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Causes of school shootings
What effects of violence on the media have on children
Causes of school shootings
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Kristine Thornton ENGL 111-08 Prof. Gravely 28 September 2017 Columbine The Columbine Shootings were one of the greatest tragedies that the nineties faced; and changed the world that was once known. The fault for this tragedy falls on popular culture, moral climate, and the parents of the shooters; not the shooters themselves. Society has greatly affected the minds of the youth, and viewing violence on television, video games, and on the internet, has planted a negative seed of thought in their minds. Violence became very popular in the nineties on various forms of media. In modern media, children are exposed to drugs, guns, violence, and sex amongst other things. Unfortunately, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, fell victim to the overexposure of nineties media through video games, movies, music, and television. They failed to make the distinction between fiction and reality, and this led to them taking the lives of thirteen innocent …show more content…
Klebold and Harris were both staunch Atheists, and went out of their way to target students who were openly Christian. The argument could be made that if religion was taught in school, Klebold and Harris would both be exposed to ideas of faith and perhaps would have a better understanding of their peers and what they believed. Instead, they carried resentment for the people of faith at Columbine High, most notably Cassie Bernall whom when Harris asked if she was a Christian and believed in God answered “Yes”. Harris killed her solely on the premise of her belief in Jesus. In Elliot Aronson’s article, How the Columbine High School Tragedy Could Have Been Prevented, he stated that “When we develop the ability to understand what another person is going through it increases the probability that our heart will open to that person” (360). Klebold and Harris did not understand others blind faith, and chose to hate it
In the cases of school shootings that took place at Columbine High School, Sandy Hook Elementary, Virginia Tech University and Northern Illinois University, the media highly publicized the fact that the perpetrators were avid video gamers, but why is this important? The media want’s your attention and they are more than willing to say almost anything to get it. They reported that the perpetrators were avid gamers with the implication that there is a well establish connection between the two when there is not. They exploit the fear of parents and concerned citizens by not including relevant corresponding information in order to leave you more interested lea...
The columbine massacre the day where no one is safe in school or out of school. The columbine massacre is about two students named Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris both seniors 17 years old both two weeks before graduating they killed 12 students, one teacher, and 21 injured to their shooting on April 20, 1999. Both Dylan and Eric were some believe they were bullied by the sport teams in their school so they planned to kill the people who bullied them and other mostly anyone who gets in their way but that wasn’t really why the FBI he said that there target was everyone no one in pacify we will not get in to more details now. Dylan and Eric were both intelligent boys with solid parents and a good home and both had brothers younger than them. They played soccer, baseball, and both enjoyed to work on computers. Both boys were thinking on commit suicide on 1997 but instead started to plan a massacre in 1998 a year before it happened. Then the two boys had got into some trouble for breaking into a van on January 30, 1998 trying to steal some fuses and wires for bombs for them to make, but they got caught in trouble. So the court put them in a program called the juvenile diversion program, but even if they were there they were still planning the massacre and the court also put Eric in some angry management classes and people believe it worked but it didn’t he just did it to look like it work and both boys made it look like they were really sorry but they weren’t. Dylan and Eric both really hated everyone in their school and the court as well after they got caught breaking in to that van that’s when they really started to plan the massacre more and that’s when Harris started he’s journals no one really knows way but they didn’t hate a hand...
April twentieth, 1999 was just another Tuesday for many people. But for the students attending Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado it was the day that two of their classmates opened fire on them. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, seniors at Columbine High School, murdered twelve students and one teacher and injured twenty-four others. After executing their plan, the two committed suicide. These two teenagers conducted, “the deadliest high school shooting in US history.”
The American culture has been tainted with school shootings that are becoming a sort of tradition found in America. Most twenty-first-century school shootings have taken inspiration from the Columbine shooting, an event that has left a remarkable imprint on the future of school shootings and made the ones responsible infamous among them. In fact, Dave Cullen explores this idea in his nonfiction novel “Columbine”, where he illustrates the story of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, and how the Columbine shooting was orchestrated, how it was carried out, and the aftermath that ensued, along with the pair’s psychotic paths that led to that event. Cullen’s argument was Eric being the manipulate genius behind the organization of the shooting while Dylan, who was not as psychotic, followed Eric through the event. One of the many
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?
