Columbine High School Massacre: The Zero Tolerance Policy

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. In order to figure out

People who live in red states--who are mostly Republicans-- tend to be traditional in their values. They subscribe to gender roles and believe that marriage is only between a man and a woman. According to their beliefs, females are supposed to be submissive and passive; they take care of the children and nurture them. They are more self-conscious and attuned to what others think and feel. Meanwhile, males are supposed to be dominant and aggressive. They work and provide support and stability for their family. They are more self-confident and do not pay as much attention to what others think and feel. Men are allowed to show emotion, but not as much or as many as women. An emotion that men are “allowed” to feel is anger. Deviation from gender roles causes their peers to bully them and call them gay. Calling them gay is suppose to be an insult to their masculinity and is meant to humiliate them. Men in our society have been taught that violence is a requirement to masculinity and because of that, they are encouraged to be aggressive to protect their image as men (Klein, page 45). They try to protect their image as men because they want to be accepted by their peers and society. School shooters end up over conforming to this image

In these high school hierarchies, the more the person conforms to what society expects of them, the high up in the hierarchy the person is. If the person does not conform to gender roles and other societal expectations then they are lower in the hierarchy. The lower the person is, the more likely it is that they are going to get bullied and rejected by their peers. High school shooters were bullied because, “(...) they were different from the other boys-- shy, bookish, honor students, artistic, musical, theatrical, nonathletic, “geekish”, or weird” (Kimmel and Mahler, page 1445). These students were targeted because they were noticeably different from their peers. They had different interests and those interests such as the arts and theater are associated with females and femininity, which their peers believe is wrong and that makes the school shooter “gay” and not a “real man”. They were defying gender roles. The high school shooters experience peer rejection because of this. Peer rejection and aggressive behavior that these shooters show are related. Once that feeling of aggression begins, it intensifies over a period of time (Davis, pages 3 and 4). Their aggression intensifies to the point that violence seems like the only way they can respond to the bullying and show any kind of