Category: School Shooting

Introduction

The aim of this qualitative study is to gain a deeper understanding of teacher-directed violence and the impact it has on teachers’ ability to function effectively in the classroom. Violence in schools is not a phenomenon that operates in a vacuum. It has become a cause of great concern for educational leaders, the effects can be far-reaching, and the reasons for this growing problem linked to circumstances outside the school environment (Mora & Ponca, 2017). A review of historical literature on violence in schools, to include more specifically violence against teachers, is needed in order to gain insight into the nature of the problem and how it affects those that experienced it. Additionally, a review of more current literature is necessary to get further in-depth understanding of the extent of the problem and the impact that students’ violent behaviors could have on teacher effectiveness in a more, in a more present-day context.

The literature review of chapter 2 gives a broader view of the discussion of chapter 1 as the data that is gathered on the topic will present various perspective of the problem and its impact. Bangert-Drowns (2005) stated that a literature review may serve multiple purpose, and the process requires diligence in order to arrive at new knowledge. Through critical analysis and synthesis, the literature review can help to establish strengths and weaknesses and help to create a balance and transparent view of the evidence that is presented.

Search Strategy

Attempting to answer the question of the impact that students’ violent behavior may have on teachers’ ability to perform effectively in classroom will require extensive research. The various pieces of information for the literature review will be obtained from multiple sources. Key words and phrases such as: violence in school, teacher-directed violence, teacher victimization, teacher performance, and impact of school violence will be used to initiate the searches. This literature information will be obtained from peer-reviewed articles, journals, books, other valid sources. The sites that will be used to gain the literature will include: Proquest, Proquest Education, Sage knowledge, Sage Journal, Ebsco, ERIC and Google Scholar.

Historical Content

Historical Overview of Violence in Schools

Violence in schools have long since become a problem for educational leaders, teachers, parents, and other stakeholders. Behaviors from as simple as talking back to murder is on the rise, and educational and political leaders are working feverishly to find a solution (Violence in schools: Issues, consequences, and expressions, 2005). Ozdemir (2012) agreed that violence in schools is a huge concern, and the severity of the problem is escalating. Ozdemir further explained that in the early 20th century, the biggest student behavior that concerned educators included chewing gum, talking back, and running in the hallways. Comparing to what is happening in schools today, one might describe those behaviors as insignificant.

Today, if a “baby boomer” is asked to recall a devastating act of violence in schools, one might recall the incident at a high school in Columbine, Colorado. On the morning of April 20, 1999, 2 students of Columbine high school entered the school and shot and killed 13 people, injuring 24 others. At that time, it was the deadliest school committed by a student in United States history (Stone & Isaac, 2003). However, over four decades before the Columbine incident was described as the worst incident of school violence in United States history, another incident was described in a similar manner. On December 1, 1958, a student from Lady of Angel Elementary school set the school on fire, killing 92 students and teachers (Brendtro, 2005). Both of these incidents not only indicate the severity and longevity of the problem, but they also help to pinpoint that violence in school can take place at multiple levels of education.

In the decade that followed, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, violence from communities spilled into schools. According to Laminack and Bell (2005) the historic case of Brown vs. The Board of Education and the efforts to integrate schools, many acts of violence took place in schools. A great example of violence in schools during the 1960’s can be seen in the experience of Ruby Bridges. Brewer and Juchniewicz (2004) described this incident as very frightening for a young six-year-old girl. In 1960, Ruby Bridges integrated William Frantz elementary school in Louisiana. Escorted by federal marshals, Bridges attended school every day amid threats and vicious slurs being hurled at her outside the school. She was even spat at and intimidated by gestures and frightening images of black dolls (Brewer & Juchniewicz, 2004).

In the next twenty years, the issue of school violence continued to plague the nation’s educational system. A report completed by the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) detailed the issue of school violence in the 1970s and 1980s. In the report there was a strong correlation between crime in the community and disciplinary problems in the schools. Simultaneously, the rise in youth crime and drug use in the communities also saw a spike of similar behaviors in schools across the United States. In 1975 and 1978 reports from the Depart of Justice (DOJ) revealed that violence and disciplinary occurrences were on the rise in schools across the United States, which sparked a new call for legislative actions that are aimed at prevention.

With the demand from stakeholders for the implementation of preventative measures to quell the prevalence of negative student behaviors, the 1990’s saw a decrease in violent behavior in schools. This may have been due in part to legislatures like the Gun-Free School Act of 1992 and the Safe Schools Act of 1994 (NCJRS, 2017). These two legislative actions called for stricter measures to prevent students from possessing or using guns in schools. By the late 1990s, schools, when compared to the early 1990s, were considered safer. By 1999, the percentage of victims of school violence decreased from 10% to 8% (NCJRS, 2017). This pattern continued into the next decade. According to a report completed by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), in 2013, the total rate of students who were victims of violence in schools declined 70% when compared to 1992 (NIJ, 2014).

Although there is data to support that violence in the nation’s schools was declining, there was still cause for great concern. While the frequency of violence was decreasing, the scope and severity of the problem was still capturing the attention of educational leaders and other stakeholders. The mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary is a reminder of the extent of the situation and why the need to find answers should be on-going. This incident took place on December 14, 2012, in which 26 people, 20 children and six adults, were killed on school grounds (Donohue, Goodman-Scott, & Betters-Bubon, 2015). It was described at that time as the deadliest violent incident in the history of the United States, to take place on school grounds. This took place before the NIJ 2013 report that there was a decline in violent incidence in schools. Based on a study conducted by Zhang and Johnson (2005) in Mississippi high schools, the findings agreed with the NIJ 2013 report that there was a decrease in violent behaviors in schools. Zhang and Johnson pointed out however, that the decrease was not among all violent acts. There was a decrease, about 0.001 %, in acts such as physical fights, carrying a weapon, or verbal threats. However, negative behaviors such as threats or injuries with a weapon on school grounds did not show a decrease. Zhang and Johnson further pointed out that there seem to be a lack of reporting of incidents in schools. The lack of consistency in the findings on this issue points to the need for more research to be done on the topic. Data that is credible could help to point to educational and legislative leaders to properly understand and solution of the problem. Since violence in school is a global issue, additional research could also be a resource for understanding the problem on a global scale. According to Debarbieux (2003) with the exception of the United States, where data is collected through the Safe School Study and the National Crime Victimization Survey, no other country has consistently collected data on school violence. Of even a greater need, is reliable research on a global scale. Historically, research on the school violence has been rare, unreliable, and inconsistent (Debarbieux, 2003), and the need for such data is evident.

Teacher-directed Violence

Violence is schools have been prevalent for many decades, and during this time, most of the attention has been focused on peer related violence and its impact on students (Ozkilic, 2014). However, Ozkilic noted that violence against teachers has gain prevalence since the 1990s, and its impact does not only affect students but teachers as well (Buckner & Flanary, 1996). On a daily basis, teachers experienced negative behaviors such as verbal threats, intimidations, physical or even sexual violence (Wilson, Douglas, & Lyon, 2011). From a global perspective, the United States does not have the highest percentage of teacher-directed violence (Bon, Faircloth, & LeTendre, 2006), but the level of occurrence is enough to warrant investigation. In the 1999-2000 school year, it was reported that: a) 19% of public school teachers reported that they were disrespected by their students on a daily or weekly basis; b) 13% of public school teachers reported that they were verbally abused by their students on a daily or weekly basis; c) 3% of public school teachers reported that there was widespread disorder in their classroom by their students on a daily or weekly basis (Bon, Faircloth, & LeTendre, 2006). This evidence indicates the extent of victimization that teachers endure, and the less than conducive environment in which they are expected to perform effectively. The persistence of the problem could cause well-experienced teachers to leave the classroom (Buckner, & Flanary, 1996).

In the 2003-2004 school year School Crime and Safety report, the data showed that between 5% and 10% of teachers reported that students threatened them with injury or physical attack (NCES, 2006). In the same year, Bucher and Manning (2005) reported that results from a U.S. Department of Justice and education showed that student violence had decline by 50% within the last decade. While this decline may seem like an improvement in the environment in which teachers have to perform, Buchner and Manning cautioned that the results may not be reliable. School leaders sometimes under-report incidents of student violence, including violent acts toward teachers in an effort to improve the annual report of the school, which the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 stipulated must be produced for each public school. This may further compound the problem as students’ violent behaviors are not being identified and addressed by school leaders.

