A message to American about school shootings
Parents usually send their kids to school for a safe environment to receive their education .Whether it be their children attend high school college or even elementary school, the question still remains, is it really a safe place to learn?
School shootings have been and always will be a parent’s worst nightmare. You may not know but this type of violence can happen anywhere, or the shooter can strike at any time, for example what happened recently at Virginia Tech or Northern Illinois University. On April 16, 2007 Virginia Tech University, located in Blacksburg, Virginia, seemed like the regular college day, when suddenly the attacker Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and wounded many more before shooting himself. This was said to be the "most deadly school shooting in U.S history". Although this seems like a violent thing to look upon, it is a important and critical event that took place in U.S today. Another act of this violent event is one of the more recent attacks in Northern Illinois University or NIU. On February 14, 2008 a college lecture was turned deadly when 27 year old, Steven Kazmierczak entered the large auditorium- style lecture hall and opened fire, which killed six people and wounded a total of 18 . Although I have talked about two incidents within universities, doesn’t mean that it can't happen in your Childs elementary or high school. For example, one of the not so recent events; the Columbine High School massacre, on April 20,1999, which left 12 students dead, including a teacher and wounding 23 others. School shootings have been a best seller for Hollywood too. For instance, Elephant, which was released in October 2003, was about an ordinary school day, turned deadly by two high school student outkast, who decided to get revenge and open fire in the halls of their high school. Elephant depicts what causes and effects school shootings have that hunt the school system today. Since we know where, and when, the question still remains why? Why did these high school, college and even elementary school students kill or injure their classmates? What pushed them over the edge? Not knowing this mentally batters their victims, as well as others with that question. It is said that nearly all school shootings are carried out by young males who not just "snap" or in other words, have a psychotic break, but they plan, meaning that these kids that have committed this act of violence think long and hard about how to make the massacre fail-proof. It is clear to researchers that kids who have committed this crime also are driven by "alienation or persecution”; being social outkasts. But how do parents prevent this from happening in their child’s school? Is there even a way to do so? School shooting have also had an effect on political issues too, politicians believe that if it was more difficult to get a gun for people today, then school shootings and violence amongst teens wouldn’t happen so frequently around the word, but the national rifle association and many other Americans vote against this law. So will your child be safe from other teens with this psychotic behavior? How do we, as Americans, prevent this teen on teen violence from occurring once again? Everyone in American and around the world is looking forward to answering this question.