As a society, how should we respond to the violence taking place in schools? How do we respond to the traumatic events of the twentieth century, where a series of school shootings lead by students at 12 different schools planned and carried out violent shootings that resulted in the deaths of several students and teachers at each school? These events alone have come from the United States, in fact from Washington, Alaska, Mississippi, Kentucky, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Oregon, Virginia, Colorado, Georgia, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Michigan, Florida, and California (Daniels 2011). In July 1998, President Bill Clinton said that this series of school shootings had "seared the heart of America." Our society feels impotent and concerned and most of all aware that this is a situation that needs immediate attention. Call it an epidemic of violence threatening all American schools as some news reports have published. School violence is constantly changing and increasing every day and with little response to the results we hear in the news reports. I think back as a past student growing up in the twentieth century. I recall hearing about the traumatic shootings and their outcome that followed. Thinking back to December 1, 1997, where a student named Michael Carneal, a freshman in West Paducah, Kentucky opened fire on classmates, killing three and wounding five. Then imagine one year later, March 5, 1998, another student Mitchell Woodward shot and killed five classmates and wounded eleven in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Now comes an even more tragic planned shooting not even a year after, which would become an eye opener to so many. These students named Eric Harris and Dylan Kleibold would be known for committing one of the... ... middle of paper ... ...al Interview: Grade 8. Brick Avon Academy. New Jersey Aug. 2011. Herr, Kathryn, and Gary L. Anderson. "Violent youth or violent schools? A critical incident analysis of symbolic violence." International Journal of Leadership in Education 6.4 (2003): 415-433. Business Source Premier. EBSCO. Web. 12 Aug. 2011. Smith, Douglas C., and Daya S. Sandhu. "Toward a Positive Perspective on Violence Prevention in Schools: Building Connections." Journal of Counseling & Development 82.3 (2004): 287-293. Business Source Premier. EBSCO. Web. 12 Aug. 2011. Vossekuil, Bryan. The Final Report and Findings of the Safe School Initiative: Implications for the Prevention of School Attacks in the United States. Washington, D.C: The Secret Service, 2002. Print. Weller, Robert. Columbine families share Virginia Tech sorrow. AP News, Internet Resource http://www.ap.org, Copyright 2007.
The history of school shootings has shown an increase in mass school shooting. 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. Only two students survived the massacre (“History”). Since the 1700s the United States society has changed in many ways. Schools have become more than just one room school houses and each grade has its own teacher. Furthermore, the problem of school shootings has not decreased but rather increased over the years. On the one hand, reports from the Centers for Disease Control showed that in general school violence decreased from 1992 to 200...
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.
On April 16th, 2007 Cho had created one of the most deadly school shootings in America. ( "Virginia Tech Shootings Fast Facts." CNN.) It was unfathomable to think that in the close future, America would encounter many more detrimental school shootings. This is including the shooting of elementary students in Newtown, CT where Adam Lanza had shot and killed 27 children and faculty. Lanza had been known to have significant health issues that had kept him from living a normal life. (Sanchez, Ray, Chelsea J. Carter in Atlanta, Yon Pomrenze in New York, and The CNN New York Bureau Staff. ) Both of these shooters had killed themselves shortly after their attacks. School violence has become a nation-wide issue.
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).
Mathis, Deborah. “Schools Fail at Stopping Violence.” The Cincinnati Enquirer 7 December 1999, Final ed./Warren: A3.
There are very few people today who are unaware of the violence in schools. As college students we live in a world that is desperate to find prevention methods against violence. That makes this issue important to today's college students, considering the fact that we are the generation that could have been involved and directly effected by a school shooting like Columbine. Is this how we want our school systems to be when our children enroll?
Zewe, C. (2008, August 4). Violent schools: perception or reality? Retrieved April 23, 2002 from http://www.cnn.com/US/9808/24/school.violence/
When is it necessary to start taking more action in the prevention of school violence? In less than ten years, in the United States, there have been more than twenty-five school shootings resulting in at least one death per shooting. This number is outrageous and certainly warrants more school violence prevention. It is unacceptable that the schools in the United States are not safe enough to allow children to attend without the possibility of getting seriously injured, or even killed. Most people realize that there is a slight chance of school violence everyday, but not everyone realizes how great a possibility it is for a school to be...
be affected by school violence due to two reasons. First, middle school students are in an
Although it will be very hard to determine when and if a school shooting will occur, therefore, many schools and districts have begun using techniques to help deter the violence and lessen death rates. Today there are many deterrents to stopping or reducing school shootings as schools have a responsibility to protect the physical and psychologically well-being of their students and staff (Guidance From the National Association of School Psychologists, 2010) Despite the widely spread recognition and fear that comes from violence in schools, evidence indicates that schools are among the safest place for children, compared to their homes and neighborhood environments. According to a 2006 national survey by the
If violence in schools is to be controlled, the entire school community must take a proactive stance against violence. Since the setting is the school, it should follow that the schools are responsible and liable for maintaining violent free environments. This proactive stance can be accomplished by holding seminars informing students, parents, and neighboring communities of what is taking place in the school on a regular basis. Educators and administrators should inform the student body and the community of any precautions and safety measure to take if a violent event should occur. Any type of violence in the school setting should be fully addressed in order to prevent further altercations from occurring.
The lack of security in American public schools has led to increased fear in many parents, students, and faculty members. This fear has altered the lives of many people, causing them stress and concern over violence occurring within their school district (Eckland 1). This fear can alter the academic performances and interactions between students. For example, it has been shown that violence between peers is more likely to break out when less administration supervision is present (Sexton-Radek 55). Parents face constant fear over safety issues in schools. Due t...
School shootings are becoming common place in the news as school violence is on the rise. Statistics state that 31.2 percent of parents said the leading cause for choosing homeschool over public school is “concern about the environment of other schools” (Burke, 2014). According to the CDC fact sheet Understanding School Violence, 12 percent of youth in grades 9-12 report being in a physical fight on school property while 5.9 percent reported that they felt unsafe at school and did not attend. Seven percent of teachers also report that they have been threatened or injured by a student (School Violence, 2013). While only 1 percent of all youth homicides occur at schools, violence does not need to result in a fatality in order to be a concern.