"What caused these school shootings, I don't pretend to know, and I don't know that it's knowable."
- Robert A. Fein, forensic psychologist
In considering how I would respond to the provided prompt, I thought that it might be best to first take a look at what others had to say on the subject; what do other teens feel is the source of the rise in school violence, and how do the "experts" explain this disturbing trend?
In my quest to discover what other students had to say, I searched "school violence" on Planetpapers.com, a web site where students can post papers that they have written to be viewed by other students. Several students had submitted papers offering broad explanations of and proposed answers to our harrowing dilemma. One student "blamed" the sale of illegal drugs, claiming that students sold drugs in order to buy guns, and inevitably used these guns on others. In other words, her theory was less drugs equals less guns equals less violence. Another student argued that parents are responsible for the rise in school violence, as many school shooters find the guns they use in their shootings in their own homes. According to the student, if parents would responsibly care for their firearms, children would not have such easy access and thus school violence would no longer be a problem. A third student offered violence in video games as a possible cause for the rise in school violence. This student, however, gave no suggestion of how we might address school violence.
Drugs cause school violence! It's the parents' fault! Violent video games encourage children to act violently in their schools! I don't buy it. Overall I think I would have to agree with Robert A. Fein, a forensic psychologist with the Secret Service, who admits, "What caused these school shootings, I don't pretend to know, and I don't know that it's knowable." The truth is that until we have the ability to reach into the minds of these young killers and monitor their every thought we will never know what it is that prompts them to resort violence, and even then we might never understand it. What I believe to be important is that we don't point fingers. Let us say that we all agree that it is the media's "fault," that real-world violence is undoubtedly connected with violence in the media.
Dylan Klebold, Eric Harris, Adam Lanza, Steven Phillip Kazmierczak, and Seung-Hui Cho all have a few things in common, they are all school shooters that have killed and injured a combined total of 149 human beings and are or were believed to be avid violent video game players, who also committed suicide immediately after carrying out their attacks. To the public, school shooters seem to share a direct connection to playing violent video games and that playing them leads to violent behavior. Violent videogames have become a highlight in the media and national debate for this very reason but, there is no scientific evidence to support the existence of a causative connection between participants of violent videogames manifesting violent behaviors. The media provides biased information that misleads citizens into believing that said link is well established and accepted. I argue that parents should make responsible and well informed decisions in regards to their child’s videogame activities in spite of the lack of scientific research.
The United States will not soon forget the rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut that came just two weeks before Christmas last year. This tragic event resulted in the death of twenty students and eight adults. Although the event shocked the nation, rampage shootings are nothing new. Over the years, many families have lost loved ones to these horrific events. As a result, these mass shootings such as the one that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary caught public attention leading to a push to find the cause of these events. Out of this research a variety of possible causes came to light consisting of arguments stating that high school bullying, availability of guns, mental illness, violent movies and video games are the cause of mass shootings. However, these researchers and debaters tend to ignore the role of massive media coverage in the increase of copycat shootings in the United States.
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.
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?
Alan Fox discussed some typical characteristics of school shooters which included easy access to guns. Other characteristics were alienation, frustration, and low self esteem. Mr. Fox stated that these kids typically just don’t feel good about themselves. He blames the recent spate of school violence on the media and instant popularity arising from intense news coverage after the violence which encouraged a surge of “copycats”. He also discusses the role of violence seen in today’s movies, MTV and video games. Ignoring the warning signs of potential explosive juveniles was also sighted as a reason for this surge in school shootings.
If someone were to rely solely on television media, it wouldn’t surprise me if he/she thought that America’s schools were being taken over by these so-called “juvenile super predators.” The American people would assume that every quiet kid who gets picked on is going to turn around in school one day and start unloading his newly acquired firearms on his peers. This is hardly the case. While there may be an occasional “super-predator,” the media has highly over publicized these rare, extraordinary events.
In conclusion, School Violence is a widespread issue that must be addressed. School shootings and bullying are some of the biggest issues in today’s school system. Many times the seed of the issue begins with bullying and ends with consequences like suicide and school shootings. They affect people as early as elementary school all the way to the college level, some even ending with death. Only together can we stop school violence if we take a stand and change the world.
"A Brief History of NRA." A Brief History of NRA. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Jan. 2015.
Students should not be afraid to attend school. School should be a safe environment where teenagers could be teenagers and not feel intimidated. CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, is a school based survey designed to produce a sample of risk behaviors of students ages 9-12. In the CDC Media Relations web page the 1997 statistics show that 8.3% of high school students carry a weapon (e.g., gun, knife, or club) to school and 7.4% of high school students were threatened or injured with a weapon on school property throughout the year. In the report also included was that nationwide, 4% of students had missed 1 ...
Why do people resort to gun violence? This question has taken off in recent years, especially following the tragic shooting in Newtown, Connecticut in December, 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary. It’s hard to say why exactly people resort to gun violence mainly because most shooters are usually killed by themselves or they are shot by police officers at the scene of the crime so we don’t have a chance to question them and figure out what they were actually thinking. Shooters that we are able to capture and question are usually so mentally gone that it’s hard to figure out what exactly they were thinking. There are a plethora of likely causes for school shootings, some more plausible than others. People believe that anything from video games to mental disorders to bullying to attention, and many others, could be the main reason for why people decide to shoot up schools. You can’t point to one thing and decide that is why the shooter attacked, it will usually be several factors that affect the shooter that they end up breaking down and think gun violence is perfectly fine.
As the world recovers from recent school shootings, people wondered why these events have occurred. They are focused on drug use, violent society, video games, bullying, and mental issues to try and explain an unexplainable event. The idea that a person would shoot others for little or no reason gave little relief to the survivors.
“That could never happen in my school.” This is one of the first thoughts that goes through a students mind when they hear about a school shooting. The fact is though, it can. School shootings can happen at any school at any time. Lack of security is only a small part of the problem. The major issue lies in the low morality of students and warning signs overlooked by administration.
What would cause students or minors to act out with violence, rage, assault, bullying? Many students show signs of breaking down, snapping, but no one really notices. When students stop doing what they enjoy, shutting everyone out, or even failing to do good in school that’s a sure sign that students may be ready to snap. “Each year more than 20,000 minors are are killed every year due to violence or shootings in schools” (Behrman 39-54). Studies show that that most of the shootings are caused by people feeling rejected, bullied, individuals that feel different than their peers, or they are self conscious that they won't be accepted or won't fit in with their peers (Stephen 3). Studies have also been done to show that white males are more likely to open fire rather than African American males, the same study will also show you that it is a cause of bullying or teasing from homophobia. The boys who are teased and bullied achieve the psychological resilience that enables them to weather adolescence without reecourse to random school violence ...
Even since the shooting at Columbine High School caught the attention of America and all the world on April 20, 1999, high school shootings and other forms of violence at schools has been plaguing America during the last ten years. It is also found that most of the violence that occurs in high schools is caused by young men. Students aren’t feeling safe at school anymore and parents are enraged that students could bring the weapons to school in the first place. Many people have brought their own opinions into play about why violence in schools occurs. Such causes range from violence in the media, being treated poorly by peers and administrators in school, all the way to poor parental decisions. Although these are only a few of the possible causes for violence in schools, they are defiantly the most prevalent reasons.
Noguera, P. A. (1995, Summer). Preventing and producing violence: A critical analysis of responses to school violence. Harvard Educational Review. 65(2),