Students’ violent behaviors toward teachers have taken place in schools of all levels and in all locations, nationally and internationally, and have the potential to negatively impact teachers and their ability to do their job effectively. Ozdemir (2012) outlined the results from various study form countries around the world. In a study that was conducted in 1999, 16% of teachers in public schools in the United states reported that they were the victims of teacher-directed violence; In Israel, between 1995 and 1999, student violence directed at teachers increased four times; In 2002-2003, a report from the Scottish Executive Education Department showed that 6,899 teachers reported being victims of student violence; In Slovakia, a study conducted in 2007 revealed that of the 364 participants, 35% experienced verbal abuse; 17% experienced emotional abuse; 12% experienced damage to property; 5% experienced physical attacks. In Taiwan, a 2009 study that involved students from grades four to twelve revealed that: 30% of students admitted to carry out at least one act of violence against their teacher; 28% opposed teachers directions; 7% cursed or verbally abuse their teacher; 6% mocked or play harmful pranks; 1% admitted to beating or kicking a teacher; 1% threatened or humiliated their teacher; 0.6% blackmailed their teacher; In the Czech Republic, in a 2008 study conducted with 366 teachers, results revealed that teachers experienced verbal abuse and insults, damage to property, threat of physical harm, and threat of using powerful connections against teachers. This problem has global implication not only for the education system but for the societal system as well. The level of violence demonstrated by students towards the authority figure in the schools might suggests that the teaching-learning experiences are being impacted. Teachers may have a difficult time implementing instructional content to students. This could impact teachers’ effectiveness and may even motivate them to quit their jobs or the profession (Ozdemir, 2012). On a deeper level, the effectiveness of a society and how well it functions is largely as a result of the effectiveness of instruction that takes place in the education system. An education system in which effective instruction is being negatively affected could in return negatively affect the society.

Ozkilic (2014) also agreed that the nature of the problem has taken on international prevalence. Reports from the United Kingdom suggested that educational leaders are concerned about the level of violence directed towards teachers by students. In a study conducted in 1998, 91% of teacher revealed that they were bullied by their students. Bullying of teachers is considered to be a social problem in New Zealand even though the percentage is not as high as mentioned in other countries. While only 28% of teachers there reported violent acts aimed at them by their students in 2004, it was large enough to be considered a concern. Similarly, in 2004, South African teachers reported that they have been bullied by their students. Of the 544 teachers who participated in a study, 79.9% stated that they were victims of bullying by students (Ozkilic, 2014). Ozkilic further suggested that it will take a concerted effort to handle the issue of bullying of teachers.

Conclusion

Educators, administrators, policy makers, parents, and students should work together to find solution to the issue. However, of all the stakeholders, teachers are in the position to affect the greatest change on students’ behavior while in school. Teachers are the ones who interact with students the most within the educational setting and can have the greatest impact on students’ behavior (Aldridge, McChesney, & Afari, 2018). It is therefore important that effective teachers are motivated to remain in the classroom. .

Introduction

According to the journal article that is being reviewed, approximately 40 students had their lives taken away and numerous students had gotten injured due to school shooting since 1993-2003. This article looked into the contributor of school shootings in between the year 1993-2001. Moreover, the study gave a look at some other factors of school shootings. The authors had made it clear that their aim is to determine the role of interpersonal rejection in school violence. The article also looked into whether bullying happens frequently in schools.

The authors hypothesized that social rejection, teasing, bullying and relationship rejection may be main contributing factors to school shootings. The article gives readers an insight of some possible factors that could result in a student to conduct a school shooting.

Methodology

The authors approached the question using a case study method. The case studies used in the article is in between January, 1995 to March, 2001. To be specific, they only count a shooting incident when the shootings are happening in school hours during the school day excluding extracurricular activity, tuition etc. Furthermore, the shooting must be convicted by students and cases with no casualties were excluded as the study is only interested on students’ aggression toward their peers.

Since school shootings does not happen very frequently nor is an incident that could be “experimented”, in some cases, the incident did not receive enough media attention, the authors collected the data by consulting three newspapers, USA Today, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, and three news magazines, Time, Newsweek, and US News and World Report. The authors also retrieved some information online through reputable news organization.

For each cases of school shooting, the reason of the shooting and details of the perpetrator(s) and victim(s) was recorded. As a result, 15 cases was identified that fits the authors’ criteria.

The method used in this study might be one of the best way and is specified clearly as well. Replicating the study would be easy since all steps used were explained in detail. Though, all information gathered is from news company in the US where propaganda could happen as the US might want to keep certain information confidential to prevent controversy from starting outside of the US.

Results

The case studies gathered by the authors were summarized and compiled into a table with the name and age of the perpetrator, date of the shooting, and number of victims killed/wounded. The cause of each cases is then separated as Teasing, ostracism or other ongoing rejection, Acute rejection, Psychological problems, Fascinated with guns or explosives and Fascinated with death or violence to show if any of these factors are contributing in each cases.

The results gathered shows that most of these shooting cases includes interpersonal rejection. Out of 15 cases, 12 of these cases includes the perpetrator getting teased or bullied by being humiliated for their appearance/weight or picked on. Half of the cases involved the perpetrator being unsuccessful in relationship such as a break up or unrequited love.Three other common factors found other than those the author hypothesized includes psychological problems, an interest in guns and explosives, and a fascination with death. At least 10 of the 15 cases includes the perpetrator having psychological problems, 6 incidents included the perpetrator familiar or not fascinated by weapons and at least 4 perpetrators are fascinated with death or dark topics such as satanism, death-rock music etc.

Overall, the authors proved that their hypothesis, school shooting is caused by interpersonal rejection or being picked on by other students, is correct. The data shown is sufficient, but not convincing enough as there could be more reason why school shootings happen. The proofs given might be only be an anomalous result. Bullying, teasing or ostracism are common problems that students from any parts of the world even outside of the US might face. The evidence given failed to let readers comprehend that the main contributor of school shooting is teasing, rejection, and violence in school.

Conclusion

Most evidences given by the authors had successfully proven that their hypothesis, school shootings’ main contributor being teasing, rejection, and violence, is correct. Though, two of the incident found by the authors had proved them wrong which involves an honour student who never been bullied but conducted to shooting for no reason but thought the victims “deserved it” and another student with no history of rejection but only feeling depressed. The authors then noticed that only over two-thirds of the cases involves bullying, ostracism, and social rejection.

The authors then came to a conclusion that school shootings happens only when a student is facing rejection combined with the perpetrator having at least one of these risk factors — psychological problems, interest in guns or explosives, and fascination with death.

The author explained that the evidence is might not be as convincing as a controlled experiment as school shooting is not a common occurrence. In addition, they only had access to data given by news medias and other websites. They were also aware that by using the case study method, no solid proof can be provided.

My research paper is about factors on why school shootings happens often only in the US and this article basically gives the reason of why school shootings happen. Though, the article failed to prove completely why school shootings only happen more often in the US despite countless students around the world facing the same problems as students in the US. The learning outcome from the is that school shooting perpetrators could have multiple or one factor that cause them to conduct a shooting. Although the article gave clear points as well as solid evidences that rejection, teasing and ostracism being the main contributors of school shootings, it does not prove why school shootings only happens in the US but not outside of the US.

Introduction

The aim of this qualitative study is to gain a deeper understanding of teacher-directed violence and the impact it has on teachers’ ability to function effectively in the classroom. Violence in schools is not a phenomenon that operates in a vacuum. It has become a cause of great concern for educational leaders, the effects can be far-reaching, and the reasons for this growing problem linked to circumstances outside the school environment (Mora & Ponca, 2017). A review of historical literature on violence in schools, to include more specifically violence against teachers, is needed in order to gain insight into the nature of the problem and how it affects those that experienced it. Additionally, a review of more current literature is necessary to get further in-depth understanding of the extent of the problem and the impact that students’ violent behaviors could have on teacher effectiveness in a more, in a more present-day context.

