Essay About School Shootings

The intention of this paper is to look at and present some issues and strategies that members of a school community think about when trying to create safer schools. Particularly when addressing an active shooter in a school setting. A major issue to consider when trying to keep all schools safe, is the simple fact that no two schools are the same. Understanding this can lead us to the conclusion that it is impossible to have one global plan or program that can be 100% effective in all schools. “Violence prevention programs work best when they incorporate multiple strategies and address the full range of possible acts of violence in schools. For any set of policies to work, it must be established and

In the United States mass shootings has been a problem for the last few years especially school shootings which occurs often in the country. Why in this country? Well statistics shows that the United States has 31% of all public mass shootings from 1966 to 2012. Although, the percentage has gone up for the last five years. There is a higher risk of dying at school than at any public places. The government and the president of the United States are not treating this problem right and it has become a phenomenon in the country. According to the blog “I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother: A Mom’s Perspective On the Mental Illness Conversation In America” by Liza Long, she discusses her struggles with her mentally ill son and states the lack of help she was getting. She addresses the Sandy Hook incident in Newtown, Connecticut to relate it to her situation and how she fears her son might lead to murderous attack like the Sandy Hook shooting. Many of the causes that lead to school shootings are; lack of gun control, mental health & bullying, and definitely lack of protection at schools.

School shootings have become well known around the world due to the coverage by the media. . These shootings are a serious concern and have parents constantly concerned about their child’s safety when they are at school and also have students thinking twice about any unusual or suspicious behavior. The media appears to play a large part in school shootings and it is important to analyze the deviant behaviors of the shooters in these horrific instances and the fear they create in schools. Does the media play a large part in school shootings or does the media play a large part in the sensationalism of school shootings and the fear they create both in schools and with parents?

Some of the most infamous acts of terror on American soil took place on numerous campuses across the nation. School shootings, like Sandy Hook and Columbine, have started to become an ordinary event seen on the news, which causes a numb reaction in the hearts of countless Americans. According to an article written by AJ Willingham and Saeed Ahmed, from CNN, “...30 deadliest shootings in the United States dating back to 1949, 18 have occurred in the last 10 years.” In all of these cases, the news will give the attacker the attention they so dearly crave and always giving the same justification “they were mentally ill”. This one phrase reflects on all of those who also are affected by mental illness, does this make them corrupt like these terrorists?

Thirteen people were killed at Columbine High School in 1999, thirty-three died during the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, and twenty-seven people, twenty of whom were children no older than seven, were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 (Kirk). These name only a few of the larger and most well-known school shooting incidences. In total, 297 people have lost their lives due to school-based shootings since 1980 (Kirk). Although this number may be small in comparison to death by guns overall, these instances are completely unwarranted and it is likely that they could have been avoided or at the very least reduced. These people, college and high school students, teachers, and even children, might still be alive today if our

The school shooting in Roseburg, Oregon was severe. On October 1st, 2015 Thursday 10:38 am at Umpqua Community College (UCC), the gunman went to the school and started shooting students. Many students were killed and injured. The gunman, Christopher Harper-Mercer, 26 years old, had an interest in guns, struggling with mental health issues, and had anger against religious people. This shooting was called, “One of the Deadly mass shootings this year”.

There has been an average of one school shooting every week in America since the Sandy Hook shooting. On the fourteenth of December, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, 20-year-old Adam Lanza not only killed his mother in her home, but also twenty children and six members of staff at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. This was to be the third deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. The Huffington Post reports that as of 2014, there have been over 200 school shootings. These have resulted in at least 94 deaths and over 156 serious and minor injuries. And, with an issue as emotive and contentious as the murder of school children, the question has been frequently asked: why do school shootings happen?

What should be done in order to decrease school violence or even eliminate school violence entirely? Well, it is important to make sure the students feel safe and it is important to use only the most effective ways of keeping the students safe. So, the contributors to the organization of National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) wrote the article “School Violence Prevention” (2017), and the article explains 19 easy and effective ways to prevent school violence. Even though they are not going to prevent 100% of the issues, it will decrease the number of violent acts. This article was made to inform staff and adults what to do in order to decrease school violence and eventually stop school violence.

What steps are being taken to keep students safe? The topic has risen, ‘should teachers be armed?’. Teachers should be armed in order to protect students from possible threats. School shooting has dramatically risen since 2000, though they dated back to 1764. Teachers would be trained and very prepared to handle any ‘code red’ emergency. Though there are opposing points there are solutions and positive outcomes for most.

Columbine, Virginia Tech, and Sandy Hook these are but a few cases of fatal school shootings that have plagued the United States history in recent years. School-based violence has gained much attention in the media. Parents are fearful to send their children to school, teachers are becoming armed, and schools have more police patrolling campuses in hopes to deter future endangerment to students and administration. Shootings are the most common and frequent acts of school-based violence and accounts for the highest amount of deaths according to Roberto Flores de Apodaca and fellow co writers’ study of the characteristics of school shootings (Flores de Apodaca et al, 2012, p.365). The question though still stands: what causes these shootings and what can be done to prevent future lives being taken? The answer to this question is not a simple one. There are many factors that play a part in school shootings: the events leading up to the shooting, interpersonal/psychological issues, community, and social culture. To come up with a solution to the problem, one must first look into the causes of the problem because there is not just one cause but many contributing factors. The aim of this paper is to examine causes and factors that lead to shootings in schools and solutions or ways to prevent them.

In the United States, the NHERI.org, reports that from 1970 to 2015 home schooling jumped from 13 thousand students to 2200 thousand, in the United States alone. According to the U.S. Department of Education, roughly nine out of ten parents who homeschooled their children during the 2011-12 school year said school environment, meaning safety, drugs, and peer pressure, contributed to their decision. (School, B. T., 2015). I would also venture to say that bullying also played a key role. The number of mass school shootings, suicides due to bullying, student teacher relationship as well as in rare cases teachers who simply collecting a paycheck. Also, why parents choose to homeschool their children is they want to be able to instill their

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.

In our society today, so socially and technologically advanced, one expects to feel a sense of security and comfort. However, this safety is lost due to the fact of many school shootings occurring nationwide. It is not unusual to hear about these shootings on television or on the radio. This issue has greatly impacted the lives of young people.

The school shootings at Westside Middle School were orchestrated by two juveniles. On Monday, March 30, 1998 two boys ambushed students and teachers outside Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Andrew Golden a youth of 11 years and Mitchell Johnson who was 13 years old were responsible for this hideous tragedy. Apparently, Mitchell Johnson hid in the woods while Andrew set off the fire alarm causing the students and teachers to run out of the building. Armed with three stolen rifles and four handguns, the documentary explained that the two youth flushed kids and teachers out of the school by means of a false fire alarm then opened up on them. When they stopped shooting, four students and a teacher lay dead and 10 students were

Urban, suburban, and rural schools alike report a decrease in school violence between the years 1992 and 2015. The data on serious violent victimizations show a decline from eight per one-thousand students to four per one-thousand students in that same time period (Musu-Gillette, 36). This trend, while encouraging, still amounts to around 840,000 violent crimes taking place, many of them serious violent crimes. Taking Saavedra’s article at face value, the statistically low number of deaths in the last twenty-five years, an average of ten per year, is the end of the story. The fact is, though, this perspective taken from a study at Northeastern University, looks at gun deaths as the only determinant of safety. Adichie, on the other hand, encourages looking for more than one viewpoint to get a “balance of stories” (Adichie 14:29). Saavedra notes that gun deaths on campuses are four times lower than in the