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School Violence In the past several years, there have been many instances of violent acts (including murder) occurring throughout the United States. Littleton, Colorado; Springfield, Oregon; Edinboro, Pennsylvania; and West Paducah, Kentucky are just a few of the small towns that have been hit by such a tragic event. Due to the fact that all of these are small towns, students, parents, and communities alike are realizing that no town is really safe. An outbreak of school violence can happen anywhere. Were any of these children showing warning signs? Are there any factors that parents and teachers should consider when dealing with a problem child?
What measures should communities take in order to prevent a shooting from happening in the future? In the wake of an increased awareness in school violence, it is essential to determine some factors that can contribute to violent behavior. Why it occurs and how to prevent violence in schools are also factors to consider. There has been a lot of discussion on what the typical child murderer is like. There are many stereotypes of kids that would have violent tendencies. In the most recent school shootings, the killers werent all drug addicts or loners.
Some of them were intelligent, young people. One of the kids was a straight A student, yet another had a lot of friends and was active in school activities. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the two students who opened fire at Columbine High School were the most discussed throughout the press. Both Harris and Klebold had been involved in a group called the Trench Coat Mafia. They were noted as being outcasts, with a lot of other kids in school making fun of them. When interviewed after the violence occurred, many of the students admitted that they didnt know what drove them to this act of bloodshed.
In cases, like several others, the kids try to say that they were insane at the time. The way the this trend is going, it seems that the children that are responsible for these terrible acts, are the ones who arent very popular and are made fun of or teased. It is important to realize that there are some children who simply dont know how to channel their anger in a positive way. We, as a society, tell adults that they should channel anger into productive sources such as by exercise, or by doing housework. In children, they arent capable of knowing how to channel their anger. In an article by Barbara Kantrowicz, she gives advice on how to talk to different age groups about dangers, attitudes, and violence.
Young children need to be reassured. They dont realize that death is permanent, and therefore cant differentiate between real and fake violence. Elementary school children need to have the dangers of weapons explained to them and at this age, it is important to encourage them to talk about any worries they may have. It is also critical to limit their exposure to media violence. Early adolescents are beginning to become more independent, and it is important to keep dialog going with them so that parents may become aware of potential problems.
In teenagers, it is essential to not decide that attitudes are just a phase. If parents keep on top of situations in their childs life, then that child will be more likely to express feelings of anger in a more positive way, rather than to act out. There is also a wide range of communities that these acts of violence occur in. These events are mostly happening in social and economic communities. In the past few years, Americans had been approached with the question of whether the schools in their communities are safe from violence. The most tragic of recent school shootings didnt occur in large cities such as New York or Los Angeles.
It happened on April 20, 1999 in Littleton, Colorado, a small rural community that unfortunately became known around the world in such a tragic way. Parents have become increasingly aware of what is going on in public school systems and this is partially the reason that home schooling is on the rise. Home schooling may not be the best answer for parents because the child may not always have the social development from being around their peers. It seems that parents decide to pull their children out of the situation because it appears to be the safest thing to do. In my opinion, the best thing to do would be to advocate more for safety, rather than pulling the child out of school. Because of these recent shootings, parents have become more aware that even though living in a wealthy or small town, no one is safe from violence.
Although the occurrence of where these school shootings took place doesnt matter, another important aspect of school violence includes the factors that can increase the risk of violent behavior in children. According to numerous research studies that were conducted by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, some of the factors that contribute to violent tendencies in children and adolescents include previous aggressive violent behavior, being the victim of physical abuse and / or sexual abuse, exposure to violence in the home and / or community, genetic (family heredity) reasons, exposure to violence in the media (TV, movies, etc. ), and use of drugs and / or alcohol. In the media, journalists have tried to pick apart the tragic school shooting at Columbine High school. Dylan Harris and Eric Klebold, the suspected killers, had shown several of the above mentioned factors, yet there was no action taken in order to prevent the shooting. Both of the boys have had past arrests for such things as vandalism and petty theft. They also played violent video games on the Internet, and recorded violent video scenarios off the television for school projects.
Harris was also diagnosed and on medication for numerous psychological disorders. The most shocking of all of the evidence is that both of the killers assembled their pipe bombs in Harris garage and bedroom without his parents knowledge. The surprising thing is that no one thought there was anything wrong with them. The police, parents, or teachers never took further action with the boys in order to have them evaluated before the shootings happened. It is extremely important to be aware of any violent tendencies early in a childs life. The earlier these behaviors are detected and treated, the easier it will be to rehabilitate the child.
The Internet, music, television, movies, and video games have all been labeled as causes of child violence. These things are everywhere, and it is impossible to isolate kids from every violent act or suggestion. For example, in the movie The Basketball Diaries, Leonardo DiCaprio plays a teenager who is ridiculed at school and who gets addicted heavily to heroin and cocaine. In one scene, he is passes out in the bathtub after the influence of the drugs and has a dream.
In the dream, he is dressed in a long, black trench coat and goes into his school and opens fire on all his classmates that have ridiculed him. He also targets the teacher that gave him a hard time. When young children see this film, they probably cannot distinguish between what is real and what is fiction. Many kids think that violence such as this is cool, and such behavior is acceptable. It is important to note that in the Columbine shooting, the boys were wearing...
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Research essay sample on Columbine High School Exposure To Violence
