The Incident Of Troy University 's Homecoming

How safe do you feel when you attend school everyday? Many students and faculty don’t really think too much about school being a dangerous place; however, after a couple of school shootings had taken place their minds and thoughts may have changed completely. On April 16, 2007, in the town of Blacksburg Virginia, a college student who attended Virginia Tech, opened gunfire to his fellow classmates. This shooting has been considered to be the biggest massacre in all of American history. There are many things to be discussed in this major tragedy. Some of them include the events leading up to the shooting, the timeline that the shootings occurred, the causes, and the significance in this particular shooting. The Virginia Tech is only

Tuesday April 20th, 1999 began like any other day. Parents went to work, and the children went off to school. Neither worried about the other, or how their day would turn out. But, hours later everything changed (“Columbine Highschool Massacre.”). Little did the residents of Columbine, Colorado know their high school would be a statistic for one of the largest school massacres in US History. On this day, two teenage boys were responsible for killing 12 innocent students and a teacher, wounding 23 more students, and then killing themselves (Miller). While a horrific event, the Columbine tragedy improved the safety in schools by upgrading security systems, improving administration’s knowledge on school security, and increasing

Tragedy, as defined by Aristotle, is “a drama treating a serious subject and involving persons of significance” (Kirszner and Mandell 1086), the success of a tragedy occurs when the audience “feels both fear and pity because they see in themselves the potential for similar situations” (Kirszner and Mandell 1087). Aristotle’s literary theory of tragedy applies only to “imitation of persons who are above the common level, he must be one who is highly renowned and prosperous – a personage like Oedipus, Thyestes, or other illustrious men of such families” (Aristotle) because his theory was developed for application to the literary works of poets and playwrights such as Homer, Aeschylus, and Sophocles, whose works were the interpretations of Greek mythology. This means that one cannot look fully to Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero in application to modern literature. Therefore, many scholars and literary critics look to playwright Arthur Miller’s description written in his article Tragedy and the Common Man where he writes, “I believe that common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were” (Miller). Miller points out in his article that the common man can exhibit all the same qualities and characteristics as those of a man born into nobility, and that same common man can execute the same actions. But not all tragedies are heroic, there must be specific elements in the creation of a tragic hero that can be difficult to

“There have been 220 shootings on school campuses in the U.S. since 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Conn. on Dec. 14, according to Everytown For Gun Safety, an advocacy group.” (Krishnakumar, Priya , and Len Degroot) Many people do not feel safe attending or sending their child to a public school where they are possibly subject to a shooting. School shootings were first initially brought to the attention of the public in 1999, Columbine was one of the first school massacres that was recognized nationwide. Because of the magnitude of the shooting there is an abundance of information online bearing information of the event. First off, the shooters had identified specific targets, athletes, minorities and Christians. The two shooters had planned the firing for over a year and thought out their whole strategy. (“Columbine High School shootings.”) There was no plan in place to react to this shooting, because nothing like it had ever happened before. Although if there was, we may not hear about Columbine to the degree we do today. Columbine still is the most well known shooting and the horrific impact is still notable today across the United States. In the eighteen years since Columbine in 1999 there have been hundreds of school shootings, ranging from grade schools to college universities. Obviously, school shootings are a big problem in the United States and hopefully in time with the proper precautions taken they will eventually be eliminated forever.

Since the day America was shocked to hear reports of a school shooting on April 20, 1999, America’s schools have changed in order provide a safer environment, ease any fears among the public, and protect students. The Columbine Massacre triggered an earthquake of changes throughout the school system. Like any earthquake, the shock was felt, then there may be a few aftershocks, but eventually it subsides and things become more lenient. Is this a problem? To figure this out we must look at the changes the massacre brought, their progression, and furthermore, where we are now.

On April 16th 2007 at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, a student with psychological problems began a two hour killing spree that left 33 dead (Reader). The massacre that occurred at this school is now the worst recorded incident in the history of the United States and eclipses the University of Texas massacre of 1966. In the wake of tragedies like these, students, teachers and administrators propose more measures to make us feel safe on campus. But why weren't these measures in place before? School administrators and police have a responsibility to protect their students and faculty on campus, and these instances clearly shown a lack of fulfilling that responsibility. And yet several campus' refuse to allow law-abiding and

A school administrator roams the halls to make sure all doors are locked and all students are hidden from what might be a school shooter if this scenario was not a drill. "You're training the kids," Weicker said. Similar drills which, in some states, are attended by armed and masked SWAT teams are now practiced routinely in nearly three-quarters of schools, according to a recent survey of 445 administrators funded by the American Association of School Administrators. The Columbine High School Massacre was the worst high school shooting in U.S. history and prompted a national debate on gun control laws and school safety regulations. Now we can live in a society they is a lot safer due to this laws and regulations schools and states have made to

