The Price of Ignoring
You’re walking into school and it’s like any other day. Since it’s December, most teachers are getting ready for winter break with parties and festivities...until you hear a series of gunshots echo throughout the hallway. Then an announcement comes on, telling everyone that the school is under lockdown. But when the police arrive, it’s already too late. This is what happened to the children at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Several years after the shooting, Adam Lanza, the shooter, was believed to be suffering with several mental disabilities, but he was never diagnosed. During elementary school he was also bullied and beaten as a child at school by classmates.
Many people make assumptions on what a mental disability is, but simply, a mental disability is a disorder that affects one’s moods, thoughts, and behavior. It doesn't care about race, gender, religion, age, or wealth. Yet, so many of the
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Yes, she still thinks like an 8-year-old and now she’s also slowly losing her memory. But still fighting, always fighting. Instead of letting her weakness consume her, she’s been in the Special Olympics and working at a grocery store. Adam Lanza and my sister can only relate based on their disabilities. The difference is, is that my sister was able to control the majority of her disability and empower herself while Adam Lanza had everyone tell him to ignore it. Imagine if someone spoke up for Adam Lanza during his childhood, instead of letting his classmates bully him. Imagine if his mother accepted the fact that her son was suffering with a mental disorder. Maybe if one person spoke out for this kid, a school would not be in devastation. But in the end, no one did. No one knows why Adam Lanza decided to attack the school on that fateful morning, but we can all learn from the people from his childhood that decided to treat him as an outsider, and instead, stand up and speak out for people with mental
After the Sandy Hook, there were countless ways for students to be safe at school. In Preparing for the Unthinkable: School Safety after Sandy Hook news article, Vicki Bauman said, “ Instead of gates, guns, and metal detectors, let’s invest in the things we know will make us safer: counselors, health care, teaching positive behavior, and making sure we have services to reach out to disconnected youth and pull them back on track.” Therefore, violence is not the answer to any question or issue. The community and school system should take a stand and get the necessities that the schools need to have a safe environment for the students and faculty and staff. The school can invest in law enforcement. The law enforcement will be able to conduct a consistent search through a metal detector. The law enforcement will help the students to avoid bringing prohibited weapons to school as well as, there to protect the school.
Sandy Hook was a chaotic town on December 14, 2012 where gunman, Adam Lanza, shot and killed twenty children and six staff members. Many family members of the victims are still mourning the loss of their children and loved ones. Over 500 lives were affected after this tragedy (Gay). The author gives an interview of the superintendent of the school in which he shows what he did after he heard the news of the shooting. “I was in the district office and my secretary told me the bus company reported a
Not one person from Sandy Hook, Connecticut ever thought this sort of event would ever happen. On December 14, 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza fatally shot twenty children and six adult staff members in a mass murder at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Before the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Lanza shot and killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, at his home in Newtown, Connecticut. After the shooting, Lanza successfully committed suicide before he was detained. Which left, the state, officials, and the entire country to question why Lanza would do such a horrible act of violence to innocent children and staff members of the school. Also, questioning the security of schools, and even our country. There are many conspiracies of the
The tragedy that was felt across America when Adam Lanza went into Sandy Hook Elementary School to gun down 20 unarmed innocent children cannot be put into words. The author successfully
14, 2012. 20 lives were taken away between the ages 6-7 including 6 staff members by 20-year old Adam Lanza ( David Morgan). The Sandy Hook Elementary shooting was one of the worst shootings in U.S. history that prompted the controversial debate over gun control and whether there should be safer regulations on guns. Similarly, six years after the tragic shooting of the Sandy Hook, The Parkland, FL sought the same experience of an active shooter Nicholas Cruz 19-year old, contributing to the lost of 17 lives. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students took action by protesting the rights to a stricter gun legislation that should have been enacted to protect the lives of students all around and stop the massive school shootings by letting the hands of the mentally disabled gain access to destructive weapons and cause fatal consequences at the end (“How Many More School Shootings”). Therefore, due to the series of school shootings gun laws should be