According to GoodTherapy.org (2014), social isolation is the experience of being separated from others. This isolation can be physical or emotional. Normally social isolation is not a topic of discussion but can be very prevalent among teenagers and can be very serious if not addressed. Social isolation is not healthy is usually combined with episodes of depression with bouts of anxiety. When you combine all these symptoms listed above a person can have erratic episodes that can lead to unfortunate events such as the Columbine Shooting. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how social isolation affects the development of young minds.
In 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold entered Columbine High School and went on a shooting spree. They killed 15 people and wounded over 20 people, including themselves. The massacre sparked debates about gun control laws, bullying, violent video games, and the internet. It is the deadliest high school shooting in US History. This shooting has become infamous and has led to aspiring school shooters to idolize the two boys and try to commit copycat crimes. The shooting had changed how people approach bullying in schools. It was the catalyst for the Zero Tolerance policy. In order to figure out the causes behind school shootings, the community, personality, mental health, and motivation of the shooter must be examined.
Most of us learned when we were very young that we should not judge by appearances. But, in the aftermath of massacres in schools everywhere, a sane person has to take seriously what the material world shows - and pass judgment. After all, a lack of judgment and subsequent action may lead to further youth violence.
In 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold emerged with a massacre in Columbine High School in Denver. They killed thirteen innocent victims and injured twenty-three people by scattering thirty-one explosive devices. Later t...
Nobody could have predicted the tragic events that occurred on April 20, 1999. Soon, the town of Littleton, Colorado would be the setting for the deadliest shooting in US history. Students, parents and teachers all started their day like any other; parents dropping off their kids at the high school and teachers preparing for another day of learning. Little did they know that in two hours, everyone’s lives will change forever. The massacre started at 11:30AM. The whereabouts was the Columbine High School as two gunmen wearing black trench coats and ski masks threw explosives as well as shooting students and staff – killing up to 23 (actual body count was 15) and injuring over 20 people. Gunshots were constant throughout the school, as both gunmen stalked and terrorized the other students.
Investigations conducted by many different sources all seem to come to one conclusion: since April 20th, 1999, school shootings have become an increasingly popular. Data suggests the tragedy at Columbine to be a possible catalyst[3]; however, each new shooting gives the next its momentum to roll into action. One question remains, however: how does the “infection” spread? Not unlike the Werther effect, the influence of mass-killings may be spread by the media itself; [2] how the perpetrators are represented in media may make or break next shooting, many forensic psychologists say.
On a sunny spring day in April 1999, a suburban school named Columbine High in Littleton, Colorado found itself under attack by two of its own students. (http://www.knowgangs.com) In less than fifteen minutes of the first lunch period on that Tuesday, two armed students killed thirteen and wounded twenty-one fellow classmates before they turned the guns on themselves - the most devastating school shooting in U.S. history. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the only school shooting; about thirty-five students die every year from school shootings. This generation comes from violence, hatred, and ignorance- the three principal factors that cause school shootings.
Between the years 1999 and 2007 twelve school rampage shootings occurred, eight of them referenced Columbine as inspiration (Guy). The United States has then become a nation where school shootings are common. But, also where Americans have become numb to them, since they are vastly frequent. Accordingly, in the United States it has been studied that mass killings happen about every two weeks and a school shooting once a month (Guy). Harris and Klebold were victimized by other students and considered outcasts. This lead for many people to believe that's what motivated them to plot the massacre. Therefore, many schools are trying to create a “positive school climate” to prevent school shootings (Calefati). This positive school climate is a way of making the school environment safe, yet also make the students feel valued. Teachers and school administrators are now encouraged to be more connected to students that are in small groups or isolated. This allows students to feel more connected to their school communities and comfortable to talk to someone. Something like this would have really benefitted Harris and Klebold at the time, since they had a strong hatred toward the school and
Media coverage of international school shootings in recent years has been immense. The sheer number of school shootings, and the level of brutality inflicted upon society’s most vulnerable, has captured and held public interest since the early 70’s, and with it the way media reported it. But what is unclear, is the effect media representation had on the aftermath of many shootings, as well as the influence of others.
So, by discussing the threat, organizing a plan to deal with the apparent threat these defenders of justice make demands for social change to their representatives, neighbors and friends, and the media to recognize the severity of the issue and join them in the fight against the perceived threat to society. Upon close analysis of the events that were emphasized in the media, researchers have been able to prove that the information given out to the public was consistent with the framework that youth were becoming more violent. The context given with the coverage of such events (e.g., Columbine school shooting) helped garner the attention of the public and pounded into their minds the importance of increasing youth violence, especially among young adults of color. The fact that they emphasized