The news this week has been terrible, which if you sift through all the political posturing and war positioning, also featured 3 horrific school shootings making the headlines. Whether it's adults going into schools and killing children or children themselves turning on each other and their teachers, these events are symptoms of a real sickness in our society.
I can't imagine the perspective of current school kids. Columbine happened when I was already in college. I grew up before the era of bag checks and metal detectors in the local high school. And I only graduated 13 years ago.
What has changed in those 13 years? What made school shootings go from being something totally unimaginable to a terrifyingly frequent occurrence? Has there really been any shift in American culture that has made school shootings become more common? That has made them seem like a viable option for the handful of crazies out there that want to do something drastic? I don't have an answer, but in my conversations today a few potential answers kept coming up:
1. Guns. I don't actually know if or how the gun laws have changed over the last decade or two - my Mom was talking about repeals of the assault weapons ban and changes in required waiting periods, but I don't actually know the facts to cite them. I just do have a general perception that guns are really easy to get in our society, whether you're a psychopath who can go buy one yourself at Walmart or whether you're a teenage kid left alone at Grandpa's house where he happens to have an arsenal in the shed.
2. Desensitization to Violence. I don't know if I buy this argument that we've been hearing for years - that movies and music and video games are getting so violent that people are no longer shocked by violence, or now see violence as an avenue for problem solving. Not exactly the conflict resolution models I learned in college. My problem with this argument as a whole is that not everyone who plays Mortal Kombat grows up to kill people... just like not everyone who's molested by a clergyman becomes a Congressional pedophile. There's a difference between an explanation and an excuse. And I think there are going to be a few bad apples who will do bad things regardless of the influences they have.
3. Glorification in the Media. If a few of those crazies are looking for attention, well, what have previous school shootings taught them? In our 24-hour news cycle, they become icons. Didn't those two Columbine kids end up having almost a "fan club" that started dressing and talking like them? Death and/or incarceration may be deterrants to most of us, far outweighing any fame or notoriety that cable news gives to people who do bad things. But for a few whacked-out people that are looking to make a statement or just want to be noticed, for these killers, this era of all-media, all-the-time, could look pretty attractive.
What do you think? Any social workers or teachers or psychologists out there with any theories? Have you read any studies as to what causes school shootings? Because I just can not figure them out, and still can't even imagine how it's possible that they happen.
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14 comments:
i blame poor parenting.
and the fact that we don't execute child molestors.
I blame parents as well. But on a broader level, I blame society for teaching hate and discrimination.
1. "Boys Will Be Boys"
2. A society that thinks social pressure and survival of the fittest are more important concepts than tolerance and appreciation of the humanity of others.
3. The consistent failure of parents, families, teachers, and peers to create people with healthy self-esteem and supportive connections to others.
4. Gun crazy leadership that uses weapons to solve problems and to create worse ones.
Thanks, guys, these are all good comments.
I understand that poor parenting could be to blame in individual cases. But I worry about that as a blanket argument for society in general - ie "parenting is worse now than it was 50 years ago" - cuz to me that always sounds like an indictment of the feminist movement and women choosing to work outside the home. Well, in this post-feminist age, it's not a choice anymore. Most women HAVE to work outside the home, and conservatives shouldn't blame that for a downward turn in morals or family values or all that b.s.
I'd love to know what my social worker friend thinks.... Anonmymous, you out there? :-)
is it better to patently praise feminism or to discuss real life issues of poorly raised kids?
I'm certainly not gonna say that parneting was better 50 years ago, but i will say that we've got some damn shoodily raised kids nowadays.
i dont think the fix is to negate feminism, but certainly the discussion merits a bit of questioning our modern assumptions.
I'm not saying it's better or worse to patently praise feminism - I'm saying it's not even relevant anymore to condemn feminism because the need for women to work and to be more independent is no longer a choice. It's not some luxury to want to work to feel more fulfilled - it's an economic necessity. So pointing fingers at feminism as a reason for bad parenting doesn't fly, because there's not going to be an alternative. It's not changing back, at least not as long as the American cost of living requires women to have their own income.