In December of 2012, 23-year-old, Adam Lanza, killed his mother, then proceeding to enter sandy hook elementary school in Connecticut armed with a shotgun. After an hour and a half of chaos, 6 teachers and 20 students didn’t walk out of that school alive. One of those students was Emilie Parker; a sweet little blonde haired girl who’s fate changed my life as well as the life of my friends. Upon further investigation
On December 14, 2012 Adam Lanza walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School and started shooting. Before he even walked into the school he had already killed his mother Nancy Lanza. He shot her in the head and them left her home to go to Sandy Hook. That is how Adam Lanza’s day started and it got worse from there. Police don’t know what triggered the events that happened that day, but they do that he had a lot of mental diseases and he was also anorexic. Police do know that he planned the event out because he studied books about mass murders and played video games on school shootings. He didn’t plan what he was going to do when he walked inside Sandy Hook all he knew was that he was going to try and shoot someone. Adam Lanza acted alone in the
On December 14, 2012 a tragic incident took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut when a 20-year-old man named Adam Lanza invaded the school and shot 20 children and 6 staff members. Before entering Sandy Hook, Lanza first shot his mother, then after finishing his shooting at the school, he shot himself. Connecticut authorities have yet to find Lanza’s real motive, but have collected some information about his life, right from the he was a young pre-teen, in order to figure out why he would commit such a heinous crime.
He spent most of his time playing on an online chat room talking to "mass murders". Adam was obsessed with playing a game on the computer game called “School Shooting,” in which the player enters a school and randomly fires on students and teachers
On December 14, 2014, local and nation news stations all covered the breaking news story of Adam Lanza, who at the time was 20 years old, opened fire at a local elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, Sandy Hook Elementary. Adam shot and killed 20 children, 6 adults, his own mother, then killed himself. Investigators conducted a thorough investigation into Adam's life to determine motive for this tragedy. Law enforcement investigations determined that Adam had a history of mental illness. Investigations also determined that Adam had access to a full surplus of guns and weapons which feed into this obsession of guns and violence. Media coverage of the Sandy Hook Tragedy heavily reported on Adam's mental status and his obsession with guns
Using this definition, we can conclude that mental illness is non-discriminatory and is a legitimate condition that affects a person's ability to function in their day-to-day life.
It is without a doubt that there has been an increase in violent crimes in schools throughout recent years. School shootings continue to become more and more common, especially in North America. Safety concerns for any and all students and staff in schools are at all all time high due to the high number of fatal and non-fatal occurring incidences. Since 2013 to the present, it is estimated that the United States has seen approximately 205 school shootings. Weekly, that is a shocking one shooting on average. Many of these shootings have resulted in the injuries and deaths of multiple of students and staff members. (Everytown Research, 2017) Evidently, school shootings are tragic events that affect so many more people than just the victims. However, these events are also interesting to look at from the psychological and sociological point of views. Through much research, it can be concluded that school shootings are a complex problem that are caused by a mix of improper brain development and societal and media influences which motivate school shooters to emerge. Psychological factors may include struggling with mental illnesses and/or abuse that leads to damaged brain development. Additionally, being bullied and/or the role of the media are examples of sociological factors.
Adam Lanza, the shooter at Sandy Hook elementary was unemployed; he had difficulties making friends, divorced parents, and was homeschooled. He had anxiety and had social and emotional problems. He tried to return to school in 10th grade but he ended up withdrawing. He eventually stopped going out in public and isolated himself in his room. It even went to an extreme to where he started emailing his mother instead of talking to her. His father said that when he started middle school and had to transition to moving from classroom to classroom that’s when his problems began to start. It affected his ability to concentrate; he stopped playing the saxophone, stop climbing trees, and even giving people eye
“Today at 13:30 hours, a shooting incident happened here at Smith’s Panthers Elementary. A mentally ill parent walked into the building with a concealed gun and open fired once he was in the building. An alarm sounded to initiate school lockdown procedures, however, three staff members have fallen in the line of defense. No students were injured during the lockdown. Within 3 minutes, a School Resource Officer terminated the adult.
What is Mental Illness? Mental illnesses are disorders of the brain that disrupt a person's thinking, feeling, moods, and ability to relate to others-and if severe interferes with all aspects of daily living.