur on a daily basis throughout our country (Jones, “School” 6). This has caused many parents to worry about the well-being of their children while they are in class. This has also led to an increase in questions and concerns by parents and guardians. Many people have asked, “What are you doing about safety and security on my child’s campus” (Schimke 2). School violence is the cause of elevated worry and fear for their children, and school districts should enforce better security.