Violence in Public Schools

Whereas the causes of school violence are mostly theoretical, the effects of mass school shootings are stark and terrible. In the past twenty years there have been many incidents, both small and large scale, of shooting in schools. Two of the most well known of these are the Columbine shooting in 1999 and the Sandy-Hook shooting in 2012. Twenty-six people were killed in the Sandy-Hook shooting and thirteen in the Columbine shooting (“School Safety Timeline.”). One boy described his experience at the Sandy-Hook shooting as, “I saw some of the bullets going past the hall that I was right next to, and then a teacher pulled me into her classroom” ("What Happened in Newtown”). It is hard to imagine the terror and life-long effects that such an incident would cause among children. These stories cause a fear in many students that makes it difficult to create an environment for learning. It is obvious that something must be done to protect children of all ages in public school.

School shootings and those who instigate them have changed over time by the perspectives of these people that are influenced by violence. Couples of years ago, school shooters were kids that got traumatized, raped, bullied, etc. A perfect example of this would be Evan Ramsey. Evan walked into his high school with a 12- gauge shotgun and killed two people. He had a chaotic home life. His mother was an alcoholic who lived with a series of violent men. He lived in 10 different foster homes where he got both sexually and physically abused. I feel that Evan did this because of the tragic life or even for attention. His life wasn't a good life and it's sad that the events that occurred to him had to happen. Now things have changed and anyone can

During the past decade, America has witnessed a rise in mass murders carried out by youth leaving parents, teachers and school officials scrambling to figure out the motive behind such attacks. The 1999 massacre at Columbine High School was a watershed moment in American history that offered, besides grief and sorrow for lost loved ones, clues as to how to prevent copycat massacres at school campuses in the future. Theories abound in the hopes of explaining why Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 and injured 21 others, yet very few hold true as time progresses and other massacres unfold. Modern-day schools have atmospheres that foster bullying and a divided social class system. The attacks perpetrated by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold

These students are typically going to school at institutions with less resources than middle-class areas. As a result these schools typically employee less qualified teachers and more disciplinary measures. “Children in the highest-poverty schools are assigned to novice teachers almost twice as often as children in low-poverty schools. Similarly, students in high-minority schools are assigned to novice teachers at twice the rate as students in schools without many minority students.”

These principals were asked to list what they considered serious or moderate problems in their schools. The most frequently cited problems at all levels were the less violent behaviors such as tardiness (40%), absenteeism (25%), and physical conflicts between students (21%). The NCES report found that violent crimes occurred at an annual rate of only 53 per 100,000 students. The critical incidents that are typically the focus of school safety debates were reported to be at least "a moderate problem”: drug use (9%), gangs (5%), possession of weapons (2%), and physical abuse of teachers (2%). The continued use of this of this policy is mainly due to the perception of violence in schools continually being exacerbated by extended media coverage when isolated events of school violence occur according to Martinez

This collection of opposing views on school shootings shows different topics and situations as to why shootings occur on school grounds. For example, one topic discusses how bullying is a common denominator in nearly all school shootings. This finding differs from the rest due to the fact that it discusses different reasons as to why school shootings

Urban school districts have the odds stacked against them. Often times the families attending urban schools live in poverty. Poverty creates many social-emotional, mental, physical, economic and educational issues. People regularly blame the students or their families as a reason why students in urban settings are receiving unequal education when compared to their suburban counterparts. What is not considered is “educational outcomes for students of color are much more a function of their unequal access to key educational resources, including skilled teachers and quality curriculum, than they are a function of race” (Darling-Hammond, 2007, p. 320). This shows that although poverty is an important issue to tackle, focusing on better preparing teachers and staff to deal with the special circumstances in urban situations is a higher priority when thinking about

In the past, the rise of school violence created a fear for state and federal legislation so they took strict action on creating policies to ensure security throughout public schools. “The 1980’s and 1990’s spawned fear and media reports of young people, often minorities, committing horrific crimes, wilding events, and gang violence” (Mallet). In contradiction, most shootings in the past occurred in “safe” school districts- white, suburban, and middle class areas

In this article, the authors provide information on past mass school shootings and introduce new theories that relate to those school shootings. The authors also discuss and analyze characteristics between the different shootings with regard to the shooters’ lives and personality, the time periods of the shootings and also the schools and people who fell victim to the shootings. By doing this, the article gives greater insight to shooter profiles and it helps the reader find reoccurring themes and personalities between different shooters. After doing so, one is able to recognize someone who may be exhibiting strange behaviors and they are then able to possibly prevent any violence by getting someone help. This article is also helpful by giving information on why shooters do what they do and the stages in which they go through to make their final decisions. This article also helps navigate the different varieties of mass shootings and is helpful when researching the various theories people have about mass shootings especially in school systems.

Statistics show that 15% of student populations are prone to campus violence if they have been conflicted with any type of harassment. (Bleau, Hannah) In the past few years’ campus violence has been a pressing issue in the United States, and in many instances it has been the front -page news. Campus violence is defined as, any act or threat of physical aggression or obliteration of property by any individual on school grounds. Though threats can vary and could include provisional or direct threats in oral or written forms, harassment, harm or endangerment of property or person, intimidation and other disruptive behavior performed at an educational institution; each can create substantial harm if not death. There have been multiple controversial arguments throughout the United States considering campus violence as the subject matter, and almost each case deals with the death of innocent people. If a new law is not passed to create a stable environment through tightened security for public and private institutes then massacres such as the Virginia Tech Massacre, Columbine Massacre and the most recent, Umpqua Community College shooting will continue to drive other’s to replicate such ruthless behavior.

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).

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

Throughout the 1990s crime and violence within schools had significantly increased. The increasing presence of school shootings became a great cause for concern for parents, students, and school staff. To respond to this significantly increasing problem within schools, local police departments partnered with schools to implement school resource officers onto campuses to promote safety within schools. The research question ‘How does the presence of security enforcement in schools affect students involvement in crime and violence within schools’ will determine the overall effect school resource officers have within schools. It will determine how their presence and increase security measures within schools truly impact students.

On February 14, 2018, there was a deadly school shooting in Florida. This was the deadliest school shooting in the US since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which occurred on February 14, 2012. The purpose of this essay is to inform and explain. Why is school violence wrong? What are the types of violence? How can we prevent school violence?

The harsh pang of gunshots echoes through a silent hallway decorated with posters depicting smiling, jovial students. The under-discussed topic of school violence connects identical basic principles in the proceeding arguments through the minds of the psychologically-troubled. Transferring these factual arguments to the public eye raises awareness to further glamorizes the veil under which the psychopaths hide. To depict these struggles appropriately, media must limit the information released pertaining to the perpetrators; this will resist excessively portraying their power-hunger and malicious intentions. All of the following articles allow a moderate stance on the goals of school violence perpetrators while addressing