Jasmine Chung: School Shootings

School Shooting: Who is responsible?

When tragedy strikes, it is natural to look for someone to blame; however, when it comes to serious issues such as school shootings, the task can be very difficult. When a child commits a violent act in school, the finger of blame can be pointed in many directions. Many of the victims’ families wonder where the primary responsibility lies, including teachers, administrators, school board officials, or the government. Recently, there has been a surge in school crimes around the world; therefore, it is important to find the methods of preventing such violence within the school environment. In her article “Who is Responsible for School Safety”, Julie Thomerson discusses the different parties that can easily be blamed for school shootings including school board officials, teachers and the government. The two articles below criticizes people who are working within the school environment or in the media related company; however, the primary responsibility lies on parents due to their lack of communication with their children. Parents should be aware of the importance of communication with their children, what they can say to prevent school violence, and what they can do to build a safer school environment for their children. It is high time parents stopped blaming the school violence on such external factors as the teachers, media, or the government and established optimum communication with their children to prevent school violence.

Julie Thomerson reports on a variety of people including two main parties who can easily be targeted for the responsibility of school shootings and safety. She states that some victims claim that school officials should have noticed the child’s potential for violence or that school safety policies were inadequate. In addition, many of the families of shooting victims filed a lawsuit against the school board, claiming that it was their responsibility to take steps to prevent the tragedy. Also, she refers to those who believe that the responsibility lies on teachers who are “our first line of defense” and school staff due to their failure to pay attention to the student’s behavior and their help when necessary. Lastly, as Julie Thomerson states, people believe that without better guidelines and protections, teachers are not “fully equipped to handle every situation.” Parents are demanding for better school policies, and arguing that it was their fault for not being able to identify children’s potential violence; however, teachers often feel as if they were restricted by the federal requirements. In addition, she said, “Teachers need training to recognize those who need help and to know how to respond.” Julie stated that students who posses pocket knives, drugs or other gun related items were just expelled and nothing more. Therefore, she believes that state legislatures are also responsible for this issue because they do not put demands for greater gun control measures such as stricter licensing and restricted sales.

In the second article “Parents blame Kentucky school shooting on Hollywood, video game makers”, Gene Policinski explains how the parents of three students killed during a school shooting at a Kentucky high school filed a lawsuit on the entertainment industry, arguing that media violence inspired the boy who caused the school shooting. The lawsuit claims that the shooter Michael Carneal, was influenced by the violence on video games as well as the internet. The suit also charges that Carneal was keen logging onto internet sites where he was exposed to sexually violent material freely. Sabrina Steger, the mother of the victims stated, “We believe the Heath shooter was influenced by the movies he watched, the computer games he played and the Internet sites he visited.”

Currently, the number of school shootings are increasing across North America and many victims believe that teachers and school staff are responsible for school shootings and safety while it is the lack of communication between parents and children that is the primary cause. It is true that teachers and students associate with each other for many hours at school; however, there are around thirty students per class, and one teacher cannot pay attention closely enough to notice each student’s potential for violence. Instead of relying on teachers to teach the children about school shootings, direct communication between children and parents is more effective. There are many reasons why it is important for parents to communicate with children. If parents are quiet about the situation, children will assume that they do not care about safety in the school environment. The CNN news conducted interviews with 409 teenagers between the ages of thirteen and seventeen and the results showed 79 percent of teens never talked to adults about school shootings. This result shows that if parents do not take the action to talk to their children first, they will have a total misperception. This is important in that parenting style and practices can influence children’s behaviors. Parents these days are full time employees who are too busy worrying about their financial debt. The important thing is to open up the topic and approach a conversation with children first about school-related issues. A simple question such as, “What do you think about the school shooting in ______?” may be an easy and comfortable way to start a conversation. The fact that such horrible violence does happen means that it can definitely happen to them also; therefore, the “it can’t happen here” or “it won’t happen to me” type approaches do not help children understand the significance of knowing how to avoid school shootings.

Parents, instead of realizing their responsibility, have blamed many media sources such as video games. This argument is not acceptable because children were demonstrating violent behaviors before media was even present. "It's really not about the graphics but it's really about [the gunman] acting on his impulses and having a way to express these impulses," psychiatrist Ariel Dalfen says of the typical game player. Instead of blaming the media, he urged that parents should teach their children the major differences between reality and fantasy. Many children who play video games do not realize that the graphics and the event occurring in the game is just a fantasy, and it is morally wrong to perform such acts in real life. More importantly, parents should be focusing more intensively on the materials their children are seeing online. In addition, they should take control of the media sources. For example, they need to prevent children from playing violent games, replacing them with educational games that will enhance their knowledge, creativity and imagination in positive ways.

The last few years have been the timeline of frightening acts of violence in which children have possessed handguns and rifles. This major complication has caused public to blame the government for the nation’s poor gun control policies. It is obvious that laws and regulations on gun purchases are beginning to change now by the government; however, parents must realize that it is a long process and if the government bans guns and other weapons, gun ownders will be protesting against this situation, causing a major conflict between citizens and government. The attorney General Janet Reno stated, “It is important that [parents] make sure that guns are not in the hands of young people.” Our government represent the nation, but it cannot represent each individual. Also, since the government cannot provide all the answers to complex problems, parents can help at home by talking to their children and also taking positive action. Setting good role model will benefit children’s future and help them understand that “the answers are not always in state legislatures and city counsels” (House of minority leader, Dick Gephardt of Missouri). Parents can prevent school shootings by finding out about safety plan at children’s school and talking with the principal if the safety plan seems inadequate. Most importantly, it is important for children to know that parents will always be there to help them.

The term” school shootings” keeps appearing in the news frequently, and it is a term popularized in North America to describe fun violence in the educational environment. It is natural for the victim’s families to sue media, government, teachers and school staff because they are popular sources in which children are exposed to violence. The major problem is that the primary responsibility of these situations are not on politicians, educators, police or government. It is a wake-up call to parents. A weak family relationship that lacks in communication will increase the number of school shootings across North America. School shootings can be avoided if parents set good examples for their children, letting them know that it is important to talk to adults about any concerns. Television brings concerns and horror into every home and new incidents should raise questions about the ability to stop the violence. Instead of blaming others, parents taking actions by communicating and reassuring their children can greatly benefit their future and their behaviors.