School Violence

Presentation #1

Topic: School Violence

General Purpose: To inform

Specific Purpose: To inform what needs to be done to

stop school violence.

Central Idea: To inform the effects, causes, and

solutions of school violence.

INTRODUCTION:

Since the April 20, 1999 shooting at Columbine High

School in Littleton, Colorado I have been looking

deeper into the issue of school violence. The number

of extremely violent crimes committed by students has

been increasing in the last few years. These

incidents are not only increasing in number, but in

the amount of bloodshed in each occurrence. Some

experts seek to analyze the effects this violence has.

Others figure the causes to be everything from movies

to video games. In the end it has been determined

that there are many solutions that must work together

to help solve this urgent problem.

MAIN BODY:

I. Effects- 2 main effects

A. Copycat crimes

1. Since the Feb. 19, 1997

shooting in Bethel, Alaska, there have been 9

more school shootings

(Start 'Em Young 1-3).

2. Six of these shootings took

place in a 4-month period.

B. Students feeling unsafe in school

1. For thousands of students

throughout the country, the feeling of being

the next victim looms over

their heads.

2. For many students, feeling

unsafe creates a very difficult learning

environment (Nolin, Davies,

Chandler 2).

II. Causes- 3 main causes

A. Parental Violence

1. Children are influenced by what they see and hear,

but what they are

exposed to will often have the lasting effect on

them.

2. If a child witnesses a parent behaving badly, such

as shouting at or

hitting another person it is likely the child

will copy the parent's

behavior later in life.

3. If a parent chooses to inflict pain on their child

for a behavior they see

unacceptable, this teaches the child that using

force to get your way is

okay (Peterson).

B. Video Games

1. There is no doubt video games

are a cause of school violence, especially

with scientific proof

supporting it.

2. A study conducted by Buchanan

and Funk in 1996 showed that 50% of

boys listed action video

games as their favorites. These games include

"first person shooter" games

such as Doom and Quake. It turns out that

one of the gunmen in the

Columbine shooting played Doom quite often

(Walsh 2).

3. Craig Anderson and Karen Dill

of Iowa State and Lenoir-Rhyne Colleges

conducted a study in which

they gave video games to students who were

not predisposed towards

aggressive behavior. Some students were given

violent games, and others

non-violent games to play. Those given

violent games showed an

increase in violent thoughts and behaviors,

whereas those given

non-violent games did not show a change (Walsh 3)

C. Movies/Television

1. After the March 24, 1998

Jonesboro, Arkansas shooting, the head of the

American Academy of

Pediatrics Task Force of Juvenile