The Columbine High School Massacre and the Impact It Had - Research Paper Example

The Columbine Shooting and the impact it had Introduction On April 20, 1999, in the small, suburban town of Littleton, Colorado, two high-school seniors, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, enacted an all-out assault on Columbine High School during the middle of the school day. The boys' plan was to kill hundreds of their peers. With guns, knives, and a multitude of bombs, the two boys walked the hallways and killed. When the day was done, twelve students, one teacher, and the two murderers were dead1 The Columbine High School massacre happened on, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, United States. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, two senior students of the school, committed a massacre, killing 12 students, one teacher and injured more than 21 other students. The culprits tried to escape from the site; however they committed suicide after realizing that they have no option left for escape. This school massacre is one of the worst unfortunate incidents happened in the American school’s history. The Columbine High School massacre again provoked many discussions in America with respect to the effectiveness of gun control laws and the availability of firearms in America. Moreover, discussions about drug addiction, alcohol addiction, nature of high school cliques, subcultures, bullying, influence of violent movies and video games upon the youths etc were also increased. The necessity of security and moral education in schools are other aspects revealed by the above incident. This paper briefly analyses the impacts of Columbine High School massacre on American society. 2 Impacts of Columbine massacre “None of the earlier school shooting had been televised; the Columbine situation played out slowly with the cameras rolling”2. Fortunately or unfortunately the Columbine massacre was televised live by the television channels in America. How the live telecast of a shooting incident in schools may affect the America society, is a highly debated question. The ethics and business interests in televising violent incidents are other factors needed to be considered. Some people may take inspiration from these violent incidents and may try to imitate such things in order to become heroes. Heroism and thirst for recognition and acceptance are huge among the adolescent generation and hence in order to achieve all these things, the current teenagers are ready go up to any extent. Controlling of guns seems to be difficult in American society. But the necessity of controlling gun in school compounds was revealed by the Columbine massacre. Everybody knows that possession of guns will encourage teenagers to engage in heroic activities. Television and internet provide them many inspirational violent movies and documentaries. Though nobody questions the usage of gun for self defence in public life, the use of guns in schools is highly questionable considering the importance of education in a student’s life. Teenagers may not have much knowledge about the safe usages of weapons and hence it should be prohibited to them. American society has realised the importance of gun control in schools from the Columbine incident. The school teachers must have given the authority to check the students and their baggage for guns, obscene materials, drugs etc. Strong actions must be taken against the offenders. Trudy Karlson, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says an electronic lock in the grip, being tested by a couple of firearms makers, would allow a gun to be fired only by a person wearing a special decoder ring, and not by thieves or unauthorized children. Simple trigger locks, and locking up guns to deny access to children could also be effective3 Emotions during adolescence are intense and uncontrollable. At one moment an adolescent may shows full of hopes, ambitions and joy whereas on the next instant he/she might feels dejected and moody. In other words, adolescence is a period in which rapid fluctuations of emotions occur. The unpredictability of behaviours or moods of the adolescents is creating problems in American schools. The educational system in America is catering only the academic needs of the students. The Columbine massacre revealed the importance of teaching subjects, encouraging self realization process in American schools. The teenagers should realize that what developments are happening to their body and mind during the adolescent period and they should be given training to overcome the temptations of adolescent life. When a person goes through adolescence, his pituitary gland, in brain becomes active. This gland sends messages to different parts of his body which may result in changes in some particular hormone levels in his body. These hormones may have strong association with the moods he generated and hence his/her moods are often related to the activities of the pituitary gland. Some adolescents may develop proud about their physical appearance whereas some others may not be happy about their physical appearance during this period. The former may exhibit more confidence and self esteem while dealing with others whereas the latter may try to avoid the company of others because of his inferiority feeling. The Columbine massacre revealed the ineffectiveness of American educational system and the changing moods of the American teenagers. The modern world has failed to give proper care to young generations at home and schools. Most of the parents have heavy workloads both at home and work places and hence they were getting little time for caring their children. Even from the infancy stages when the kids needed the mother’s love and care mostly, they are brought up under the control of Nannies. Compared to older generation, the modern parents are more self focused or selfish. They are not ready to sacrifice anything for the help of their children. Thus the parent-children relationships have been damaged severely in the modern century. Children who have been severely and repeatedly abused often become extremely aggressive. They're frustrated, angry, in some pain, not getting everything they want. They feel like victims. They have no concern about others -- they don't think about others. It's all about who they are and what they want4 The American social life became too professional nowadays. Nobody wants to care about others. An adolescent brought up in such selfish societies may think about his needs only rather than the needs of the society. In other words, morality and ethical principles have little or no meaning at all in the current social life. The above school violence forced the Americans to rethink about their life philosophies. In schools, often small gangs are formed with children of similar taste and attitudes. These gang formations often result in conflicts with other gangs. In order to establish superiority of one gang over other, such gangs are often engaged in violence and even guns are used in such violence nowadays. The teachers should be given more authority in checking the school bags of the children for guns and other weapons, considering the fact that how easily the culprits entered the Columbine school with such deadly weapons. The teachers must make a list of suspected children or members of gangs and such suspected school children must be checked for weapons before entering the school campus. For that purpose, enough security personnel must be appointed at schools. “The US bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms played significant direct role in the Columbine investigation”5. They have concluded that the above incident caused purely because of the excessive negative influences of internet, violent television programs and videogames, drug and alcohol addiction, changing life styles etc. Conclusions Morality and ethical principles needed to be taught in American schools rather than the academic topics such as science, social studies, mathematics etc. The teenagers should have the proper knowledge about the developments happening to them at the time of adolescence and they should be given proper training to overcome the negative feelings. In order to avoid the future mishaps in schools, the parents, teachers, and the governments should act properly. Since the young generation decided the future of a nation, moulding them in the right direction is the responsibility and duty of the parents, teachers, and the political leaders. Bibliography 1. Cullen, Dave. Columbine. Publisher: Twelve (March 3, 2010) 2. Kass, Jeff. Columbine: A True Crime Story, a victim, the killers and the nation's search for answers. Publisher: Ghost Road Press; First edition (March 25, 2009) 3. Rosenberg, Jennifer, Columbine Massacre, accessed on 30 November 2010 from http://history1900s.about.com/od/famouscrimesscandals/a/columbine.htm 4. Safer gun technology, 2009. accessed on 30 November 2010 from http://whyfiles.org/065school_violence/4.html 5. What causes school killings? accessed on 30 November 2010 from http://whyfiles.org/065school_violence/2.html Read More