During the past decade, America has witnessed a rise in mass murders carried out by youth leaving parents, teachers and school officials scrambling to figure out the motive behind such attacks. The 1999 massacre at Columbine High School was a watershed moment in American history that offered, besides grief and sorrow for lost loved ones, clues as to how to prevent copycat massacres at school campuses in the future. Theories abound in the hopes of explaining why Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 and injured 21 others, yet very few hold true as time progresses and other massacres unfold. Modern-day schools have atmospheres that foster bullying and a divided social class system. The attacks perpetrated by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold at Columbine High School were the result of prolonged bullying coupled with violent video games and remarkably easy access to guns that gave rise to a need to exact revenge on their peers; all of which places this event among the deadliest school-related shootings in American history. The events that unfolded at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999 marked a tragic day in American history as 15 students, including the murderers themselves, were killed and 21 others were injured. Law enforcement officials, teachers and parents were at a loss to explain how and why this could happen. Thomas J. Billitteri says, “the shootings also opened discussion on the psychology of troubled students, leading some critics to argue that school administrators and policymakers were focusing on truancy and drugs and not enough on the problem of bullying as a catalyst for violent student behavior.” Here Billitteri emphasizes the need to shift the focus from blaming drugs to the widespread phenomenon of school bully... ... middle of paper ... ...the Flies.New York: Perigree, The Berkeley Publishing Group, 2003 McFadden, Cynthia, Diane Sawyer and Sam Donaldson. “Warning Signs Ignored.” Abc News Klein, Jesse. “Bully Rage: Common School-Shooter Misery.” The Huffington Post April 22, 2007. *Polman, Hanneke, Bram Orobio de Castro, and Marcel A. G. van Aken. "Experimental Study of the Differential Effects of Playing Versus Watching Violent Video Games on Children's Aggressive Behavior." Aggressive Behavior 34.3 (2008): 256-64. *Reichhardt, Tony. "Video Violence: Playing with Fire?" Nature 424.6947 (2003): 367. *Robbers, Monica. “Bowling for Columbine/Fear and Consumption: A Review of Bowling for Columbine (Film).” Contemporary Justice Review 7.2 (2004): 235 *Safran, Elysa R. “Bullying Behavior, Bully Prevention Programs, and Gender.” Journal of Emotional Abuse 7.4 (2007): 43-67
One ubiquitous concern of parents is that of their child’s safety. Parents go through life making decisions that they hope will benefit the child. One of the decisions parents must make for their child is where he or she will attend school. School is meant to be a safe haven, a place in which a child is encouraged to grow and prosper. Tragedy strikes, however, when that safe place is twisted and morphed into a place of fear and anguish. This was the shocking reality for parents of high school students in Columbine, Colorado. Two shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, Columbine High School seniors, entered the school and opened fire, killing thirteen, injuring twenty-four, and firing a total of 188 shots. Although Harris and Klebold committed suicide at the scene, their actions are a living reminder of the possible dangers schools are succumbed to and the necessary precautions that must be taken to prevent future events such as this from occurring. Evidence supporting the motive behind the shooting, a depiction of the event itself, and the aftermath are portrayed in the gripping manuscript, Columbine, written by Dave Cullen. With in-depth descriptions and an unbiased tone, Cullen reveals the mystery and calamity that stupefied many for years—the Columbine Massacre.
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.
In its societal context, the Columbine school shootings are not an obvious part of a discernible sociological pattern. We know that approximately 4,500 youngsters are killed every year in intentional shootings, with thirty per cent of that number probable suicides. That's almost 13 a day, the same number as were killed in Littleton (The Washington Post, April 25, 1999). The data on school shootings, according to the Center for Communicable Diseases, indicate that only about 28 per cent actually occurred inside the school and that one-third of the victims were not...
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 20, 1999 in a suburban town called Littleton, Colorado one high school was about to have one of the most tragic and deadly days in US history. Columbine High School was in the forefront of this tragedy. Two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, opened fire on their fellow classmates and teacher. These two students cut the lives short of thirteen students and one teacher. They then turned their guns onto themselves leaving the nation with no answers as to why? They did leave videotape. This videotape contained Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold planning their attack on Columbine High School. This piece of evidence showed two students that were not part of the "in crowd". They were outsiders, losers, as some would consider them. They were taunted, humiliated, and disrespected by their classmates. But how can two intelligent students do something as deadly as they did. Was it because they had bad parents? Not at all, they even went out of their way to save their parents the blame by repeatedly saying that it was not their fault that they were about to do what they did. So what was the cause of all this tragedy and how can it be stopped so it can never happen again in our middle schools and high schools? Elliot Aronson a social psychologist wrote a book called Nobody Left to Hate, Teaching Compassion After Columbine. This book represents his ideas on how to use certain strategies to have a better school environment that teaches compassion, tolerance while putting education in a winning situation.
