School Violence
Ten years ago no one knew about rampage killings or violent acts of terror in schools. Most parents only worried about teasing and a school bully or two. In today's schools violence has made its way into the newspapers, talk shows, and the news at night. School shootings have brought a dark cloud over teachers, students, parents, and our country. It has become a serious problem in the school system and will forever be in our minds. The question is what causes these teens to kill their peers? There are a number of reasons why violence occurs in schools all over the country. Most situations should have been prevented however the warning signs were either ignored or overlooked by peers, parents or teachers. A large number of the teens can be brought together with similar warning signs. According to Peter Vilbig, a writer for the New York Times,"There have been eighteen shootings in American Schools since 1996, leaving thirty-nine dead and one hundred wounded". The following shootings are examples of how America has been enraged with violence and despair. In 1999 Charles Williams who attended Santana High School in California took two students lives and injured thirteen. A week later "a distraught teen in Covington, Washington, wave
There is also the problem of loneliness. Many people believe that their own peers are the cause for their school violence. The blame cannot be put on another student's shoulders. I have to believe that there had to be other problem there, for the students to have committed an act of violence. Classmates teased or ignored the troubled teens and the feeling of not being accepted took many of the teens over the edge. It is very hard to tell if a teen is in need of mental care or not. However a parent should see many of the obvious warning signs "Constantly losing one's temper, frequent physical fighting, drastic behavior changes, increased drug of alcohol use, intense depression, carrying a weapon, or having access to one". If teachers, students, and family all watched for each of these warning signs then perhaps we can prevent the next school shooting from occurring. d a gun around in his classroom". Before any damage was done, his fellow classmates talked him out of his violent rage. In Northern Arizona, in 1998, a teenager bragged of his plans to take his father's gun and kill seven classmates. In 1998 another teen in Harlingen, Texas, was expelled after police found a forty-name hit list buried in the teen's room. A fourteen year-old teenager in Pennsylvania, in 1999, shot and injured a classmate. Another student in California opened fire with a handgun and wounded seven. Perhaps one of the most known school shootings happened in 1999 at Columbine High School in Colorado. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into Columbine High School and opened fire. At the end of the massacre there were twelve students and one teacher dead. "In California, Texas, Indiana, Alabama, North Carolina, and New Jersey, among other states, dozen of teens were arrested, suspended, or placed under observation for bringing guns to school". The list of these types of stories could go on but it is the cause of these situations that puzzle me. The important question is what are the warning signs of teen rampage killings? There have been many theories but each case proves to be different from the other. The description of a teen killer has no reliable characteristics, therefore nobody can finger point to whom the next violent teen will be. The only thing we can do is und
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Approximate Word count = 1526
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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