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Causes and effects of school shootings essay
Effects of school shootings on society
Cause and effects of school shootings
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For many years, school security has quite a history to tell. On April 20, 1999, two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado killed twenty-three students and teachers and wounded at least twenty other students. Those two students killed themselves approximately 12:08 pm. SWAT teams arrived forty-seven minutes later after the shooting started. Law enforcement said the school to be under control after five hours. Before the school shooting happened at Columbine High School, the school would always practice lockdown drills. Still, twenty-three students and teachers died and twenty other students were injured. Nowadays, metal detectors, cameras, and more technology have been
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First, armed guards at schools can provide security to students so they feel safe. According to Patrick Kissane, executive director of the New Jersey Association of School Resource Officers, on NY Times, “praised East Brunswick’s decision, but said that it was crucial that the police officers be able to work with teenagers. They’re there as a mentor, as a role model, and they’re building relationships,” said Mr. Kissane, who is also deputy chief of the Fort Lee Police Department. The officers will not necessarily be assigned to a specific post, but rather move in different areas, and be a visible presence, talking to students and teachers and other staff.” If police officers can build a relationship with students, they can better know what is going in the school, and they will be more familiar with any problems that arise and assure the students, teachers and other staff that they are safe. Also, students will learn to be more comfortable with police officers and won't be afraid to say anything that is going on. It is a good thing that police officers are role models because it shows kids what to do. Police officers are also mentors because if a student feels like …show more content…
Security helps protect students, teachers and other staff from dangerous interaction with outsiders. Over the years, security has been paid more attention to and has improved in the technology area as well. Overall, more security is being used technology wise and more security is used more for extra men too. Security is being implemented in schools and results show that security is protecting so many students, teachers and other staff from dangerous incidents, therefore security must be increased in schools. Regardless, security in schools make a safe environment for everyone and everyone feels safe. Why would anyone want the students, teachers and other staff to suffer from outside encounters just because there is not enough
April 20th, 1999, Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, experienced a mass shooting. Thirteen people were injured and more than twenty were injured. Twelve were students and one was a teacher. Two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened fire on their high school for forty one minutes before turning their guns on themselves and committing suicide. School shootings are notorious for making headline news but in 1999, school shooting were not as prevalent as they are in the present day. The media blew up on the catastrophe that was Columbine and many questions were raised, who were these kids and why did they do this? Speculation arose about why they did it. Maybe they were bullied for being goth and social outcasts or maybe they
Police officers are like guardian angels watching over the good people of the land, protecting them from danger.
At 11:19 in the morning of April 19, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold stood at the west entrance of Columbine High School preparing for the deadliest shooting in American school history. One of them yelled, "Go! Go!," and then the two pulled out their shotguns and began firing, killing two students almost immediately (Jefferson County 3). Harris and Klebold began moving through the school randomly shooting students, detonating pipe bombs, and yelling about how much fun they were having. While this was happening, Coach Dave Sanders and other heroes were frantically trying to get students out of harm's way. At 11:26, while running past the library warning students of the killers, Sanders was shot by one of the shooters. He made it into a science room where first aid was administered by students. He died several hours later in that same room. The worst killing took place in the library during a span of about eight minutes starting at 11:29. Ten students were killed and twelve others were wounded. After leaving the library, Harris and Klebold wandered around the school in movements that appeared to be "extremely random" (Jefferson County 18). They eventually returned to the library at about 12:08 and killed themselves. In 49 minutes, 14 students were left dead, one teacher was left dying, 23 people were injured, and an entire community's sense of safety and security was shattered.
Everyone knows that parents’ first worry is the safety of their children. With the increase of violence in schools, parents have started to wonder if their children are really safe in the school setting. Shootings like Sandy Hook and Columbine left parents, administrators, and educators feeling the need to be proactive towards children’s safety. Reacting to situations like these is not good enough when children’s lives are on the line. Administration has started to brainstorm different ways to help insure the protection of their students. The idea of having teachers carry concealed weapons has been on the front burner for quite some time. As a result of this extreme idea, insurance companies have started to increase or even cancel policies with schools that have armed teachers because of the high risk they are putting themselves at. Parents and administrators also worry about the idea of children getting their hands on one of the teachers’ weapons and injuring themselves or other students. Because this idea seems quite extreme, I believe there are other alternatives that are less dramatic and more positively out looked, such as having armed security guards in schools.
Populous places such as shopping malls or airports contain metal detectors in all the exits but in schools they are not necessary. People think they wont change much and they can be added to the school without any negative effects but they disrupt the school much more than that. The article discusses, “The weapon detection program requires 9 security officers for approximately 2 hours
The history of school shootings has shown an increase in mass school shooting. The very first known school shooting in the United States occurred on July 26, 1764 in present-day Greencastle, Pennsylvania. As part of the Pontiac's Rebellion, four Lenape Native Americans entered the school house and started shooting, killing the schoolmaster Enoch Brown and about nine students. Only two students survived the massacre (“History”). Since the 1700s the United States society has changed in many ways. Schools have become more than just one room school houses and each grade has its own teacher. Furthermore, the problem of school shootings has not decreased but rather increased over the years. On the one hand, reports from the Centers for Disease Control showed that in general school violence decreased from 1992 to 200...
