Bullying and School Violence: The Colombine High School Shooting

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“Two gunmen enter school and open fire”. This was the headline seen and heard on every newspaper, radio, and news broadcast after the now infamous Columbine High School shooting on April 20, 1999. Details about this shooting did not emerge immediately. However, when they did, the entire nation was in utter and complete shock. To begin with, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, ages 17 and 18, entered their school with an assortment of guns, knives, and bombs, ready and willing to take the lives of every individual in the high school. This begged the question “Why? What was the motive behind this sad and drastic decision?” The public would soon learn the answer. Investigation later showed Harris and Klebold were subjected to constant bullying, which greatly contributed to their decision to enter their high school and open fire on their peers and administrators. Little did the public know this would just be the beginning of numerous bully-related school shootings. In fact, Columbine was the first major incident to bring to light to the issue of bullying. Due to these findings, many schools in the 21st century have adopted anti-bullying programs to help put an end to bullying. However, anti-bullying programs are not effective, or as successful as they should be, which show there is no solution to fully end the growing problem of bullying. Many people find the word “bullying” hard to define. In fact, the definition of the word has changed greatly within the last ten years. The current definition of bullying, according to stopbullying.gov, is “unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is reappeared, or has the potential to be repeated over tim... ... middle of paper ... ... failing to solve the problem of bullying." International Journal on World Peace 30.2 (2013): 71+. Academic OneFile. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. Mahoney, Diana. "Bullying and school violence." Clinical Psychiatry News June 2007: 36. Academic OneFile. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. Menhard, Francha Roffe. School Violence: Deadly Lessons. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow, 2000. Print. "Ohio school shooter shows contempt, no remorse during sentencing." CNN Wire 20 Mar. 2013. Academic OneFile. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. Orr, Tamra. Violence in Our Schools: Halls of Hope, Halls of Fear. New York: F. Watts, 2003. Poland, Scott. "What we know about school shooters: they are not simply normal kids." District Administration July-Aug. 2012: 38+. Academic OneFile. Web. 21 Apr. 2014. “What is Cyberbullying.” Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.

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