School Violence

 (Grant announcement: FY2021 preventing school violence: BJA's stop school violence program)

In today's society, a common fear people have is school violence. Personally, I find it really sad and disheartening that this has become a common reality for a lot of people. After reading some articles and watching the documentary Bowling for Columbine, I found a lot of information to be surprising and not so surprising at all.

School violence is “violence that occurs in the school setting. It describes violent acts that disrupt learning and have a negative effect on students, schools, and the broader community” (Preventing school violence, 2019). A type of school violence is the use of weapons. Unfortunately, we hear pretty often on the news about school shootings and how there was another one. Donna St. George said “there were 93 incidents with casualties at public and private schools in 2020-21, compared to 23 in the 2000-01 school year” (St. George, 2022). Looking back at old records shows that something needs to be done about the increasing rates of school shootings. This is not surprising to me because I feel like I am always hearing about more school violence on the news or on social media. The other night on the news I heard about this girl in high school that wanted to make sure a Stop The Bleed kit was available in every classroom at her school. These kits contain first aid products that can save someone's life before first responders arrive. “She wanted to spread awareness, teach her peers to become trained and equipped to help someone before first responders come” (News 12 Staff, 2023). I think this is so important because there can be an active school shooting and someone is hurt and no one can do anything because they don’t have the right materials in the classroom. Having the students be trained in a situation like this is nothing but beneficial. 

In the documentary Bowling for Columbine by Michael Moore, it discusses the horrific event that happened in 1999 at Columbine High School. Something I found really shocking was a promotion going on at the bank. The promotion was if you opened up a certain account with them, you got a gun. However, there was a background check that had to be done through the bank. When I first heard that there was a background check involved, I thought it was a good idea because then it means not everyone can get the gun. Unfortunately, it was quite easy to pass that background check. For example, as Michael Moore was filling out the form, he was presented with a question that asked (in simple terms) if he had been involved in a crime or had been committed to a mental institution. To which he then said “If I'm normally mentally defective but not criminal” (Moore, 2002) and the lady in the bank said yes and Michael got the gun. This is shocking to me because I think there should be a doctor's note required first stating you have no mental problems. Allowing anyone to be able to get a gun is dangerous especially if there are mental problems involved. 

School violence relates to our topic last week on gender diversity. They relate because some genders fear more risk at their school than others. For example, “64% of girls say they are very or somewhat worried about a shooting happening at their school, compared with 51% of boys” (Graf, 2018). This percentage doesn't really surprise me either because there could be a number of reasons as to why girls fear more than boys. It could be because in general girls tend to worry about things more than boys do. I also feel that in general girls have more of a target on their backs than boys and that can also be why they worry more. 

Overall, I guess I was really surprised by most of the information I learned this week because I luckily never feared going to school. I am grateful that I went to school in a safe district. However, even though I was in a “safe” district, I know that school violence can still happen. After hearing about the increase in school shootings while I was in high school, I would be worried about going to school the next day but for the most part I felt safe and secure knowing we had security guards who would walk around the building.

References

Graf, N. (2018, April). A majority of U.S. teens fear a shooting could happen at their school, and most parents share their concern. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/04/18/a-majority-of-u-s-teens-fear-a-shooting-could-happen-at-their-school-and-most-parents-share-their-concern/

Grant announcement: FY2021 preventing school violence: BJA's stop school violence program. California Consulting INC. (n.d.). https://www.californiaconsulting.org/grant-announcement-fy2021-preventing-school-violence-bjas-stop-school-violence-program/ 

Moore, M. (Producer & Director) (2002). Bowling for Columbine [Film]. United States: Dog Eat Dog Productions/ YouTube https://watchdocumentaries.com/bowling-for-columbine/ 

Links to an external site.

News 12 Staff. (2023, February 9). Preparing for the worst: Student raises $3,000 to get stop the bleed kits at John F. Kennedy High School. News 12 - Long Island. https://longisland.news12.com/preparing-for-the-worst-student-raises-3000-to-get-stop-the-bleed-kits-at-john-f-kennedy-high-school 

Preventing school violence. (2019). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/youthviolence/schoolviolence/fastfact.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fviolenceprevention%2Fyouthviolence%2Fschoolviolence%2Findex.html