High School/College Shootings in U.S.

High School/College Shootings in U.S.

In response to the shocking series of highly publicized multiple victim shootings at high schools and colleges across the country in recent years the nation's schools have begun to resemble armed fortresses trying to keep the bad guys out. Alas, it is a sad commentary of the times when high school and college students must pass through metal detectors and be searched by security officers before being allowed to enter their schools and attend class, but this is the state of affairs for many American high school and college students today. Moreover, despite this increased vigilance, shootings continue to take place in high schools and colleges around the country, and in some cases, even elementary school students are being forced to undergo the same security precautions as their older counterparts. In this fearful environment, it is a wonder that any learning takes place at all and students, parents, teachers and administrators alike are wondering if and when the next episode will involve them. This paper provides a review of the relevant peer-reviewed and scholarly literature to identify recent incidents of this type across the country and to determine what steps have been taken in their wake. A summary of the research and salient findings are provided in the conclusion.

High School and College Shootings in America: What Can be Done?

Time and again in recent years the nation has been rocked by headlines announcing yet another series of shootings in a high school or college campus in the United States. While the reasons for students taking this ultimate step to resolve their personal grudges or other personal demons vary, the impact on the nation's schools has been profound. During a period when all stakeholders are pointing to the need for improved educational opportunities for the nation's youth to remain competitive in an increasingly globalized marketplace, such violent episodes can only serve to detract from the learning experience and further contribute to the "culture of fear" that pervades the country today. To determine what steps have taken place following such shooting episodes, this paper provides a history of and recent shootings, development of new laws to prevent school shootings, security measures taken by colleges/universities, and infamous cases. A summary of the research and important findings are presented in the conclusion.

Review and Discussion

Background and Overview.

The world is certainly not a sterile or even a necessarily safe place, and threats to health and security from a wide range of sources abound. One place that has traditionally been considered a "safe haven" from these threats has been the nation's schools, where parents could send their children with little fear of their not returning home that day, but this is no longer the case. In their essay, "Violence Affecting School Employees," Kondrasuk and his colleagues (2005) report that, "Schools have traditionally been thought of as safe havens for students and employees. However, recent incidents have threatened the sense of security usually found in educational institutions.... The usual victims of violence in schools are other students and teachers" (p. 638). The need for increased surveillance in other areas of American society following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 has been carried over into the nation's educational institutions as well, with profound consequences for students. For instance, Scott emphasizes that, "Like a microcosm of society, schools have been invaded by these same problems, resulting in the airport-like screening devices and police practices that have become a daily routine in many schools. In many communities, as widely reported in the news, even elementary schools now have check-in stops through which students have to pass, so they can be checked for weapons" (p. 271). Because schools are supposed to be "safe havens" where an environment conducive to learning exists, these initiatives can only be viewed as detrimental to the academic performance of the students involved.

The highly publicized shootings that have occurred in high schools and colleges around the country in recent years have focused growing attention on the problem of violence in the schools. A number of violent episodes have taken place since 1997 in which students have opened fire on others in their own schools, the deadliest of these assaults being the one at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, where two teenage gunmen killed twelve of their classmates and a teacher before committing suicide (Rosen, 2000). According to Fast (2003), in April 1999, two seniors at Columbine High School in Little, Colorado, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, came to school armed with an assortment of guns and bombs and subsequently killed twelve of their classmates and a teacher before committing suicide.

In her interviews with Columbine students a week after the shootings, Tochterman reports that one student emphasized that there was a certain "it-can't-happen-here" quality to life in Columbine before this shooting episode. This student remarked, "I always knew that big cities like Los Angeles or New York had lots of killing. I imagine the kids there go to school scared that they might be getting shot. I just never figured it would come to Colorado" (quoted in Tochterman, 2002 at p. 197). This author also notes that, not surprisingly, "After the shootings, students were upset and focused primarily on themselves" (Tochterman, 2002, p. 197). Likewise, these students' parents and caregivers, along with the rest of the country, have been concerned as well. In this regard, Rosen notes that, "As the number of these shootings has mounted," this author adds, "so, too, has public concern" (2000, p. 47). In the immediate aftermath of the Columbine shootings, national attention turned, of course, to the issue of gun control and how new laws could help protect the nation's schools. According to Weissman (1999), "State and national officials are jumping off the NRA bandwagon and advocating restrictions on the availability of guns, at least for children. I am still waiting for the advocates or opponents of gun control to explain exactly how they plan to get the guns away from the 'bad guys, without jeopardizing numerous civil liberties" (p. 29).

