Why Is School Violence Wrong?

Unfortunately, the notion of schools being a safe place is no longer a trend across American schools. Disturbing mass shootings in the U.S continue to shock the media. A school shooting is when someone attacks a school using a gun. The Secret Service says these shootings are "deliberately selected as the location for the attack". The reasons massacres occur in schools is because of poor security, violence in video games/media, and bullying. Shockingly the U.S. has the most school shootings than any other country in the world. According to the FBI, mass shootings occur, on average, every 2 weeks in the U.S. While the cause of school shootings are sometimes unpredictable, it is a growing issue and they need to be prevented. Most shooters don’t have mental issues, they have a plan to kill, so there is no singular cause that creates violent people. On April 16th, 2007, the most deadly school massacre occurred. Seung-Hui Cho killed thirty-two students at Virginia-Tech. As Americans, we no longer should turn on the news and witness these gruesome murders. We try to make sense of these murders, but it’s ineffectual. There are measures we can take as a society to help. The number one question in a school massacre is, "why would a person that has a capable sense of mind even do that?” It is our moral responsibility to fix these issues. In order to stop this problem, we need to find its roots.

Violence in society is increasing dramatically and not only is it out in the streets, but it’s in the school systems as well. However, school violence has been becoming more and more of a problem all over the nation in the past several years. School violence needs to stop because no one should be afraid to go to school without feeling like it’ll be their last day.

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.

“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.

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?

Violence in schools encompasses a number of different acts. Whether it’s physical or emotional bullying or even cyber-bullying; violence within schools is a major problem and it’s only increasing. However in a number of cases these may only be the beginning. Sometimes people take it a step further and actually bring a firearm into the school and start shooting it. Unfortunately school shootings have occurred throughout the country at an alarming rate. When someone shoots another (especially within the confines of a school) everyone is effected by this immense act of violence.

It is a lot of school shooting that has been happing from generations to generation. School shooting happen across the world, but it mainly happing in the United States of America. We as teacher and parents never know why students kill or shoot themselves and others in the school. This essay will talk about reason why students do these crazy school shootings and how we can create better schooling for our future children, so they will not go on a ram page and kill innocent people. The book I will be highlighting the book, “The Bully Society” by Jessie Klein.

On April 20th, 1999, two shooters, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, entered Columbine High School and murdered thirteen people and wounded more than twenty others. In doing so the two teenagers not only hurt many families and left a community scarred forever, but they also changed the landscape of American politics, national attitudes towards gun control, and began a violent phenomenon, now known as school shootings, that would haunt America for years to come. Since that fateful day in 1999, school shootings have become common place in America. From 2013 to January of 2018, it is estimated that around “300 school shootings” have taken place in the United States (Scott par.1). This data does not include the shooting at Parkland High School, which took place on February 24th, 2018, or the shooting at Santa Fe High

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

School shootings have become a major problem not only in South Carolina, but in the United States. School shootings have shockingly become more likely now than ever. A recent report showed that over 230 school shootings have arose since 2013, meaning that there has been at least 1 school shooting per week for the last 4 years. Once students experience these traumatic happenings, the district as a whole receives lower standardized test scores, lessened student enrollment and even frightened parents. Parents begin to lose faith in the school system and no longer find comfort in sending their child to and from that school. By definition, school shootings are anytime a firearm discharges a live round inside a school building or on a school campus or school grounds. This connection question’s objective to read about a specific school shooting, it stood out to me that every child has a motive for the school shooting - whether big or small. Therefore, I have conducted research to find out why and how to stop school violence.

Although there may not be a foolproof way to end all school violence, there are ways to dramatically reduce such horrific. Prevention techniques evolve around safety features, education, and training. Safe entryway into and within schools is a beginning step to prevent crime. Schools can install security systems that force anyone

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.

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.

After researching more in depth about school shootings for my last write up, I decided that reading and learning about the reality of school gun violence was important. In the late 1990s there was a downward spiral of youth violence. Suburban areas stayed out of the spotlight, which helped keep the fear of school violence to a minimum and brush under the rug the violence. In non-suburban areas the majority were experiencing gun violence which led to fear in many peoples eyes. The typical schoolyard fights had turned into murders and much more dangerous. There was a line that mentioned students not bringing home homework anymore but coming home with bullet wounds. The amount of school shootings in these non-suburban areas was really reflecting

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.