2008 Woodie Awards
The Complete Idiot's Guide To Preventing School Shootings
Samantha Marsh
Issue date: 10/23/06 Section: Opinions
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On April twentieth, 1999 Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold perpetrated one of the most terrifying and deadliest attacks on an American school in history. The two boys killed twelve students and a teacher and wounded twenty-four others at Columbine High School in Jefferson County, Colorado.
The term Columbine immediately entered our vocabulary as a catch-phrase for what many saw as a nationwide epidemic of violent youth. Blame for the attacks encompassed old issues like the lack of religion or morality in schools and newer ideas about the detrimental effects of explicitly violent movies and video games. While debate on such topics was destined to fade from the forefront of political and social discussions, there can be no doubt that this one incident has left its mark on schools.
School officials now more seriously address problems with bullying and cliques because of the threat of shootings. There is a zero-tolerance policy for threatening behavior that is often enforced by physical measures like extra security or metal detectors. Still society is at times painfully reminded of the startling danger school shootings present.
Most recently there have been three fatal incidents in the past few weeks, including a highly publicized massacre involving an Amish school in Pennsylvania where five little girls were killed. The gunman was a thirty-two year old who lived near the one room school house. Barely two weeks before that, a fifty-three year old man in Colorado committed suicide after killing a sixteen year old female hostage. Two days later a teenage boy shot and killed his principle in Wisconsin.
It is no surprise that these shootings, having occurring so close together, have sparked political debate. There is every reason to believe that the Bush administration's planned conference on school violence will toss around the same ideas about psychological scanning for potential threats and physical deterrents like police presence. Consequently, the fact that Republican Representative Frank Lasee of Wisconsin has managed to contribute a novel idea to this renewed debate should be appealing. However, since his idea responds to the threat of violence by arming teachers with guns it has met with considerable and understandable skepticism from the vast majority both within and outside of the field of education.
The term Columbine immediately entered our vocabulary as a catch-phrase for what many saw as a nationwide epidemic of violent youth. Blame for the attacks encompassed old issues like the lack of religion or morality in schools and newer ideas about the detrimental effects of explicitly violent movies and video games. While debate on such topics was destined to fade from the forefront of political and social discussions, there can be no doubt that this one incident has left its mark on schools.
School officials now more seriously address problems with bullying and cliques because of the threat of shootings. There is a zero-tolerance policy for threatening behavior that is often enforced by physical measures like extra security or metal detectors. Still society is at times painfully reminded of the startling danger school shootings present.
Most recently there have been three fatal incidents in the past few weeks, including a highly publicized massacre involving an Amish school in Pennsylvania where five little girls were killed. The gunman was a thirty-two year old who lived near the one room school house. Barely two weeks before that, a fifty-three year old man in Colorado committed suicide after killing a sixteen year old female hostage. Two days later a teenage boy shot and killed his principle in Wisconsin.
It is no surprise that these shootings, having occurring so close together, have sparked political debate. There is every reason to believe that the Bush administration's planned conference on school violence will toss around the same ideas about psychological scanning for potential threats and physical deterrents like police presence. Consequently, the fact that Republican Representative Frank Lasee of Wisconsin has managed to contribute a novel idea to this renewed debate should be appealing. However, since his idea responds to the threat of violence by arming teachers with guns it has met with considerable and understandable skepticism from the vast majority both within and outside of the field of education.
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