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...
In the last ten years there have been eighteen school shootings in the United States. Elementary Schools, Middle Schools, High Schools, and Universities are all included. From these eighteen shootings there were one hundred and one students and faculty members killed, the majority being students. In the average classroom, there is at least fifteen students to one teacher. One adult is tasked with insuring the safety of fifteen to thirty students. How are teachers expected to accomplish this in the event of a shooting? There are safety codes and drills practiced such as code red, code blue, and evacuation drills that can help keep students safe. In the event of a code red students are to gather in the corner of the room farthest from the door; teachers turn off the lights and lock the door. Some teachers do what they can and barricade the classroom door with desks or filing cabinets… but hiding in a dark room isn 't enough. A code red is called out when an intruder is in the building. The shooter would hear the code red being announced and know the students are hiding, especially if the shooter is a member of the school, then they know exactly what the procedure is. A barricaded door might deter a shooter, but they will most likely move on to the next class-- or they decide that the barricade isn’t going to stop them. In the high school I attend the vast majority of classroom doors are mostly glass; in theory a school shooter can shoot right through without even having to enter the classroom. The best way to protect students is to have a more effective defense against threats.
Ideally schools in the United States are considered by both parents and students alike to be “safe-havens” where parents can trust their children to learn and remain safe during the day and where students can feel safe in a well-maintained learning environment. However within this fully regulated government service, there are often debates over proper classroom environments, teaching tactics, and privacy issues. Today the main privacy issue in public schools is where to draw the line between keeping the school safe and maintaining the privacy of the students (Boomer par. 19). Searches and seizures in schools are not recent issues; however they are becoming more public now than in recent years.
In light of recent acts of violence in the nation’s schools, school safety and security have become a hot topic. However, the issue of school safety goes beyond student violence. It includes property damage, theft, and anything else that concerns the overall well being of schools. While it is important to create a safe environment in schools it is also necessary to make sure students feel comfortable in this atmosphere. The security can not be so overbearing that it becomes a negative tactic that gets in the way of the students main objective, learning. Barely noticeable cameras, ID cards, and security guards without uniforms can help generate this safe, but comfortable learning environment. On the other hand metal detectors and mini police forces may be a little too reminiscent of George Orwell’s novel, 1984, or even modern prisons. School security should not be overbearing or obtrusive where it gets in the way of a comfortable environment that is conducive to learning in the nation’s schools.
Schools were once traditionally viewed as a safe place for children, teenagers, and adults. The educational setting coupled with community involvement gave no reason for violence to occur in schools. As years progressed, the occurrence of violence in school shocked communities across the nation, calling for state lawmakers and school districts to produce a solution to prevent these acts from occurring. Events such as the 1999 school shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado urged schools throughout the U.S. to increase their security measures with more stringent policies and procedures while spending millions of dollars on security equipment from security cameras to metal detectors. While schools increase their safety measures to prevent another major incident from occurring, such as a suspect with a firearm (active shooter) from entering school property, some of the security measures have not been effective. An example is the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, where the shooter was able to bypass a locked door which is one of the security measures the school had in place, making personnel visiting the school required to request entrance into the building (Barron).
On the morning of October 3, four people were shot within a span of approximately 2 hours in Aspen Hill, and other nearby areas in Montgomery County. Another was killed that evening in the District of Columbia, just over the border of Silver Spring. In each shooting, the victims were killed by a single bullet fired from some distance. The pattern was not detected until after the shootings occurred on October 3. Fear quickly spread throughout the community as news of the shootings circulated. Many parents went to pick up their children at school early, not allowing them to take a school bus or walk home alone. Montgomery County and District of Columbia schools declared a lockdown, wit...
One of the most eye opening school shootings was on April 20, 1999 in Littleton, Colorado. Thirteen students were killed and twenty wounded in the middle of the day while attending school at Columbine High School. Two armed students opened fire just outside the building, then moved inside and gunned down more students and faculty members. This rampage lasting for just under 45 minutes. The students then turned the guns on themselves and ended their lives. The police did not show up in a reasonable time, which lead families to file lawsuits against the police department and the school. There was only one resource officer in the high school, during this time. He was located in the parking lot to watch kids drive in and out. One of the parents of the victims said, "There was no one in that school that had a gun other than the two killers, and ...
On April 20 1999, in a small town of Littleton, Colorado, two high-school seniors, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris dressed in trench coats began shooting outside of columbine high school. The two boys then moved inside the school and gunned down many students in the library. Upon investigation it was found that the two boys arrived in two separate cars. At first they went into the school with two duffle bags filled with bombs set to the time 11:17, placed these bags in the cafeteria aiming to kill hundreds of students and faculty. They set these bags in the cafeteria without anyone noticing and came out to their cars to watch. When the bombs failed to detonate Dylan and Harris went on a shooting spree.
The schools had also brought in school officers to have on school grounding during school hours. They feel that they need these type of secured to have their children protected. Parents feel a little say knowing that there is a police in school patrolling. In several school they have started to do searches to make sure no one is bring anything dangerous that could harm a person. This is super important to makes sure no weapons are on school grounds. Schools have also put on their policy that if any weapon is found on the person’s possession there could be serious