The literature review of chapter 2 gives a broader view of the discussion of chapter 1 as the data that is gathered on the topic will present various perspective of the problem and its impact. Bangert-Drowns (2005) stated that a literature review may serve multiple purpose, and the process requires diligence in order to arrive at new knowledge. Through critical analysis and synthesis, the literature review can help to establish strengths and weaknesses and help to create a balance and transparent view of the evidence that is presented.

Search Strategy

Attempting to answer the question of the impact that students’ violent behavior may have on teachers’ ability to perform effectively in classroom will require extensive research. The various pieces of information for the literature review will be obtained from multiple sources. Key words and phrases such as: violence in school, teacher-directed violence, teacher victimization, teacher performance, and impact of school violence will be used to initiate the searches. This literature information will be obtained from peer-reviewed articles, journals, books, other valid sources. The sites that will be used to gain the literature will include: Proquest, Proquest Education, Sage knowledge, Sage Journal, Ebsco, ERIC and Google Scholar.

Historical Content

Historical Overview of Violence in Schools

Violence in schools have long since become a problem for educational leaders, teachers, parents, and other stakeholders. Behaviors from as simple as talking back to murder is on the rise, and educational and political leaders are working feverishly to find a solution (Violence in schools: Issues, consequences, and expressions, 2005). Ozdemir (2012) agreed that violence in schools is a huge concern, and the severity of the problem is escalating. Ozdemir further explained that in the early 20th century, the biggest student behavior that concerned educators included chewing gum, talking back, and running in the hallways. Comparing to what is happening in schools today, one might describe those behaviors as insignificant.

Today, if a “baby boomer” is asked to recall a devastating act of violence in schools, one might recall the incident at a high school in Columbine, Colorado. On the morning of April 20, 1999, 2 students of Columbine high school entered the school and shot and killed 13 people, injuring 24 others. At that time, it was the deadliest school committed by a student in United States history (Stone & Isaac, 2003). However, over four decades before the Columbine incident was described as the worst incident of school violence in United States history, another incident was described in a similar manner. On December 1, 1958, a student from Lady of Angel Elementary school set the school on fire, killing 92 students and teachers (Brendtro, 2005). Both of these incidents not only indicate the severity and longevity of the problem, but they also help to pinpoint that violence in school can take place at multiple levels of education.

In the decade that followed, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, violence from communities spilled into schools. According to Laminack and Bell (2005) the historic case of Brown vs. The Board of Education and the efforts to integrate schools, many acts of violence took place in schools. A great example of violence in schools during the 1960’s can be seen in the experience of Ruby Bridges. Brewer and Juchniewicz (2004) described this incident as very frightening for a young six-year-old girl. In 1960, Ruby Bridges integrated William Frantz elementary school in Louisiana. Escorted by federal marshals, Bridges attended school every day amid threats and vicious slurs being hurled at her outside the school. She was even spat at and intimidated by gestures and frightening images of black dolls (Brewer & Juchniewicz, 2004).

In the next twenty years, the issue of school violence continued to plague the nation’s educational system. A report completed by the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) detailed the issue of school violence in the 1970s and 1980s. In the report there was a strong correlation between crime in the community and disciplinary problems in the schools. Simultaneously, the rise in youth crime and drug use in the communities also saw a spike of similar behaviors in schools across the United States. In 1975 and 1978 reports from the Depart of Justice (DOJ) revealed that violence and disciplinary occurrences were on the rise in schools across the United States, which sparked a new call for legislative actions that are aimed at prevention.

With the demand from stakeholders for the implementation of preventative measures to quell the prevalence of negative student behaviors, the 1990’s saw a decrease in violent behavior in schools. This may have been due in part to legislatures like the Gun-Free School Act of 1992 and the Safe Schools Act of 1994 (NCJRS, 2017). These two legislative actions called for stricter measures to prevent students from possessing or using guns in schools. By the late 1990s, schools, when compared to the early 1990s, were considered safer. By 1999, the percentage of victims of school violence decreased from 10% to 8% (NCJRS, 2017). This pattern continued into the next decade. According to a report completed by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), in 2013, the total rate of students who were victims of violence in schools declined 70% when compared to 1992 (NIJ, 2014).

Although there is data to support that violence in the nation’s schools was declining, there was still cause for great concern. While the frequency of violence was decreasing, the scope and severity of the problem was still capturing the attention of educational leaders and other stakeholders. The mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary is a reminder of the extent of the situation and why the need to find answers should be on-going. This incident took place on December 14, 2012, in which 26 people, 20 children and six adults, were killed on school grounds (Donohue, Goodman-Scott, & Betters-Bubon, 2015). It was described at that time as the deadliest violent incident in the history of the United States, to take place on school grounds. This took place before the NIJ 2013 report that there was a decline in violent incidence in schools. Based on a study conducted by Zhang and Johnson (2005) in Mississippi high schools, the findings agreed with the NIJ 2013 report that there was a decrease in violent behaviors in schools. Zhang and Johnson pointed out however, that the decrease was not among all violent acts. There was a decrease, about 0.001 %, in acts such as physical fights, carrying a weapon, or verbal threats. However, negative behaviors such as threats or injuries with a weapon on school grounds did not show a decrease. Zhang and Johnson further pointed out that there seem to be a lack of reporting of incidents in schools. The lack of consistency in the findings on this issue points to the need for more research to be done on the topic. Data that is credible could help to point to educational and legislative leaders to properly understand and solution of the problem. Since violence in school is a global issue, additional research could also be a resource for understanding the problem on a global scale. According to Debarbieux (2003) with the exception of the United States, where data is collected through the Safe School Study and the National Crime Victimization Survey, no other country has consistently collected data on school violence. Of even a greater need, is reliable research on a global scale. Historically, research on the school violence has been rare, unreliable, and inconsistent (Debarbieux, 2003), and the need for such data is evident.

Teacher-directed Violence

Violence is schools have been prevalent for many decades, and during this time, most of the attention has been focused on peer related violence and its impact on students (Ozkilic, 2014). However, Ozkilic noted that violence against teachers has gain prevalence since the 1990s, and its impact does not only affect students but teachers as well (Buckner & Flanary, 1996). On a daily basis, teachers experienced negative behaviors such as verbal threats, intimidations, physical or even sexual violence (Wilson, Douglas, & Lyon, 2011). From a global perspective, the United States does not have the highest percentage of teacher-directed violence (Bon, Faircloth, & LeTendre, 2006), but the level of occurrence is enough to warrant investigation. In the 1999-2000 school year, it was reported that: a) 19% of public school teachers reported that they were disrespected by their students on a daily or weekly basis; b) 13% of public school teachers reported that they were verbally abused by their students on a daily or weekly basis; c) 3% of public school teachers reported that there was widespread disorder in their classroom by their students on a daily or weekly basis (Bon, Faircloth, & LeTendre, 2006). This evidence indicates the extent of victimization that teachers endure, and the less than conducive environment in which they are expected to perform effectively. The persistence of the problem could cause well-experienced teachers to leave the classroom (Buckner, & Flanary, 1996).

In the 2003-2004 school year School Crime and Safety report, the data showed that between 5% and 10% of teachers reported that students threatened them with injury or physical attack (NCES, 2006). In the same year, Bucher and Manning (2005) reported that results from a U.S. Department of Justice and education showed that student violence had decline by 50% within the last decade. While this decline may seem like an improvement in the environment in which teachers have to perform, Buchner and Manning cautioned that the results may not be reliable. School leaders sometimes under-report incidents of student violence, including violent acts toward teachers in an effort to improve the annual report of the school, which the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 stipulated must be produced for each public school. This may further compound the problem as students’ violent behaviors are not being identified and addressed by school leaders.