In reality, though, such incidents are not necessarily new nor are they rare, but are rather consistent with past patterns of violence in the nation's schools. For instance, Roy (2002) reports that while highly publicized high school and college shooting episodes in recent years would lead many observers to believe that school shootings are on the rise, in fact the numbers have been fairly consistent throughout the 1990s based on the findings of a study conducted by the Justice Policy Institute. This author emphasizes that, "What has changed is the frequency of multiple victim shootings. During the 1997-1998 school year, forty people were killed by gunfire in American schools. Of those forty, eleven died as a result of the well-publicized shooting cases in West Paducah, Kentucky, Pearl, Mississippi, Jonesboro, Arkansas, Edinboro, Pennsylvania, and Springfield, Oregon" (p. 78). In fact, the Age of Information and the concomitant increase in media sources and attention such events attract may be responsible, in part, for the increase in the frequency of multiple victim shootings because of the inevitable wide-ranging media attention such events garner as discussed further below.

Reasons for High School and College Shootings.

There is no single reason that has been identified for the recent increase in multiple victim shootings in the nation's high schools and colleges, but some common themes quickly emerge from the literature. For instance, in her book, Love to Hate: America's Obsession with Hatred and Violence, Roy (2002) reports:

Much attention has been given by the media itself, by scholars, and by teachers and parents across the nation to what is causing these mass killings in our schools. Reasons seem almost as numerous as those offering them. Blame is being placed on television, on inadequate school security systems, on the parents of the killers, on video games, on a general cultural tolerance for violence, on inherent flaws in the brains of the killers, on particular movies, on genres of music, on peer pressure, on bullies, and on the status of gun control to name only a few. (p. 78)

While it may be impossible to determine the reasons for a given incident after someone dies, researchers have identified a connection between bullying and about two in three targeted school shootings (Peterson & Hoover, 2005). According to these authors, "For small, anxious, and shy students, the climate at Columbine appeared to be nothing short of horrific. [Researchers] clearly identified bullying as the cause for Klebold's violent turn, although he also cites Harris's influence as a key element" (Peterson & Hoover, 2005, p. 249). Moreover, the killers clearly understood what the response would be to any such massacre and came to believe that the media bang would be worth the suicide buck. In this regard, Roy (2002) notes, "In the time that has passed since the Columbine massacre, we have learned that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold fully understood that their crime would inspire a media frenzy" (p. 80). Indeed, as Muschert advises, "With the recent passing of the fourth anniversary of the Columbine school shooting, a new study finds that the media's coverage bred a culture of fear nationwide that defies logic. After the Columbine media coverage, the nation became terrified that our schools were no longer safe, even though the facts show they are safer than ever" (2003, p. 14).

This point is also made by Kondrasuk et al. (2005), who note, "More recently the violent events have garnered increased media coverage due to the dramatic nature of the crimes. In this age of instant communications and open dialogue, the media has almost been forced to report deaths and other violent acts in schools. As such, violence in schools has warranted more attention by researchers and the schools themselves" (p. 638). Likewise, Fast (2003) emphasizes that, "While this [Columbine] was the sixth of such school shootings in 18 months, it riveted the attention of the nation because it involved well-to-do suburban children, had the greatest number of victims and because it played out on television" (emphasis added) (Fast, 2003, p. 484).

Responses to High School and College Shootings.

In some cases, the responses to the highly publicized high school and college shootings in recent years have been knee-jerk reactions while other tactics have involved more thoughtful approaches and school districts across the country have implemented numerous security measures designed to improve their ability to keep guns and bombs out of educational institutions. For example, according to Scott (1995), "From elementary school to college, school has become a battleground, primarily in high school and university. Mainly, these conflicts have occurred on four main fronts: the effort to keep schools safe from crime and drugs; efforts to control, shape, or punish different types of student behavior; the school -- media conflict over what the media can cover and publish; and the struggle over what a school can say when it is trying to terminate or has terminated a teacher or staff member" (p. 271).

In response to these high school and college shootings, some of the more common tactics used by school districts to reduce the incidence of violence include those shown in Table 1 and Figure 1 below.