School Shootings: The Contributions Of School Shootings

“Do you believe in God?” (Johnson, 2012), That is what Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold asked students before shooting them mercilessly in 1999 in one of the worst school shootings America has ever seen. America has seen this in many occasions, a number of school shootings accomplished by juveniles. In the last 3 decades, three of them stand out from the others; Columbine High School massacre, Virginia Tech Shooting and Sandy Hook Elementary massacre. On April 20th, 1999, two seniors that attended Columbine High School in Colorado entered the campus with a number of weapons including two 9mm pistols, 2 12 gauge sawed-off shotguns and a number of explosive devices. (Johnson, 2012). They successfully shot and killed 13 people and injured 24. The

Police did not find their bodies for about 3 hours after their suicide (Rosenberg, 2010). The result of the massacre was 15 dead, including Klebold and Harris and 24 injured. Following the Columbine shooting, schools across the United States instituted new security measures such as see-through backpacks, metal detectors, school uniforms, and security guards. Some schools implemented school door numbering to improve public safety response. Several schools throughout the country resorted to requiring students to wear computer-generated IDs (Tuchman, 1999).

In response to expressed concerns over the causes of the Columbine High School massacre and other school shootings, some schools have renewed existing anti-bullying policies, in addition to adopting a zero tolerance approach to possession of weapons and threatening behavior by students. (Kass, 2000). Despite these and other responses, it did not stop school massacres and history would repeat itself again on April 16th,

history and one of the deadliest by a single gunman worldwide. (Lee, 2013). Cho was a South Korean Citizen studying at Virginia Tech, Majoring in English. As explained by Robert Lee of MSNBC, “…In eighth grade, Cho was diagnosed with severe depression as well as selective mutism, an anxiety disorder that inhibited him from speaking. Cho 's family sought therapy for him, and he received help periodically throughout middle school and high school” Early reports also indicated that Cho was bullied for speech difficulties in middle school and the bullying continued in high school. Cho was offered mental and psychological help but eventually chose to discontinue therapy. When he applied and was admitted to Virginia Tech, school officials did not report his speech and anxiety-related problems or special education status because of federal privacy laws that prohibit such disclosure unless a student requests special accommodations. (Schulte, 2007).

Fellow students described Cho as a quiet, self-reserved person. Student Julie Poole recalled the first day of a literature class the previous year when the students introduced themselves one by one. When it was Cho 's turn to introduce himself, he did not speak. According to Poole, the professor looked at the sign-in sheet and found that, whereas all the others had written