Students’ violent behaviors toward teachers have taken place in schools of all levels and in all locations, nationally and internationally, and have the potential to negatively impact teachers and their ability to do their job effectively. Ozdemir (2012) outlined the results from various study form countries around the world. In a study that was conducted in 1999, 16% of teachers in public schools in the United states reported that they were the victims of teacher-directed violence; In Israel, between 1995 and 1999, student violence directed at teachers increased four times; In 2002-2003, a report from the Scottish Executive Education Department showed that 6,899 teachers reported being victims of student violence; In Slovakia, a study conducted in 2007 revealed that of the 364 participants, 35% experienced verbal abuse; 17% experienced emotional abuse; 12% experienced damage to property; 5% experienced physical attacks. In Taiwan, a 2009 study that involved students from grades four to twelve revealed that: 30% of students admitted to carry out at least one act of violence against their teacher; 28% opposed teachers directions; 7% cursed or verbally abuse their teacher; 6% mocked or play harmful pranks; 1% admitted to beating or kicking a teacher; 1% threatened or humiliated their teacher; 0.6% blackmailed their teacher; In the Czech Republic, in a 2008 study conducted with 366 teachers, results revealed that teachers experienced verbal abuse and insults, damage to property, threat of physical harm, and threat of using powerful connections against teachers. This problem has global implication not only for the education system but for the societal system as well. The level of violence demonstrated by students towards the authority figure in the schools might suggests that the teaching-learning experiences are being impacted. Teachers may have a difficult time implementing instructional content to students. This could impact teachers’ effectiveness and may even motivate them to quit their jobs or the profession (Ozdemir, 2012). On a deeper level, the effectiveness of a society and how well it functions is largely as a result of the effectiveness of instruction that takes place in the education system. An education system in which effective instruction is being negatively affected could in return negatively affect the society.

Ozkilic (2014) also agreed that the nature of the problem has taken on international prevalence. Reports from the United Kingdom suggested that educational leaders are concerned about the level of violence directed towards teachers by students. In a study conducted in 1998, 91% of teacher revealed that they were bullied by their students. Bullying of teachers is considered to be a social problem in New Zealand even though the percentage is not as high as mentioned in other countries. While only 28% of teachers there reported violent acts aimed at them by their students in 2004, it was large enough to be considered a concern. Similarly, in 2004, South African teachers reported that they have been bullied by their students. Of the 544 teachers who participated in a study, 79.9% stated that they were victims of bullying by students (Ozkilic, 2014). Ozkilic further suggested that it will take a concerted effort to handle the issue of bullying of teachers.

Conclusion

Educators, administrators, policy makers, parents, and students should work together to find solution to the issue. However, of all the stakeholders, teachers are in the position to affect the greatest change on students’ behavior while in school. Teachers are the ones who interact with students the most within the educational setting and can have the greatest impact on students’ behavior (Aldridge, McChesney, & Afari, 2018). It is therefore important that effective teachers are motivated to remain in the classroom. .

Introduction

According to the journal article that is being reviewed, approximately 40 students had their lives taken away and numerous students had gotten injured due to school shooting since 1993-2003. This article looked into the contributor of school shootings in between the year 1993-2001. Moreover, the study gave a look at some other factors of school shootings. The authors had made it clear that their aim is to determine the role of interpersonal rejection in school violence. The article also looked into whether bullying happens frequently in schools.

The authors hypothesized that social rejection, teasing, bullying and relationship rejection may be main contributing factors to school shootings. The article gives readers an insight of some possible factors that could result in a student to conduct a school shooting.

Methodology

The authors approached the question using a case study method. The case studies used in the article is in between January, 1995 to March, 2001. To be specific, they only count a shooting incident when the shootings are happening in school hours during the school day excluding extracurricular activity, tuition etc. Furthermore, the shooting must be convicted by students and cases with no casualties were excluded as the study is only interested on students’ aggression toward their peers.

Since school shootings does not happen very frequently nor is an incident that could be “experimented”, in some cases, the incident did not receive enough media attention, the authors collected the data by consulting three newspapers, USA Today, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, and three news magazines, Time, Newsweek, and US News and World Report. The authors also retrieved some information online through reputable news organization.

For each cases of school shooting, the reason of the shooting and details of the perpetrator(s) and victim(s) was recorded. As a result, 15 cases was identified that fits the authors’ criteria.

The method used in this study might be one of the best way and is specified clearly as well. Replicating the study would be easy since all steps used were explained in detail. Though, all information gathered is from news company in the US where propaganda could happen as the US might want to keep certain information confidential to prevent controversy from starting outside of the US.

Results

The case studies gathered by the authors were summarized and compiled into a table with the name and age of the perpetrator, date of the shooting, and number of victims killed/wounded. The cause of each cases is then separated as Teasing, ostracism or other ongoing rejection, Acute rejection, Psychological problems, Fascinated with guns or explosives and Fascinated with death or violence to show if any of these factors are contributing in each cases.

The results gathered shows that most of these shooting cases includes interpersonal rejection. Out of 15 cases, 12 of these cases includes the perpetrator getting teased or bullied by being humiliated for their appearance/weight or picked on. Half of the cases involved the perpetrator being unsuccessful in relationship such as a break up or unrequited love.Three other common factors found other than those the author hypothesized includes psychological problems, an interest in guns and explosives, and a fascination with death. At least 10 of the 15 cases includes the perpetrator having psychological problems, 6 incidents included the perpetrator familiar or not fascinated by weapons and at least 4 perpetrators are fascinated with death or dark topics such as satanism, death-rock music etc.

Overall, the authors proved that their hypothesis, school shooting is caused by interpersonal rejection or being picked on by other students, is correct. The data shown is sufficient, but not convincing enough as there could be more reason why school shootings happen. The proofs given might be only be an anomalous result. Bullying, teasing or ostracism are common problems that students from any parts of the world even outside of the US might face. The evidence given failed to let readers comprehend that the main contributor of school shooting is teasing, rejection, and violence in school.

Conclusion

Most evidences given by the authors had successfully proven that their hypothesis, school shootings’ main contributor being teasing, rejection, and violence, is correct. Though, two of the incident found by the authors had proved them wrong which involves an honour student who never been bullied but conducted to shooting for no reason but thought the victims “deserved it” and another student with no history of rejection but only feeling depressed. The authors then noticed that only over two-thirds of the cases involves bullying, ostracism, and social rejection.

The authors then came to a conclusion that school shootings happens only when a student is facing rejection combined with the perpetrator having at least one of these risk factors — psychological problems, interest in guns or explosives, and fascination with death.

The author explained that the evidence is might not be as convincing as a controlled experiment as school shooting is not a common occurrence. In addition, they only had access to data given by news medias and other websites. They were also aware that by using the case study method, no solid proof can be provided.

My research paper is about factors on why school shootings happens often only in the US and this article basically gives the reason of why school shootings happen. Though, the article failed to prove completely why school shootings only happen more often in the US despite countless students around the world facing the same problems as students in the US. The learning outcome from the is that school shooting perpetrators could have multiple or one factor that cause them to conduct a shooting. Although the article gave clear points as well as solid evidences that rejection, teasing and ostracism being the main contributors of school shootings, it does not prove why school shootings only happens in the US but not outside of the US.

1 in 5 Americans are diagnosed with mental disorders every year. Mental disorders are social and/or mental side effects different every day issues. There are 7 main types of mental disorders that a lot of Americans go through which is: mood, anxiety, personality, psychotic, eating, trauma, and substance abuse. Within the past 50 years there has been a spike in crime specifically serial killing and mass shootings. When mass shootings happen they are different in other ways because the motives to most to all mass shootings are usually different. The connection between is that a lot of these killings and shootings is that they are under mental illness influences. Personality, psychotic, and trauma disorders played pivotal roles throughout the criminal history of serial killers and mass shooters.

The most popular mental disorders that serial killers experience are psychotic, personality, and traumatic disorders. One of the main psychotic disorders is schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a disorder that affects the way one would think, feel, and behave clearly which makes them out of touch with reality. Schizophrenia is also a gateway to the schizoaffective disorder which is a cause of schizophrenic like symptoms and mood disorders like symptoms. The delusional disorder is also another schizophrenic like disorder because it’s where an individual can’t tell the difference between reality and their imagination. Personality disorders on the other hand, are more so focused and developed on mental aspects. An example of a personality disorder is the Dissociative Identity disorder ( aka Split Personality disorder ). This disorder is when the presence of two or more personalities work to help avoid one with bad memories. Another example is an anti-social disorder where someone has a long term affect of manipulating, exploiting, or violating the rights of others without any remorse. Borderline personality disorder is another personality disorder which affects the way you think about yourself or others. Paranoid personality disorder is one that is a cause of a lot of crimes because it is the act of having suspicions about someone or something when there is no real suspicion and the wrong suspicion can lead to someone using self defense mechanism on others. Traumatic disorders on the other hand are more so emotional type mental disorder because it affects ones emotions towards another. Likewise, PTSD which is a traumatic disorder where someone is having difficulty bypassing a terrifying witness account or experience. Compared to PTSD, the acute stress disorder is where anxiety or other mental like symptoms appear within the month of a tragic event. A lot of these disorders are gateway reasons and motives for serial killings and mass shootings and have been evident of that within the last 50 years.

