Essay: School Violence

Sample Essay

Words 1,523

Recently, the issue of violence in school has been getting a lot of attention from the media. The first big incident related to school violence committed by the generation Y’s is Columbine where two students went around on a shooting rampage killing about 13 students and a teacher. The incident kindled a huge debate over the use of guns in America and became the inspiration for director Michael Moore documentary Bowling for Columbine. According to psychologist Arnold Lazarus violence occurs due to several reasons once of which is behavior. This aspect of his theory discusses the fact that certain kinds of behavior receive attention. “Extraordinary misbehavior, for example, often elicits significant attention from peers, from teachers and school administrators, and –in especially noteworthy cases- from the media.” (Gerler and Gerler, 2004)On the other side of the coin, accomplishments in academia are sometimes not given as much importance. In other words, although school accomplishments get attention they are usually less visible and less likely to create a huge attention grabbing uproar like violence will. (Gerler and Gerler, 2004)

Although Columbine is an example of one of the most attention grabbing violence in school because of its size there were many incidents in the nineties long before Columbine happened. In the book Violence in American Schools: A New Perspective highlights a few examples of school violence from the nineties. In 1996 a 14 year old honor student from Washington killed two classmates and a teacher with a gun. In 1998, two students in Arkansas opened fire after setting off a fire alarm and killed 4 students. (Elbert, Hamburg, and Williams, 1998, pg, 4) When an inspection is made into the recent violence in schools and colleges we are reminded of Virginia Tech. The current rate of violence in schools in the United is quite unsatisfactory. Although incidents like Columbine and Virginia Tech happen rarely other forms of violence such as bullying, rape, physical and verbal abuse are present in mostly all schools over the nation. The current scenario of violence in schools is far from what any parent would want their child to be a part of and a solution is necessary.

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