Between the comings and goings of an average day in America there are momentous events that fall across the globe and stain history for better or for worse. These world-changing occurrences are often wrought with tragedy, and cling to the mind with the sharp talons of loss. More often than not, unfortunate events have a way of establishing a camaraderie among humanity, setting in motion a gentle shift in people 's disdain for others- if only for a moment- and allowing them to move together and reinvent the rules and techniques; readjusting and shifting until something that works is sealed into standard procedure. From turmoil and hurt, humanity corrects itself and grows. Of these events, the Columbine High School shooting comes to many as one that completely morphed America 's culture and sense of security. The assault was carried out by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, students of the school and close friends. They had nourished the idea, feeding it hours of attention and deep consideration. Then, they went forward with it on April 20, 1999. The boys took the event seriously, setting up decoy bombs and then positioning their vehicles in the school parking lot with an arsenal and military methods of execution prepared to put in motion. They ending thirteen lives, including their own. The ruin caused by the shooting would have been greater, had the plan prevailed. Their actions had a severe impact on the way many people live and think. When one sifts through the information

My current event article is on the Oklahoma State homecoming incident. This took place on Saturday October 24, 2015. This horrific event occurred during a homecoming parade, when The Oklahoma State Cowboys were about to face the Kansas Jayhawks in a friendly college football matchup. In the middle of the parade, a driver by the name Adacia Chambers (25) ran into a crow- full of people. There has been four confirmed deaths; one including a toddler. There have been over 50 reports of injuries and five of the people are in critical condition. The girl has been charged with DUI and is in jail. More charges could pile up on her if more witnesses come forward and if the police find out what her intent was, or if she just did the crime by accident.

How safe do you feel when you attend school everyday? Many students and faculty don’t really think too much about school being a dangerous place; however, after a couple of school shootings had taken place their minds and thoughts may have changed completely. On April 16, 2007, in the town of Blacksburg Virginia, a college student who attended Virginia Tech, opened gunfire to his fellow classmates. This shooting has been considered to be the biggest massacre in all of American history. There are many things to be discussed in this major tragedy. Some of them include the events leading up to the shooting, the timeline that the shootings occurred, the causes, and the significance in this particular shooting. The Virginia Tech is only

"I'm angry someone would do this to us. There are lives ruined, families ruined, and our whole school year is ruined" (Brackely 1). Casey Brackely, once a student that attended Columbine High School, remembers the tragedy of the horrific Columbine shooting that killed and injured many students. Mass shootings in the United States have been on the rise since the 1980’s, especially in the last decade. These shooters motives and profiles are almost all terrifyingly alike. Many of these shooters try to imitate and parallel the tragic shooting of the Columbine High School in 1999. These shootings have made peaceful organizations, such as an elementary school; become a place of violence and death. Currently, in the United States, an epidemic of

“Fight, fight, fight,” was the chant that so often filled the halls of West Monroe High School. The teachers heard it every time but always hid in the teacher's lounge for fear of being attacked. This was the legacy of WMH, fights, student riots, and terrified teachers.

It was a warm spring morning in the little town of Littleton, Colorado. The birds played beautiful music while small beams of sun slowly escaped from behind the clouds and through the kitchen windows of all the houses. Classes were starting at seven-thirty just like any other day, however at eleven- twenty a bloody massacre began at Columbine High School. “ There was a girl crouched beneath a desk in the library, and the guy came over and said, ‘Peekaboo,’ and shot her in the neck,” said Kirkland, a 15-year-old sophomore. Two seniors who belonged to a group called the Trench Coat Mafia, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, entered the school with guns, knives, and bombs hidden beneath their trench coats and started opening fire on their classmates and teachers.

Rampage-style school shootings are rare and tragic events. Although measures of prevention have become more advanced, school shootings have increased in frequency over the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. Here in the United States, they have become especially prevalent, with 63 shootings just this year (Acevedo). The aftermath of rampage shootings leaves gaping holes and questions in communities. People try to heal and seek closure at their own pace, but the biggest question most are left with is “why”? In Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings, Katherine S. Newman seeks to answer this question. She lays out her research and methodology for studying rampage shootings and comes to the conclusion that shootings are not spontaneous, but rather the build up of psychological issues and negative sociological situations within a student’s community that causes them to seek to regain power over their own lives through a rampage shooting. The story Rampage builds out of the narratives of shooters and their victims along with national data and trends is important because it highlights the places that our societies fail in providing a safety net for deviant students and their peers.

Not long into second period, school administrators alerted the school resource officer that there was someone on campus carrying a firearm. The school instantly went on lockdown. Having never experienced a real lockdown before and unaware of the current situation, most students did not take this lockdown with seriousness. Minutes passed and our little game continued on, but some people had abandoned it because they were anxiously awaiting news about the lockdown; this lockdown was taking longer than previous drills we had practiced. I still had my head