One of the most common disorders that serial killers experience is schizophrenia. For example, David Berkowitz. He was amongst one of the most famous serial killers in the late 1970’s. David Berkowitz was a American serial killer was known as the Son of Sam and the .44 caliber killer. He got his names because of the type of gun he used to in his shootings and the name Son of Sam because of the his neighbor who he had claimed had control over him. “ Son of Sam” Murdered six people in NYC between 1976-1977 victims including two teenagers who got shot in a car in the Bronx. Whenever he would’ve murder a victim he would leave a letter by their bodies. When caught on August 10, 1977 in front of his Yonkers apartment he was sentenced to six consecutive 25 to life jail sentences. It was known that he got caught because of an unpaid parking ticket on one of his owners vehicles. His reasoning for his murderous rampage was because he was in a satanic violent cult who was sought to be behind his attacks. His other reason was because he was given orders from a demon possessed black Labrador named Harvey who was owned by one of his neighbors named Sam Carr who he also saw as a powerful demon. In addition to his deadly rampages he had also set nearly 1,500 fires in New York City. Although,David Berkowitz was notorious there was a man called Edward Gein.

Edward Gein aka Butcher of Plainfield or The Plainfield Ghoul was another schizophrenic serial killer. When he was a teenager his mental health started to degrade after his mom died because of the close bond and relationship he had with her. He was a handyman and a babysitter. He also never left home or date any woman. All of a sudden some of the residents within his neighborhood started to disappear. It is to be told that he murdered around 15 women but only two have proven. When his mom died he would target women who had resemblance of his mother and had thoughts of becoming a woman and what it’s like to be one. On the more vile side of his life he would dig up corpses and use the body parts for his clothing and fashion. He would use skulls as soup bowls and kept human organs in his refrigerator. When Gein got caught he was sought to be unfit for a trial due to his insanity at the time of the trial which made him got the plea of not guilty. Ed Gein was so notorious to the point where he inspired the character “ Leatherface” in the movie “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”. Richard Trenton Chase was another serial killer with an even more vile background.

Richard Trenton Chase was another schizophrenic serial killer who had killed 6 people within a month. He’s mental health also degraded within his teenage years due to the strict household he lived in and the often beatings from his father. Due to that , it turned him into an alcoholic in his teen years and made the development of his fetish to mutilating animals because he would only get arousal by necrophilia and or mutilating animals. He first started mutilating animals and eat them raw and make them into smoothies. When he had murdered his first victim he said that the murder was a warm-up for the rest of the rest of his future victims. When he would get female victims he would repeatedly stab there body in while raping them. When he has shot the victims and they are confirmed dead to him he would stab the bodies in vital pressure points within the body so the blood can flow to the abdomen to be drained and drank by him. He got caught by the police in his apartment when he refused to speak to them and they ended up hiding out in his hallway until he came out with blood covered items. Richard Chase went berserk because he had a delusion that he needed to prevent the Nazis from turning his blood into powder due to the poison that he claimed was underneath his soap bar holder in his bathroom. Chase was another serial killer that inspired a movie called “ Rampage” which was based off of his criminal events.

One of the most famous serial killers nationwide and worldwide is Theodore Robert Bundy (Ted Bundy). He was the most notorious serial killer to ever live within the United States. Bundy had killed 36 young women and it’s been desired that he’s actually killed between 70-100 women because it’s the actual number is unknown. Bundy had a strong interest in sex and violence at a young age which started his criminal spark. His high school experience also played a part too because he didn’t know how to act and what people see him as and that’s what led to his diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder. Before Ted started murdering women he would shoplift and was a thief. His victims were from Vermont, Florida, Utah, Oregon, Washington state ,Idaho, and Colorado Ted Bundy would first beat or strangle the victims either to death or until unconscious and the rape their bodies. His strategy for retrieving all these women was to either break in to their homes or to pretend he had an injury and needed help with items to his car and that’s when he’ll snatch them. He managed to escape prison twice. The first occasion of him escaping was during police custody and the second occasion was when he cut a hole through the cell and managed to make the hole big enough to fit himself through. During his trial he attempted to be his own lawyer within his case. He was then sentenced to the death penalty. He was on death row for 9 years until he got executed at 7:06 am on January 24th,1989 where he got 2,000 volts of electricity in the electric chair and was pronounced dead at 7:16 am. His killing spree made him the most notorious serial killer. In addition to this rampage it made him national headlines for years even still in present day. The movie industry made a movie off of him called “ Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile” featuring Zac Efron.

Aileen Carol Wurnos was an American serial killer. Wurnos had killed 7 people who were all men. When Aileen was 11 she would perform in sexual activity at school for cigarettes, drugs, and food. When she was 15 she got kicked out and that was when she had to start providing for herself which made her pickup the act of prostitution. Wurnos had an early criminal history before her murders including: robbery, assault, possession of a weapon, etc. When it came to her victims she would target them on the Florida state highway. When she would get in their vehicles she accused them of rape and sexual assault and claims to shoot them in a result of self defense and she would later then robbed them after the attack. Wurnos got apprehended due to her criminal record because when they ran a fingerprint analysis on victims items that were found in a pawn shop they knew it was her because he fingerprint was on file due to her previous crimes. In January of 1992, Aileen went on trial for one of her victims Richard Mallory and was convicted of his murder. When it got to her sentencing, psychiatrics considered her mentally unstable because they diagnosed her with antisocial personality disorder and borderline personality disorder. She got the death sentence for every death she caused. She later then got a lethal injection which was the cause of her death and her body later got cremated. Aileen Wurnos was another serial killer who got a set of movies made on them which were both documentaries. The documentaries were called “ Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer” and Aileen Wurnos: The Selling of a Serial Kille

Introduction

Since 1999 when the Columbine high school massacre happened there have been 68 school shootings in the united states. In recent years the average number of days between school shootings has been decreasing. People, like our current president Donald Trump, believe that this is because of violent video games where the user gets to play and use weapons to kill virtual people. This report will be discussing, how my topic relates to the book, the recent and past school shootings, how video games have evolved over the years, what violent games are doing to fix it, and theories people have about violent video games.

Regulating convictions about hostility is one of the foremost vital cognitive components affecting youthful aggression; they allude to an evaluation of hostility acceptability by a person (Huesmann and Guerra, 1997). They can be isolated into two sorts: common convictions and retaliatory convictions. The previous implies a common see approximately animosity, whereas the last mentioned reflects forceful convictions in provocative circumstances. Regulating convictions approximately hostility reflect the degree acknowledgment of aggression, which influences the choice of forceful behavior. Studies found that normative beliefs about aggression are straightforwardly related to animosity. To begin with, self-reported hostility is essentially connected to regulating convictions approximately animosity

How it relates to the book

This topic relates to the book best in chapter seven which is about crime and deviance. In the book, it talks about control theory and how if everyone was given the opportunity to do deviant acts they would. It also talks about how humans are selfish who make fundamentally calculated decisions about engaging in criminal activity by weighing the benefits and risks to see what works out best for themselves. I believe that this relates to school shootings because, a person might not like some of the people at their school whether it’s a teacher or a bully, so they decide that it would be best for themself to get rid of those people by shooting their school. Not thinking about the other people they would hurt in the process, weighing the risk versus benefit for themselves, like in control theory. School shootings could also be due to conflict theory. Conflict theory suggests that people choose to be deviant as a response to the superior or a ruling class above them. Theorists argue that individuals choose to engage in deviant behavior in response to the inequalities of the capitalist system. To conclude, school shootings could be of a choice to benefit themselves (Control theory) or from a choice in response to those who are of a superior level than themselves (Conflict Theory.

