Preview

Violence at School: Will It Ever End?

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2355 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Violence at School: Will It Ever End?
Violence At School: Will It Ever End?

Introduction:
Despite the recent surge of catastrophes in our nation, violence is not a new issue. Violent occurrences such as shootings, bombings, and other terroristic events are things that have been happening for hundreds, or maybe even thousands of years. One aspect of these tragedies that seems to be the most terrible of all is violence in the school setting. Even this type of violence is not a new occurrence. School shootings and other violent acts of that nature have been occurring in the school setting for decades. However, it wasn’t until recently that these issues have been such a front-runner in the public spotlight. The three most well-known acts of school violence to date are the Columbine shooting, the Virginia Tech Massacre, and the recent shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. These tragedies, among countless others that are not as well-known, have resulted in the loss of entirely too many lives. Most people are under the impression that school settings are some of the best protected. However, this is not necessarily the case. It is almost impossible to monitor every student every minute of the day. After events such as those that happened just last December occur, ending the lives of 26 completely innocent students and teachers, the public begins to ask why nothing was done to stop tragedies such as these, and whether or not anything will be done in the future to prevent these types of pointless, catastrophic events from occurring again in the future. After a significant amount of research on the topic, it has become abundantly clear that new rules, regulations, and protocols have been implemented to prevent such useless violence in the future.
Ceremonial Violence: Understanding Columbine and Other School Rampage Shootings: While the book Ceremonial Violence focuses mainly on the discussion of various school shootings (Columbine, in particular), it also gives a



Cited: Cornell, Dewey G., Scheithauer, Herbert. (2011). Columbine a Decade Later: The Prevention of Homicidal Violence in Schools. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publishers. Fast, Jonathon.(2008). Ceremonial Violence: Understanding Columbine and Other School Rampage Shootings. New York, NY: Peter Mayer Publishers. Fein, Albert H., Isaacson, Nancy S. “Echoes of Columbine: The Emotion Work of Leaders In School Shooting Sites.” American Behavioral Scientist 52 (2009): 1327-1346. Web. 9 Mar. 2013.nj Swezey, James A., Thorp, Kimberly A. “A School Shooting Plot Foiled.” Journal of Research on Christian Education 19 (2010): 286-312. Web. 9 Mar. 2013. Weiler, Spencer C., Cray, Martha. “Police at School: A Brief History and Current Status of School Resource Officers.” The Clearing House 84 (2011): 160-163. Web. 9 Mar. 2013.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The author of The Columbine Legacy Rampage Shootings as Political Acts has stated numerous purposes within this article. The first purpose of it was to explain about the events of Columbine and attempt to show the reader how this has created a large impact resulting in more wide spread school shootings taking place. With this the author tries to convey to the reader particular characteristics that differentiate a school rampage shooting from a wide range of other school related incidents where violence was a factor. The author also attempts to show the reader types of school related shootings that have taken place before Columbine happened and even specific events which would have led to a shooting but were uncovered before it escalated that…

    • 290 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In October 1997, I heard on the radio that Luke Woodham, a sixteenyear-old, had killed two classmates and wounded seven others in a school shooting in Pearl, Mississippi. In a note, Luke declared: “I am not insane. I am angry. I killed because people like me are mistreated every day.”1 He explained that he was tired of being called a “faggot”; he was additionally enraged that his girlfriend—whom he killed in the shooting—had broken up with him. At the start of the Woodham case, I began examining school shootings. Two months after the massacre in Mississippi came a shooting in Kentucky, then one in Arkansas that same month, and then another in Arkansas three months later in March 1998. There was a shooting in Pennsylvania that April, in Tennessee…

    • 295 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    No Easy Answers: The Truth behind Death at Columbine is a non-fiction novel, written by Brooks Brown, which provides insight to the behind-the-scenes factor to the Columbine High School shooting in Littleton, Colorado. On April 20th of 1999, two high school boys, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, entered their local high school by storm with shot guns and homemade pipe bombs. Before turning their weapons on themselves, Harris and Klebold killed twelve of their fellow classmates, one teacher, and left twenty-four others injured and wounded. In this novel, author Brooks Brown who once befriended the two distressed, teenage gunmen, goes into detail of his encounter with the shootings and…

    • 1299 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Columbine Massacre, the most gruesome school shooting in U.S. history, plagued the town of Littleton, Colorado. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the shooters, have very diverse backgrounds. Eric was intelligent while being cool at the same time. He manages to get superior grades, while doing shameful things. However, “Dylan Klebold was a meek, self-conscious, and authentically shy. He could barely speak in front of a stranger, especially a girl” (Columbine 6). Judgment Day, the most tragic day in school history, is what Eric and Dylan called their mass murder. This day is where the two put their plans into effect. They were able to acquire several powerful guns, and make many bombs. Even though their plans did not all go as expected,…

