School Shootings

How much can someone handle before they can't take it anymore? Is there any way for people to stop the pain these kids feel? Nearly every month we have heard about another shooting occurring in a school somewhere in the United States. Many of these shootings are believed to be due to one major factor. Nearly all of the shooters of these schools have had one thing in common, they were bullied by fellow students. Jolynn Carney, the Associate Professor of Counselor Education at Penn State, believes that bullying has undoubtedly played a role in these shootings (Probing...Line 5). For them, this seemed to be the only way to deal with their pain, and to let others know what they had done to them. Several high school students have developed psychological problems due to being bullied by their fellow peers.

Bullying has taken a turn for the worst over the past few years. Schools are reporting over a quarter of a million students per month being physically attacked during the school day by fellow students. Hitting, taunting, name-calling, rumor-spreading, cyber-bullying are all different ways of bullying someone (Moss, Meredith; "Stopping School Bullie"). The emotional abuse that occurs is normally gone undetected by school personnel. Carney states, "It's often what we don't see that creates the biggest problem." A Secret Service report published in 2000 on fatal school shootings found that more than 75 percent of all the school shooters had experienced ongoing peer bullying. The attacker often felt "persecuted, bullied, threatened, attacked, or injured before the incident" (Probing...).

A mother of a teen arrested for planning to shoot fellow students claimed that her son did it for being teased about his weight. Him and two friends, one who was also teased for his weight and the other a year out of school, planned a "Columbine-like attack" on their school. The two teens teased for their weight were both over 300 pounds and constantly bullied in school for this fact. She told reports that her son didn't want to go to school on some days because the teasing was too much to handle (Imrie, Robert; Sec. "Mother of Teen Accused..." Sec. Domestic News).

Many will claim that it is all a part of growing-up. Several parents went through bullying and being bullies when they were in high school as well. Kids today are very different than what their parents were. Kids are now exposed to ideas about death and sex much more than they were ten or twenty years ago. Things are not how they were when the parents of these kids were in school. Things have gotten a lot worse since then. Kids don't care that they hurt one another since they feel like it is what they are supposed to do to fit in. Most of the bullies probably learned to be that way from their parents or someone they look up to. Most parents of bullies were bullies themselves in high school. Some kids are able to deal with being teased by others since they have friends they can turn to when they feel bad, who will support them and protect them. There are those who can not turn to a friend since they have none. They have no one to listen to them and to tell them it is okay. Those students are the ones who begin to hate the world and those in it because all they see is pain from it all.

Another claim people might make is that these kids had mental issues to begin with. It is not other people's fault that they create havoc but their own for not getting help. I have had several friends who fit into this category. The difference between them and the shooters was that they had others to support them when they needed help. The past high school shooters may have had mental issues from the beginning but they were pushed to the limit by their peers. If it was not for others bullying them, they probably wouldn't have done the horrific acts that they did. It is because of bullying that they could not control their emotions or thoughts anymore.

A final claim which others might argue is that it is not bullying that affects the students, but the shows and things they witness in everyday life. These things may in fact be factors in the result, but they are also reasons why bullies act the way they do. Bullies can choose to not act as those they see but instead they choose to act out the mean situations that occur. Many people accused the violent media, Marilyn Manson, the internet, and video games for what occurred at Columbine High School. The one place they did not look at was the school itself, where the bullying occurred. The shooters at Columbine did the one thing that most students who are bullied fantasize about, getting back at those who hurt them first (Dreher, Christopher; "Are Rampage Killings..." Pg. F6).

Many experts agree that educators bear some responsibility for the school conditions that set the stage for deadly violence. Carney and a colleague tested whether school personnel could differentiate between bullying and "youthful play." The results for this test were frightening. Signs of physical abuse were easily spotted but those of social and emotional abuse went unnoticed to several faculty members (Probing...). Many people, especially parents, believe that kids go to school to learn. They in fact go to school to make friends and hang out with them. Some kids are prevented from doing this because of those they try to be friends with. "Relationships are central," says Rachel Simmons, "Bullying is the dark side of those relationships" (Moss). Based on my accounts and memories of high school, several people I knew felt like they were attack on a daily basis. I witnessed several people, who later became my friends, run out of the class crying or showing up with bruises on their arms from people abusing them. This seemed like a never-ending struggle for them. When ever these incidents were reported, the bully only had a stern warning from the principal or teachers to never do it again. It never worked. The bully continued doing, sometimes making it worse for telling on them. I myself had to deal with constant accusations by fellow students that I had some "weird" characteristics or that my personality was too different to be accepted. It hurts having people tell you, or find out by some other means, that you are different and don't fit-in.

Mass school shootings are not the only consequence of peer bullying. Many students have committed suicide based on their constant pain brought on by their classmates. External threats at school can create depression and low self-esteem in a person which can lead to suicidal thoughts and actions. America is not the only one to experience these problems. Japan has an ongoing battle with