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School Violence in America
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Sixteen year old Nicholas Elliot of Virginia Beach, Virginia opened fire on his school with a semi automatic pistol in 1987;he said someone had called him a racist name. Fourteen year old James Alan Kearby of Goddard, Kansas killed the principal and three others within his school on January twenty-first of 1985. Afterward, he reported that he had been brutally bullied and beaten for years proceeding the shooting. After being teased about his weight, twelve year old Nathan Farris of DeKalb, Missouri shot a classmate and then himself on 1987. In 1997, fourteen year old Joseph Todd of Stamps, Arkansas shot two students; he claimed to have been humiliated by teasing. (Dedman, “Bullying, Tormenting Often Led to Revenge in Cases Studied”).Is this what should be happening in America’s schools? Should students have to be more concerned with their safety, rather than obtaining a good education? Incidences similar to the ones just described occur every year in school systems across the country. Because searches and metal detectors do not appear to be effective, it is time to move away from intervention and start working on prevention. The first major step to reduce school violence is to change the atmosphere within the school. After this has been accomplished, the next task is to train the students and staff about their responsibilities to reduce the amount of violence in school system . Changing the atmosphere is an important step that can be taken to reduce amount of violence in school system. Importance of this is due to the fact that atmosphere enables development of psychological problems in young students. Without an appropriate atmosphere, a little seed of dislike will never grow to a huge and blind monster of hatred that is capable of murdering other people. In a paper addressing school shootings,Thomas De Zengotita said “the cruelty of the prep and jock culture toward those who do not fit in is the underlying issue for these kids” (Zengotita). Analysis of atmosphere of different schools with shooting incident has revealed that assailants have similar status in their respective atmosphere. For instance, assailants are generally rejected by their peers (“Psychologist Details Troubling Similarity in Recent School Shootings”). One may never know the frustrations this causes and the psychological damage it has. Unfortunately because of this, victims are blinded into thinking that the only way out is to kill. Another important step in changing atmosphere is to identify situations that may cause psychological damages in some group of students. Success in process of identification requires following three major steps. First, thorough sociological research should be conducted on students in different schools throughout the country. Focus in this research study should be on reasoning the development of different kinds of behavior in youngsters. Secondly, researchers throughout the country should cooperate and communicate with each other, so they can share their findings.
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