And there's been bad parenting for as long as there's been parents and children -- so what has changed in the last decade or so to make things so much more violent?
A couple thoughts - I agree with DC food blog, but have a few more thoughts -
"Feminism" can't be blamed for poor parenting. First of all, I was raised by a professor and a social workers who both had to work full time to afford to live in the DC area - no choices there - and I turned out a well-adjusted non-violent adult - even having gone to the vilified day care. But more than that, "feminism" calls for parental leave, affordable day care, and many other policy provisions that leave a family more options for caring for their children. Our current political climate doesn't allow for these things.
Second - violence is accepted as a way of solving problems - both by the media, the games kids play and, again, our foreign policy. Violence is affecting all of our lives on a personal as well as macro level. There has always been violence, but the violence now with weapons has much more lasting effects. In the 50's kids still got beaten up, and then maybe a knife was drawn, but now the availability and acceptability of guns leads to kids dying.
I can't say that it's not bad parenting - I think that's a huge reason, but I think it's a lot more than that as well.
OK, my thoughts.
AS - the social worker
AS - I knew you would have good comments! Thanks!
Both anonymous and dcfood blog have addressed issues that seem to create this new world.
As a mother of two boys, I realized that the toys being advertized for them were mainly tools of death, destruction and chaos. It took a concerted effort to find gifts and toys that taught creativity, communication and problem solving as well as appropriate competition.
Left alone to watch tv and play life-like video games, they would have learned that problems were solved with violence. Of course, a movie doesn't show what happens to the family members of the murdered victims.
We must stop seeing violence as entertainment.
I know, I live in a cocoon.
Actually I live in WI where a legislature recommended that all teachers have guns.
That's the morality and leadership that has us doomed to repeat our mistakes.
I'm glad you asked!
Prdmry: Thanks for your great comment. The story about the WI schoolteacher proposal floors me. I heard a great piece about it on the news earlier this week with so many teachers and principals speaking vehemently against it. It's policy as game theory - just keep upping the ante and arming everyone. That should solve everything! Terrifying.
Sigh... I think it depends on the individual. Most of us can handle all of this. If it were just the media, or gun control, it would be more common. I'm 36, but played my share of violent video games, a short run at Paintball.. this was all before they became mainstream and popular(early/mid 90's)... but the point is, I don't own a gun, in in reality abhor violence.. but apparently In a fantasy realm where noone was hurt... I was OK with it. The problem comes people who can't separate fantasy from reality. I think if the problem was with entertainment in genreal, this would be more common than it is.
I was going to write about parents not being "parents" and people pointing fingers to everyone but themselves... but these recent shootings were ADULTS that come into the school... NOT children.
These shooting weren't any type random act, they were planned. In the case of two of the three, it involved the females.
While I do believe that the media has a lack of responsibility, I don't approve of sensorship. But the industry IS willing to sell out everything for the all mighty dollar. I will say that there are things I see on TV that I didn't see used to see in R Rated movies. This refelects on our society at a whole... corruption and greed can trickle down.
I question the first premise: has there indeed been more school shootings since we were kids? i'm not sure there has been. Are we only taking into account shootings at predominantly middle-class or rural schools? because my recollection is that DC school have had their share of shootings for a long time now....
Tara: You raise a really good point. I guess my premise is based on the idea of school shootings as a national phenomenon - the ones that become a national news story rather than local. I hadn't ever heard of "school shootings" until Columbine, but you're right, there had been incidents of school violence before then. They just weren't getting covered.
I'm willing to risk saying that there could be a racial/class element to this, if it's just been in the past 10 years or so that white, suburban, middle-class kids are involved, and that's what the media has been covering since Columbine. Which of course then points to other lingering social ills in our country - the neglect or ignorance of real social problems until they hit the heartland. Thanks for your good comment.
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