Recent School Shootings

Within the last year, there have been 11 school shootings within elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and colleges across the country. Jan. 31: Memphis. A 14-year-old at Manassas High School was shot with a pellet gun at school. The student’s injury was not life-threatening. Feb. 8: Baltimore. A man entered Frederick Douglass High School and shot and injured a staff member, prompting students to hide in their classrooms at the sound of gunfire. The police said they believed that the gunman had targeted the victim, a 56-year-old special education assistant. Feb. 12: Kansas City, Mo. A teenage girl was shot and killed outside a high school after an argument at a basketball game earlier in the evening. The police said that the assailant and girl knew each other and that it appeared the suspect had waited for her in the parking lot. Feb. 26: Montgomery, Ala. A 17-year-old student at Robert E. Lee High School was shot and wounded in an arm by another student. The school was placed on lockdown and the assailant was arrested. Apr. 1: Prescott, Ark. A 14-year-old eighth-grader at Prescott High School was shot and injured by a classmate. Apr. 30: Charlotte, N.C. Two students were killed and four others were wounded after a gunman opened fire in an anthropology class at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. One of the students who was killed, Riley Howell, was credited with stopping the massacre. May 7: Highlands Ranch, Colo. One student was killed and eight others were injured in an attack on an English class at STEM School Highlands Ranch. May 7: Savannah, Ga. A Savannah State University student was shot and wounded in a residential hall on campus. Aug. 30: Mobile, Ala. Nine people between the ages of 15 and 18 were wounded when gunfire broke out at a high school football game. The police arrested and charged a 17-year-old student in the shooting, and later sought a second assailant when they found evidence of shots fired by a different gun. Oct. 24: Santa Rosa, Calif. A 17-year-old gunman shot a schoolmate twice just outside Ridgway High School and then walked calmly into class, where his teacher did not realize anything was wrong.(Bosman, 2019)

What video game companies are doing to fix it

Mortal Kombat is a video game developed by NetherRealm Studios and is published by Warner Bros Studios. The game is widely known for its gore and violence as characters are torn in half and decapitated. Most people like to play the game just to watch the gruesome finishing moves done between the characters. The game is definitely not for anyone who doesn’t like violence because that’s what makes the game the way it is. Warner Bros isn’t gonna change it because that’s what makes the game unique. (Byrd, 2019) Senator Leiberman has asked the makers of Mortal Kombat and other violent video game companies to create a warning system because if parents really knew about what happened in theses games they wouldn’t buy them. (“SENATOR CALLS FOR WARNINGS ON VIDEO GAMES,” 1993) Call of Duty is a war based first-person shooter game. The player can play against the computer in simulated missions or can play online against real-world people. The game has put warning labels warning the player as they log in to the game that it’s an extremely violent game you can even take off the missions that are very gory or show lots of blood. They’ve even implemented a setting to called “paintball” mode where blood and bullets are changed for brightly colored splatters of paint. To conclude, some companies are taking steps to bring down or warn the consumers of the violence their game has.

Theories about Violence due to Video Games

According to Bandura’s social cognitive theory, violent video games can initiate adolescents’ observational learning. In this situation, not only can they imitate the aggressive behavior of the model but also their understanding and acceptability about aggression may change. Therefore, normative beliefs about aggression can also be a mediator between violent video games and adolescent aggression. ( Anderson et al., 2017)

Conclusion

We live in a world filled with violent movies, shows, and especially video games. There have been a number of different studies to decide whether violent video games relate to the violence in the youth, specifically school shootings. The evidence shown in these studies shows no definite results. While there are no definite results, some video game companies are taking steps towards making the game less gory as well as less violent in general to help try to stop the many school shootings in America.

References

1. Giddens, A., Duneier, D., Applebaum,R., & Carr, D. (2016). Introduction to sociology (10th ed). New York, NY: Norton
2. Huesmann, L. R., and Guerra, N. G. (1997). Children’s normative beliefs about aggression and aggressive behavior. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 72, 408–419.
3. Kepes, S., Bushman, B. J., and Anderson, C. A. (2017). Violent video game effects remain a societal concern: reply to Hilgard, Engelhardt, and Rouder (2017). Psychol. Bull. 143, 775–782.
4. Bosman, J. (2019, November 14). Here’s a List of School Shootings in 2019. Retrieved November 24, 2019, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/14/us/school-shootings-list.html
5. Byrd, C. (2019, May 3). Review | “Mortal Kombat 11” lives up to its reputation: Brash, fun and ridiculously violent. Retrieved November 24, 2019, from Washington Post website: https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2019/05/03/mortal-kombat-lives-up-its-reputation-brash-fun-ridiculously-violent/
6. SENATOR CALLS FOR WARNINGS ON VIDEO GAMES. (1993, December 2). Retrieved November 24, 2019, from Washington Post website: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1993/12/02/senator-calls-for-warnings-on-video-games/74450503-ed9a-4084-9910-b8e65ac6f0cb/

Mass school shootings in the United State have grown to be a major social concern. The school shooting is a major issue in both the U.S. and other countries. In reports of mass shootings at schools, there were many horror stories. School problems have a huge emotional impact on people for related interaction duties. The school shooting is a serious problem, and to avoid such calamities, a solution is needed. For example, Chicago had the most victims for summer schools and many people had been injured. This event made the Chicago Public Schools to cancel summer schools because students’ lives were in danger.

Analysis has often concentrated on the offender’s individual characteristics, such as their personalities and behavioral patterns. The immersive essence and conceptual significance of these aggressive acts are provided fewer consideration. From this view, the violence of students can be seen as a form of social communication in which criminals try to gain social status by exploiting both physically and symbolically the meaning of the circumstance. Violent incidents may act as social routines or orchestrated events that all play a role for suspects, witnesses, and spectators. They take elements of their cultures and their social positions, such as ethnicity, race, class, and gender. In analyzing of why these mass shootings occur, social class was found as a connection with it. They are almost from a middle-class or high-class group of young men, but they can be from different social classes. Youth, on the other hand, do not create all of these performances on their own. According to Durkheim’s aspect, it is important to understand social phenomena as social facts of any individual consciousness. In other terms, once a human being act is merged, they create a new collective consciousness that is different in nature from their individual units.

Social facts are customs, norms, institutions, values, technology, and so on. Although social facts are the product of human beings’ behavior in action, they are not the consequence and result of conscious intent. Social fact connects and impacts on people. Although, social facts are derived from individual consciousness and behaviors, they cannot be defined at the individual level. They can be perceived in the interactions between the individual in a society. Durkheim successfully established a structure during his work to analyze all social phenomena, such as crimes and suicides which can be related in school shootings action nowadays. Therefore, as a social phenomenon, we can reframe school shootings. According to Durkheim, instead of considering school shootings as individually and isolated happening, we need to change our view of point. We should think about it that the whole can be bigger than its individual parts. He also concluded that all aspects of deep integration, such as family, country and so on. He claimed that religion is a society which can protect and save a human being from killing others. Increasing school shooting incidents are indicative of the disintegration of a community. And as this disintegration continues, the person moves back into himself and his own value system, sacrificing a sense of social significance, which means lose its social values.

The school shooting is created through a more modern mood of being annoyed, upset, or impatient and having no feeling excited about anything anymore in the world that is equally carry on to killing others. It often results from a cultural failure to enforce limits and restrictions, and satisfaction on a human being’s ambition and desire to have or achieve something, therefore creating gloomy and unhappiness. Economic calamity or unexpected and demand great optimism may cause it. A person without constraints is unable to feel happiness or pleasure as an individual without any hope. There are parallels between the phenomenon of school shootings and what Durkheim explains as the tragedy in anomic. In this way, when we expand the concept of Durkheim, several possibilities will become possible. School shootings are a social phenomenon which focuses on our sociological imagination and encourages us to consider new happening in society. Learning more about these social factors will allow us to come up with more effective solutions to the school shooting that derived gun violence.

