Columbine: The Failure of Jefferson County Authorities - Essay Example

of the English of the Teacher 17 February Columbine – The Failure of Jefferson County ities School violence is an issuethat tends to accrue an intense and emotive response from all the sections of the society. The question facing the contemporary society is not whether school violence could be totally obliterated, but rather could the concerned agencies do anything to dilute the incidence and scale of school violence and whether the society does have the proper mechanisms in place to effectively deal with the instances of school violence. The Columbine massacre is a tragedy that will be remembered and talked about for a long time. There is no denying the fact that people across the nation are aware of this one of its kind and pragmatically unprecedented instance of school violence. Yet, it is also a reality that Columbine massacre happened to be a blood bath that left more questions unanswered as compared to the conclusions it facilitated. People in general and the families who lost their loved ones to this massacre in particular are still confused as to who is to be actually blamed for this debacle. After all, people send their children to schools, to learn, to socialize and to make friends and not to be shot dead or maimed forever. Could the two students who perpetrated this violence that are Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold have been checked in advance? Could the law and order authorities have dealt with this challenge in a better manner? The fact is that Columbine school massacre was to a great extent to be blamed on the utter failure of the Jefferson County authorities, who not only lacked a proper screening mechanism for identifying the high risk young people poised to engage in acts of gruesome violence, but were also deficient in putting in place a proper response mechanism aimed at dealing with such acts of mass violence at schools. When it comes to settling the assertions that the authorities simply ignored the initial threats made by Eric, the standard rebuttal is that it is quiet impossible to authentically identify as to which kid professing violent intentions will actually engage in school violence. Yes, this indeed stands to be truer in case of a student like Eric Harris who came out as a likeable and friendly young person. Still, it is also a conclusion corroborated by commonsensical observation and the dictates of pragmatism that a person or a young man desirous of or inclined to engage in acts of violence does start evincing certain views, behavior patterns and skewed acts of social engagement which if detected could go a long way in checking mayhems like the Columbine. Had the Jefferson County authorities been more proactive in investigating these early hints dropped by Eric, this would have certainly helped them avoid this tragic failure to nip this act of violence well in time. Especially the failure of the Jefferson County authorities to respond in time to the personal website started by Eric that was replete with comments exposing dire intentions like “I have a goal to destroy as much as possible… so I must not be sidetracked by feelings of sympathy, mercy, or any of that (Cullen 46).” The Jefferson County authorities may have preferred to brush this aside as the ranting of a disgruntled youth. Still the fact is that had the authorities managed to peep into the psychopathic intentions implicit in these professions, this could have indeed averted a big disaster. The website blatantly expressed a desire to come down on the society and to kill those individuals that annoyed Eric. One wonders as to how the Jefferson County authorities simply choose to ignore these explicit threats being made by a young person. They nowhere come out as the innocent letting go off the steam by a regular school kid. If the Jefferson County authorities had responded to these antisocial internet overtures of Eric in time and had not chosen to ignore it as some other regular input, the Columbine school massacre could have been averted by all means. As per the Jefferson County authorities, they were forthcoming and prompt in responding to this contingency. The reality is that law and order authorities not only failed to respond in a suitable and professional manner to this crime, but actually lacked a viable plan of action for dealing with violence of this nature. The response of the Jefferson County law and order setup could readily be considered to be unprofessional and unplanned to a large extent. The varied agencies rushed to the scene of violence simply lacked the strategy to deal with the perpetrators and most of them responded to the challenge before them in an utterly uncoordinated and un-synergistic from and manner. As per the concerned authorities the spring into action within minutes of receiving the first intimation. Yet, actually speaking not only the response to a plethora of 911 calls emanating from and around the scene of crime was lackadaisical and unprofessional, the officers dispatched to the scene of crime remained hesitant and indecisive for quite some time, the time which if used accurately could perhaps have saved many lives. Though the law and order officials on the spot traded gunfire with the two perpetrators, they failed to response in a decisive and proactive manner, all the time waiting for the emergence of the dispatched SWAT team, instead of entering the premises and directly and instantly engaging the two boys. Irrespective of the claims being made by the authorities, there is no denying the fact that the response of the law and order officials on the spot was slow, uncoordinated and not marked by apt leadership that allowed the perpetrators to engage in violence for quite a long time, commensurately augmenting the number of causalities. The prompt and apt action initiated by the response team as claimed by the authorities gets evident by the fact that, “One room at a time, the team worked methodically towards the killers. It would take three hours to reach their bodies (Cullen 61).” The Jefferson County authorities say that they were not prepared for a mayhem marked by such confusion and chaos. Yes, the things at the scene of crime were indeed confusing, but the law and order mechanism could have certainly evinced more initiative The irony is that instead of embracing the responsibility for the entire good and bad things attendant on the authorities’ response towards this act of gruesome school violence, the Jefferson County authorities evinced a more evasive and hesitant approach towards the overall outcome of this violence. Instead the authorities choose to unremittingly harp on the effectiveness of the way they managed the situation, while the truth is that the response and coordination ensuing from the police, medical and fire authorities were largely confusing, uncoordinated and slow. The Jefferson County authorities were shooting arrows in the dark as “the SWAT team searched the building for over three hours, but the killers were lying dead the entire time (Cullen 83).” The toll taken by Columbine violence in terms of the precious human lives it claimed is indeed heart breaking, but more important than mulling over this loss is the prerogative to learn pragmatic lessons from this unforgettable tragedy. The Jefferson County authorities evinced many discrepancies while tackling this act of school violence, a failure that translated into the loss of many human lives. Right from ignoring the reports of the violent intentions being exhibited by the perpetrators to the very act of responding to the actual crime, the authorities remained irresponsible and negligent. It is high time that the law and order framework in the nation learns from this massacre and puts in place the apt response mechanisms and strategies. Works Cited Cullen, Dave. Columbine. New York: Twelve, 2010. Print. Read More