The Columbine High School Shootings

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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. Aronson discusses the Columbine High School in depth, talking about the short cut solutions or pump-handle intervention as he calls it that schools and legislation passed soon after the Columbine tragedy. He then offers solutions that are more focused toward students as "social animals" in a school situation. In this book he makes it a point that teachers are at the forefront of these solutions and gives them certain class activities that can help teachers have better students and also better themselves. He states that it is their job to show cooperation, empathy and compassion as well as practice it themselves. Aronson's book Nobody Left to Hate is a step that needs to be taken towards a better school environment. We can learn a lot about the tragedy that happened in Columbine High School and if this tragedy is taken like another passing moment with no clear solution then one day it can happen again.

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