In conclusion, school shooting is a complex issue which cannot always be avoided, but we can take a number of steps to minimize the severity and extent of the damage done. Schools need more protection. No one expects to start shooting a gun at school for killing innocent people at schools, such as students, teachers, and administrators. Any individuals need to have a deep positive self-image and self-confidence. There are also a lot of factors leading to school shootings, kids need to be learned how to manage stress in a safe manner in order to avoid their harmful impulsive behaviors that often contribute to self-destructive consequences.

In these last couple years many tragic shooting events have been occurring in many elementary and high schools in the United States. Every day parents and teachers worry about their students’ safety and try their hardest to keep a safe environment for them. Even as time goes by, these incidents are increasing day by day, giving the rising probability of a shooter coming to their school. In schools, danger is increasing; instead, it should be depleting. That is where the topic of arming teachers comes into place.

With the number of gun incidents in schools increasing each year, arming school personnel, especially teachers, can improve student safety on campus. The closest people to the children are the teachers, with them always so close they are able to protect the children on time and sufficiently. Even though there is ‘no empirical evidence’, states authors Sonali Rajan and Branas Charles in ‘Arming Schoolteachers: What Do We Know? Where Do We Go from Here?’, on how campus safety can improve, teachers could be a change to better students’ safety. Implementing armed teachers will have a chance to defend innocent students’ lives instead of becoming another statistic. Being able to try something new gives the school faculty the power to be able to control situations which involve gun threats. People will get to see that arming teachers with guns will keep the crazy shooter away, because no human with a gun would dare to go on a campus where they have armed and trained teachers ready to protect their students.

Another reason why armed teachers should be implemented is that the police cannot always be trusted in these situations. Law enforcement are not always on time when it comes to protecting students, leaving them vulnerable in life-threatening situations. Most of the time when law enforcement finally gets to their destined location, most of the damage has most likely already been done. Law enforcement is the primary system many people contact when their lives are being threatened, but what happens when the police are not able to be there on time? According to the article ‘Counterpoint: Arming Teachers and School Staff Helps Protect Students’, which is sourced from Points of View: School Safety & Arming Teachers, explains one incident concerning this problem. A school in Idaho “reported that police response would take up to one hour and forty-five minutes, leaving students in a school shooting scenario entirely unprotected unless on-site staff were armed”. This situation that has happened for this school in Idaho confirms that this is a considerably huge possibility of the police coming late to other schools. With this possibility, it leaves innocent students unprotected and vulnerable in life-threatening situations, letting them most likely fending for themselves. Having armed the staff on-site ready to go and protect students have less chance of students being harm’s way.

Being armed is the only way to protect others from those who are also armed. Another comment used by the source Points of View: School Safety & Arming Teachers involves being armed is when they quoted the NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre. Regarding the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, he says: “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun”. Justifying that in order to protect students efficiently and successfully, student faculty needs the same weapon to fight back.

Many people oppose arming teachers, and there are several reasons for this. In a YouTube video put up by the channel CBS This Morning, owned by a famous news channel, CBS, which is titled ‘What’s It Like for Teachers at a School That Allows Armed Staff?’, shows an anchor Nikki Battiste interviewing armed teachers in a rural Colorado high school. Nikki Battiste tries to find out whether the fears spread in society are really justified. First, the video discusses whether arming puts pressure on teachers. As it turns out, actually the teachers are not pressured into being armed, Carl Donaldson, a science teacher on this campus, is an example of this. Donaldson has freely “volunteered to carry a firearm in class” (0:43-45). Teachers have a choice whether or not to be armed, but Donaldson chose to do it because it was something he “felt he had to do” (0:42-43). Since the high school is in a rural area, it is also an example of further proving that law enforcement is not able to be there on time for students since the “nearest law enforcement office is about 25 minutes away” from this school (0:47-51). Adding this onto another reason why Donaldson agreed to be armed since by the time the police get to the campus most of the damage most likely had already been done. Donaldson then went on and agreed with having armed teachers since “they are always the first ones to respond. Why not give them something to fight back with?” (0:57-1:02). For this reason, this is why there needs to be armed teachers on school grounds in order to enhance students’ safety.

Furthermore, many parents and outsiders worry if the gun can ever get into the wrong hands as an example, a student. Halfway into the video the anchor/interviewee, Battiste, asks Donaldson if the gun is loaded, and he responds with that guns are never loaded in class unless something were to happen, and it’s always wrapped around his leg (1:17-1:20). It shows people that they need not worry about the guns going off in class or the gun ending up in the wrong hands since it will need something to load it with in order to be fired.

Another question asked by Battiste was if the other teachers felt safer since other teachers were armed around them, the teachers responded that they are okay with this (2:46-2:51).

An equally important thing that many worry about is training. In the video, they explained about ‘Faster’, a program that is provided for the teachers. Battiste explains that “’Faster’ is a three-day course that trains teachers like Donaldson in firearms and trauma response and includes a simulated school shooting scenario” (1:37-1:45). This program helps trains teachers what to do in real life-threatening situations that can happen on campus, preparing them for future events. One of the biggest things that this program also helps with also is the trauma response for the teacher, which is the best for their mental health.

Above all, there has been much controversy when it comes to arming teachers. However, I believe that arming them decreases the chances of a shooter being able to go onto campus and harm vulnerable children. It is clear that in every school, the first priority of teachers and other school faculty should be students’ safety. With teachers being armed, they will be the most effective solution to successfully save and protect their students in life threatening-situations since they are the closest to them. As it goes on, many law enforcement offices are not likely to be there in time if any of these situations happen, but if teachers were armed this would not be put into discussion. Finally, I think that armed teachers need to be implemented since a shooter will think twice before going and hurting innocent children since the teachers will be there ready and armed to protect them.

Works Cited

1. CBS This Morning. ‘What’s It Like for Teachers at a School That Allows Armed Staff?’. YouTube. 23 Feb. 2018. CBS. Accessed 19 May 2019.
2. Center for Homeland Defense and Security. ‘Incidents by Year’. ​K-12 School Shooting Database​, FEMA, 7 May 2019. Accessed 18 May 2019.
3. Collier, Lorna. ‘School Safety: Can Gun Violence in Schools Be Prevented?​’. CQ Researcher by CQ Press​. 17 May 2019. CQ Press. Accessed 19 May 2019.
4. ‘Counterpoint: Arming Teachers and School Staff Helps Protect Students’. ​Points of View: School Safety & Arming Teachers​, Sept. 2018, p.3. ​EBSCOhost.
5. ‘UPDATED: Mass Public Shootings Keep Occurring in Gun-Free Zones: 97.8% of Attacks Since 1950’. ​Crime Prevention Research Center​, 3 Dec. 2018. Accessed 28 May 2019.
6. Rajan, Sonali, and Charles C. Branas. ‘Arming Schoolteachers: What Do We Know? Where Do We Go From Here?’. ​American Journal of Public Health, vol. 108, no. 7, July 2018, pp.860–862. ​EBSCOhost​, doi:10.2105/AJPH.2018.304464.

School shooting is an attack at an educational institution, such as a school or university, involving the use of firearms. School shooting is something that has happened for years, or even decades, and will always happen unless we do something about it.

The earliest known United States shooting to happen on school property was the Pontiac’s Rebellion school massacre on July 26, 1764, where four Lenape American Indian entered the schoolhouse near Pennsylvania, shot and killed school master (Enoch Brown) and killed nine or ten children; only two children survived. The first school shooting that I heard of was the one that happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School. This school shooting occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newton, Connecticut, United States. This terrible and absolutely horrifying action was done by a 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who fatally shot 20 children between six and seven years, as well as six adult staff members. What made all of this even worse is the fact that Lanza shot and killed his own mother at their Newton home. That was just one of what seems to be hundreds of school shooting cases that has happened throughout the years. Not to mention the one that happened in Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland, Florida, United States on February 14th, 2018, leaving 17 dead while panicked students barricaded themselves inside classrooms and frantic parents raced to the scene. Then, 3 months later, another school shooting occurred at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas, United States, in the Houston metropolitan area, on May 18, 2018. Ten people – eight students and two teachers – were fatally shot and thirteen others were wounded. Those were just three of the hundreds of school shootings. There were hundreds that as much as I want to write a more in-depth stories of every single one of them, I chose not to because that would take pages and pages worth of written reports.