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.
In recent years the school shooting activity shows alarming rates. As reported by Duplechain and Morris (2014), more than 350 documented school shootings happened from 1760 until 2014, from those 190 happened from 1990-2014 alone. The numbers are staggering and even more staggering is to find out some of the details of those shootings. School shootings perpetrated by underage people even a student from the school that completed their killing rampage committing suicide. Although, it might seem that the problem comes from the accessibility to guns people could have, the reality is different. In most cases mental instability can play as a key element, while bullying and media coverage can also act as important factors. This paper will explore some of reasons behind school shooters from the past, and it will demonstrate how accessibility to guns had nothing to do with the outcome of their behavior, by responding to the following questions.
Perhaps the most notorious school massacre was at Columbine High School. It was here, in 1999, that two male students murdered twelve students, one teacher, and then committed suicide (Internet Site #4). We viewed a film, The Killer at Thurston High, and saw Kip Kinkel not only shoot up his high school, but also murder his parents. These few extraordinary children strike fear in the hearts of America’s parents every morning when they send their own children off to school. However, the likelihood of a child being murdered as a result of a school-associated violent incident is less than one in one million, and less than one percent of children murdered in 1992 and 1993 were killed on school property (Kappeler, 187). The Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice reports that the likelihood of a child dying in a school related incident is actually one in two million (Brooks, 1)! The National Commission on Child Abuse and Neglect reports that 2,000 to 3,000 children are murdered annually by their parents, opposed to approximately two-dozen children murdered in schools (Kappeler, 187).
On April 20, 1999, within the tiny, suburban city of Littleton, Colorado, two high-school seniors, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, enacted a full-scale assault on columbine high school throughout the middle of the school day. The boys' idea was to kill many of their colleagues. With guns, knives, and a large number of bombs, the two boys walked the hallways and killed. Once the day was done, twelve students, one teacher, as well as the two murderers were dead; and 21 of them were wounded. The haunting question remains: why did they decide to do this?
School shootings are the leading death by a fire arm in the United States. What motivates these people to want to kill others? Acts of violence at schools is not a new thing. School shootings date back to the 18th century. However, school shootings are growing more common in this day in age. What motivates these people to want to kill others? With social networks more and more people are being bullied, which results in more kids snapping and shooting up their school. Bullying isn’t the only reason for school shooting, now smart kids are snapping under the pressure of unrealistic standards set for them by their honors teachers. In high school teens get the choice to take honors classes, or regular classes. The biggest difference in these classes
The Columbine High School Massacre happened on April 20, 1999. The Shooters were Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, two senior students who wanted to destroy the world they lived in. Their motives:
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...
People have to suffer many difference social pressures so they need a way to relax the pressures. Watching violent films, images and playing violent games is a quick and easy way to relax their pressures; for this reason, there are more and more people like to see violent things from media, and as long as there is a demand for this violent information, the financial incentive for media companies will be there. In general, media violence can affects people in three different ways. The first one is leading people to solve their problem through violent means. People always can see many incidents of violence happening in media, and media always embellish the violent means to be a cool way to solve a problem. As time gone on, when they are put in bind in their social life, they will do the violence way to solve their problem. The second effect is imitation. Sometime people will copy the plots of what they like in media to make it happen. The third effect cause people having wrong perception of the world. Overmuch, media violence cause people believe violence is everywhere and lead them to do violent behaviors. Now, media is needful for people’s society; however, media is full of violence, many empirical studies have demonstrated that media violence indirectly instigates violent and aggressive behavior and aggressive thoughts. Media violence affects negative, and it cause many severe problem to people’s society.
This essay is going to talk about one of the deadliest school shootings that killed 13 students and injured several. On April 20, 1999 two teens went on a shooting spree killing 13 and wounded several more before turning the guns on to them killing themselves. The columbine shooting one of the worst shootings in U.S history raised a debate on the gun control and school safety. This essay is going to bring out the real cause of the shooters actions and apply two juvenile delinquency theories to them.
“People are so unaware...well, Ignorance is bliss I guess… that would explain my depression.” (Klebold, Dylan). With that sentence, I divulged myself into the most horrendous, sad journal I have ever read, hoping to gain some insight into a disturbed young man’s mind. On April 20th, 1999, Dylan Klebold accompanied his friend, Eric Harris, in one of the most publicized and shocking school shootings of the modern day--The Columbine Massacre. With their sawed-off shotguns and godlike dispositions, the boys exacted their revenge not only on their peers, but on themselves. As the nightmare collapsed, and thirteen people lay dead, the questions began. How could two boys so young commit this crime? What forced them to be this way? For the Klebold family, one question remained: How had Dylan become involved in one of the crimes of the century?