School Shootings

The effort of this paper is designed to provide an audience with the basic framework in preventing, reacting to, and recovering from a school shooting. By analyzing the crisis of a school shooting, this paper will lay out the practical steps in preparing schools, communities, and local agencies for a tragedy that has already shook many communities across the nation. This paper will also follow the steps necessary to implement and evaluate a school shooting preparedness plan. In concluding this paper, school staff, local agencies, and families will be able to take the practical steps towards providing a safe and comfortable learning environment for students.

Therefore, the government, school officials, and parents are still wondering what is the cause of this horrible violence, and how can they solve the problem. While students, parents, teachers and educational staff expect schools to grant a safe and secure atmosphere for learning, a series of school shootings across the nation have occurred. It has happened in suburbs like Parkland and in rural towns once considered safe havens from big-city shootings. Schools are encountering gun violence for the first time, which has shattered this expectation of what is creating a safe environment for students. One situation, considered the most awful act of high school terror in United States' history played out at Columbine High School. During that event, teenagers entered the high school and killed and injured many of the staff and students attending. While this case has received the most attention, it was not the first case. Every two days in the United States, we lose a classroom of children to some kind of violent related issue. ()

When I think of school shootings my mind immediately goes back to the Columbine High school shooting. This was the first school shooting that I was actually old enough to remember and understand. I still remember having a moment of silence for all of those involved. The New world encyclopedia states “Columbine High School shooting was one of the deadliest mass shootings in United States history. On April 20, 1999, two teenagers killed 13 people and wounded more than 20 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. The incident drew worldwide attention. It led to widespread discussion over gun control and the prevention of school violence.” (Funk & Wagnalls) According to Wikipedia from 2011 to 2015 there has been

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

“Shooting massacres” in school settings, a new phenomenon within the past 50 years, are extremely rare events. Over 23 years, 1990-2012, 215 fatal school shooting incidents resulted in 363 deaths, equivalent to 0.12% of national firearm homicides during that time period …… Among these, just three shooting rampages – Columbine High School, Virginia Tech University, and Sandy Hook Elementary School – accounted for 72 (53.3%) of these 135 deaths. The frequency of random/ rampage shooting incidents in schools has remained within the narrow range of 0 to 3 episodes per year.” (Shultz, et al., 2013, p. 84)

On a topic that we should have never wanted to go over, something that shouldn't be so dwelled upon as it is now today, do students feel safe in the school that they are attending? With all these atrocious mass school shootings that have happened so far this year of 2018 is quite oppressive. Parents are sending their kids to school not knowing if they are going to get to see them when the school day is finished, something a parent should never have to apprehend. Keeping the schools tended is a task that doesn't just happen over night, in my opinion, keeping schools secure is something that will happen over time. Putting out new gun laws isn't something we shouldn't be hassled over, for that reason, at the end of the day, the inferior people

They were first inspired by the Oklahoma City bombing and planned to conduct the shooting on the same day calling it it's anniversary. They later found video footage of Klebold gloating about having the most deaths in the U.S. expecting to kill 600 people. Harris and Klebold took action by placing bombs inside the cafeteria. Shortly, after the bombs went off it was in their mind to gun down all remaining survivors. "Because of their inability to appreciate the feelings of others, some psychopaths are capable of behavior that normal people find not only horrific but baffling," Hare writes (Dave Cullen). For example, the same exciting feeling you get when putting up your Christmas tree around the holiday season these two young men bodies filled with the same joy. They were just killers looking for a way to attack the world today! Thirteen were killed with twenty-three other being injured. Shortly after the schools mass shooting the two Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris then killed themselves.

The purpose of this study is to reveal the imminent threat of mass shootings in the American classroom, as well as what the schools are doing to prepare for such a disaster.

School shootings are not very common. In fact, they are super rare. But when they happen everyone takes notice and they are heard all around the nation and if it is big enough it can be heard all around the world. There are many different traits that are linked to school shootings. “School shootings are most commonly committed by either a student who goes to the school or by an intruder from off campus who has a connection to someone within a particular school.”

School violence is the act that threatens and alters the school environment with harmful consequences on students and educators’ wellbeing and impact students in a negative way (Reininghaus, Castro, & Frisancho, 2013). It is obvious now than ever that we lives in a world where the safety and security of individuals are in question, especially that of school students where safety against school shootings remain everyone’s major concern. The terror of Virginia Tech mass murder in 2007 and Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012 traumatized the nation. As of the time when Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting took place, the massacre was considered the second-deadliest school shooting in the United States when Adam Lanza, a Twenty-year-old carried armory of hundreds of rounds of deadly ammo, that was enough to kill nearly every students in the school (Lee, 2013). Thus, the causes of this growing problem of school violence are: Bullying, psychiatric drugs and access to weapon.

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.

Rampage shootings are a very serious problem in the United States, and an issue in other countries, and, beginning in the 1990’s, there was a significant rise in the number of school shootings. In order to try and decrease the occurrence of these rampage shootings, it is important to thoroughly understand what they are compared to other shootings. According to Katherine Newman and her colleagues in their article Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings (2004), rampage shootings must take place in a school-related area with witnesses, have multiple victims many of whom are shot for their significance or at random, and finally must involve one ore more shooters who are or were students of the school (Newman, Fox, Harding, Mehta, Roth, 2004: 51).

The number of school shootings in the 2-3 years, has exponentially grown. Approximately every month there is at least one major shooting. The cause of the problem is either students with mental disorders or no control over gun usage. Researchers gathered records of school shootings, and concluded that national media coverage of a mass shooting might influence kids.

The purpose of this bibliography is to annotate the sources needed to find an effective solution to the issue of school shootings. The articles talk about cases all across the country and are analyzed in depth. All ten sources presented are from ASU Library database and search engine Academic Search Premier. The articles and journals are all scholarly and peer reviewed sources in a 6-year contribution, from 2011 to 2017. The sources cover different perspectives from a diverse group of people and disciplines.

In the 1990’s the number of school shootings and the overall increase of crime and violence taking place within schools was cause for action to ensure the safety of students. There was an overwhelming majority of staff and students who did not feel safe at school (Mckenna & Pollock, 2014).