I hate how all of us have become so desensitized to violence. 10 years ago, a school shooting was a big deal and everyone would freak out. Now, however, we’ve had like what? Eleven? Twelve? In the past month. It’s gotten to the point where instead of gasping and being horrified, people just scroll past an article and goes, “Huh, another school shooting”. And then someone asks a question about how many were hurt or what state it was in, and then they move on with their lives. As if none of this matters anymore, as if the lives of those who suffered from this incident didn’t mean anything. It’s horrifying how all of this has become just another part of life.

So, why? Why did all of these happen? The reasons behind school shooting itself vary from one case with another case. One of them is mental health problems. This has been often suggested as a major cause. Most school shooters were mentally ill or showed symptoms of mental health problems. Another cause is the lack of gun control. As we all know, in the US it is relatively easy to gain access to a firearm, unlike in any other countries with tougher gun regulations. In the US there are more than 15,000 gun shops, and many families own at least one or several weapons. Children and teenagers have been trained on how to use a gun at an early age. Many experts suggest that the easy access to guns in the U.S. is one of the main factors why school shootings are becoming increasingly common.

Now, let’s try to picture this. Imagine, 25 thirteen-year-olds sitting on the floor of their classroom, in the dark, backs against the wall, blinds closed, lights off. Imagine being one of the kids having to undergo a lock down drill at school. Lock down drills are hard. They are always hard, but they are especially hard when it’s right after a shooting. Most of the kids are scared. You can tell the ones who are the most anxious the way they hug their knees against their chests, their straight-lipped expressions, their eyes staring at the tiled floor. Now let me ask you, would this, sitting quiet and still in the dark, really be the best we can do? No. None of this is going to solve anything. Neither will arming teachers with guns. Yes, you heard me right. There have been issues going on about how Mr. Trump, the President of U.S., is planning to arm teachers with guns. Which, in my opinion, still wouldn’t do anything. Even if it does, it will only make things worse. Parents already blame teachers for bad grades and their kids getting into trouble. Now the government wants to hand guns to teachers and give parents the potential to blame teachers for the deaths of their kids. If a teacher did have a gun and the school was attacked and the teacher for some reasons couldn’t protect all the students? Or, the teachers hesitated because they knew the student, or because it’s a kid? The government wants to hand guns to the teachers and tell them how to use them, but what happens when kids still die? What if guns get stolen for some reason/in some way by students? The solution to the gun problem is not more guns and it most certainly is not to arm teachers with guns! The government seems to be too busy ‘doing everything in their power’ that they seem to forget that the real issue lies on the lack of gun control. If there’s anything that they should be doing, it’s definitely to make a stricter gun law. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that guns should be banned considering that guns can be used as a self-defense weapon. I’m speaking on the behalf of every kid and teacher who died and injured in school shootings, every family who had to go through one of the most difficult times in their life, and everyone who had to suffer the aftermath of this horrible incident. They most definitely do not need any more condolences, thoughts, or prayers. However, they need real action to prevent these horrific school shootings from happening again in the future and the deaths of hundreds of innocent children and adults as a result. They need the government and Congress of the United States of America to take this issue as a serious matter.

I am absolutely sure that kids, teenagers, students and teachers should not die in school. Parents shouldn’t send their kids to school and then get a message like, “Mom, if I don’t make it out of this, know that I love you and appreciate everything you’ve done for me”. Studying in school should not be a death sentence. I believe that the authorities should take the problem of mass shootings in schools more seriously. Sitting in their office talking to the media about how heartbreaking this case is, they won’t do anything ‘helpful’. Now is the time to act, and first of all to strengthen gun laws. It is s time to put an end to all of this. Once for all.

In our society today, alongside with our advanced technology and social aspects, individuals expect a security of comfort and safety. However, that security feeling may not be there for long, because of the outbreaks of school shootings nationwide. At this point in our time, it is not unusual to hear about local K-12 school shootings on the radio or television news. Conducting active school shooting drills are crucial to everyone on school property grounds for preparation for the worse event that could occur at any time. The major issue within the scope of our topic of education concerns me about the lives of all students and school staff when an active school shooting event does end up happening. Raising awareness to add these preparation drills are for the safety of our K-12 students is our potential future.

During the 2013-14 school year, more than two-thirds of public-school students participated in drills for ‘procedures to be performed in selected crises’. The procedures include passive ‘lockdown drills’, where all students are locked inside their classrooms and told to hide from active school shooters who are present on school grounds. The threat name ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) is a training procedure developed by a Texas law-enforcement officer in 2001 that offers ‘option-based, proactive, survival strategies’. These strategies often include asking students to throw any nearby school supplies at a shooter as they try to escape, as explained in the article ‘Schools Are Training Second-Graders to Attack Mass Shooters’. Situations like this are held weekly for some schools all across the U.S. Sadly, it seems like mass schooling drills are increasingly becoming the new normal in this generation. Students have now learned how to kick down doors and barricade entry ways in case of a shooting, just like how they would like in a sudden fire issue. A report from the National Association of School Psychologists and the National Association of School Resource Officers found that lockdowns have been the standard approach for schools dealing with a threat for nearly two decades and they should remain the foundation of any response plan.

Security school officials are questioning how to prepare young students for the worse without provoking any trauma and long-lasting PTSD. Situations like an active school shooting can traumatize these children and school staff for the rest of their lives. The severity of this nationwide issue needs to be broadcasted across the world to spread awareness in favor of our loved ones who have passed away in such saddening events. I have had events in my life where school shootings or the slightest of it has happened to my school campus. I currently attend San Jose State University as a fulltime student, and since the times I have been here, my fellow peers and I have at least risked our lives on this campus more than once a week with a gunman on campus. Since San Jose State University is in the heart of Downtown San Jose, this school environment is bound to be a little dangerous, so it is best to keep cautious at all times. Just about a few weeks ago, a student was captured with a loaded rifle and other harmful weapons on campus in the morning. The suspect has been arrested, but that was not all. Later that evening, there had been an active school shooting at San Jose State University’s very own Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library. A bullet was shot through one of the glass windows and glass shattered onto a nearby student’s belongings. Thankfully no one was hurt, but there are nearby buildings where my roommates were attending right when this incident occurred. I personally never have had any life-threatening events like this happen to me until I started to attend this college. Situations like this makes me what to make a message clear to my audience: do not doubt any possibilities that a school shooting will not happen to you or your local school. Just because it did not happen to you, it could happen to any of us.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, between the years of 2000 and 2017, there has been a rough estimate of thirty-seven active school shooter incidents taking place at K-12 schools. In each of these matters, especially including these past recent 2019 mass school shootings, should snap all school districts from handling traumatizing real world situations with real world solutions. According to the blog on Active School Shooter Response Options and Trainings in K-12, it states that creating a safe school environment is an ongoing process for every school district. It discusses on how to help your school select an appropriate response and training approach. Conducting a drill for an active school shooting event is one thing, but for it to successfully be in full effective mode, talking about a plan or some training is just as important. As of today, the two primary response options are either a ‘multi-option’ or a ‘lockdown’ method. The multi-option method lets victims use tactics to physically engage with the shooter, hide, or fleeing. A recent study using active shooter simulations came to a conclusion that victims using this multi-option method seized the suspect to a minimum of three minutes faster than using the lockdown approach. However, this may be more suitable to older students rather than younger ones. This has raised quite a few concerns to the slightest chance students can make the wrong response choice and bring danger to the people around them and themselves. While using the lockdown approach may have some drawbacks, it can still save lives indefinitely.

Creating an effective communication plan is something that should be talked about just as much as the different procedures like lockdowns and multi-option. Additionally, creating strong and trusted bonds with local police departments, fire departments, organizations that practice emergency plans, threat assessment team, and other community service providers are extra helpful. Experts recommends that all school systems should meet with their fellow community management every so often. For instance, reportedly several schools meet annually with their local police and fire departments who provide them with blueprints of each campus building. This must be done all accordingly to plan for it to be in full effect. Because as NASP research shows, while one of the primary goals of crisis preparedness is to develop a sense of empowerment and control, drills that not conducted appropriately may cause physical and psychological harm to students, staff, and the overall learning environment.