    • 1497 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The lives of many were to change on the day of April 20th, 1999, at Columbine High School. With the death of twelve students and one teacher, it was to be the deadliest mass murder committed on an American high school campus. The massacre, committed by senior students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, sparked debate over gun control laws; whether the availability of guns across the United States, especially to young people such as these, was socially acceptable. This event is what sparked Moore to create his documentary, ‘Bowling for Columbine’.…

    • 767 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    When a school shooting is vaguely talked about through much of media, it is thought the reason for the shooting is because of violent video games, TV, and even music. However, an abundance…

    • 2032 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    On April 20, 1999, two Columbine High School students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, went on a shooting rampage in Colorado, killing 12 students and a teacher before ending their own lives (Leftwich 1). Nearly seven years later there seemed to be an annual shooting rampage trend. On October 2, 2006 a gunman by the name of Charles Carl Roberts IV took hostage five girls, at an Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania, and eventually shot and killed them before committing suicide (“5th Girl” 1-2). The following year, on April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho, a college student, shot and killed 32 people at Virginia tech before taking his own life (Leftwich 1). The rampages did not end there, on February 14, 2008, a gunman shot multiple people on the campus…

    • 804 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    I remember sitting in my second grade class on September 11th 2001, watching the news and not understanding what was going on. Our principal was walking in and out of each classroom making sure all of the students as well as teachers were remaining calm. While people often equate 9-11 with the downward spiral of the world, such disasters have been occurring long before this horrific event. Since 1980 there has been no substantial increase in the amount of overall mass murders and killing sprees in the United States (Plumer); however the number of killings in schools has rapidly increased in the past two years. Although it is not…

    • 2012 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many people have most definitely heard of the horrifying events of the Columbine High School Massacre. Two shy, bullied, low self-esteemed teenage boys go plant bombs in their school and shoot everyone, right? This is what a majority of people believe and they think the cause behind it has to do with the boys’ clothes, music, and the school jocks and preps bullying them (Rosenburg). This, however, is a misconception. In order for anyone to truly understand what was going on in the minds of these killers, they must first look deeper into the event and know exactly what it is that occurred. They must immerse themselves into the minds of both the murderers and the unfortunate victims. For example, imagine this:…

    • 1898 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Although historically violence has always seemingly plagued education systems and their schools, the last 20 years has marked the emergence of a new form of violence occurring within these institutions, one which is far more deadly and cruel. The act of an individual or multiple individuals executing what is known as a rampage school shooting dates back to as early as the mid-1970s, but truly became a recognized phenomenon in the mid-1990s due to several unprecedented and shocking occurrences of these attacks (Rocque, 2012; Muschert, 2007; Wike & Fraser, 2009).…

    • 2240 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Over the past couple of years, the debate over whether or not handguns should be allowed on school campuses has exploded into a wide variety of opinions. Handguns are allowed in many other places, but should they really be brought into a learning environment? Many people are starting to voice their opinions over this topic due to the large increase of school shootings and suicides within recent years. “Since 1995, more than thirty students and teachers have been killed and approximately one hundred have been wounded as a result of shootings at American schools” (Egendorf). Letting students bring handguns onto campuses provides numerous risks and benefits for the safety of schools across the nation.…

    • 837 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Columbine Memorial lies silently in Clement Park, ten minutes’ drive from my aunt’s home. Nine years ago, two students in Columbine High School killed twelve students and a teacher before committing suicide there. Even today, many people regard it as a nightmare and don’t want to talk about it. Unfortunately, this tragedy is not alone, and during the last two decades, numerous school shootings have happened around the whole nation, and hundreds of people have died during the school massacres. Why do so many tragedies happen one after another? We couldn’t avoid the buskins unless we understand the disturbing reasons behind them.…

    • 688 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In today’s society, one cannot help but be afraid because of what’s going on around us: you can’t walk alone at night in fear of getting mugged, knowing that half of the world wants to blow us up, and the countless ‘doomsday prophecies’ that plague our televisions. But the question remains, should we feel this way in our schools? Evidently, after the Columbine shootings rocked the country, we have to feel endangered in our school systems. As the tenth anniversary of the slayings approaches, we have to wonder why these two kids would want to do this, and how this ultimately changed our country.…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Arming Teachers

    • 999 Words
    • 4 Pages

    “Armed police resource officers in schools are not new but the notion of arming teachers and principals and schools is new to most,” (Koonce, 2014, p.165). School shootings in a school have become a nationwide problem and heartache. For example, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Colorado, was national news and hurt the country. Not to mention it is a parent’s worst nightmare to send them off to school and not have their child come home that afternoon. Mass shooting are becoming more prominent not only throughout schools but in other places too. But it is such a debated topic because our culture is…

    • 999 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    School Shootings

    • 669 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Since 2010, there have been 49 cases of school shootings that left 63 injured and 66 dead. This growing problem has increased over the years and has put fear in the minds of parents and their children. Even though children may jokingly exaggerate that school is terrible, it now seems as if going to school is truly a life or death situation. There has to be someone or something to blame and it seems as if this problem can debatably be blamed on the security among schools. Having a more advanced security system in schools is essential to protecting the well-being of staff and students.…

    • 669 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays