Many Forms of Violence That Happen in Schools - Essay Example

Violence School Violence There are many forms of violence that happens in schools from mass shootings to sexual assault, robbery and other forms of violence. The recent cases of student violence at both the primary and high school have involved violence using guns and which have even resulted to deaths. The CDC data indicates that since 1991, the number of violence cases in schools have been slightly reducing. What has however started to be evident is the fact that the violence of mass shootings is being conducted by students who bring the weapon to school compound. The sociological causes that have been identified as contributing to this violence are bullying, mass media, drugs and substance abuse and parental violence among others (Chen and Ron 155). Students who are bullied are the most common to find engaging in the mass shootings. They do this as a way to show that they are tired of being picked on by the other students or even teachers within the school compound. It usually starts as a harmless threat by showing the students that he can defend himself using the gun but with little ridicule by the others, the violence escalates to the shootings most of the times even without the student intending to do so. An example of such as case was in November of 2005 in Campbell County, Jacksboro, Tennessee where a 15 year old opened fire and killed a person and injuring others. The violence in this case was not directed towards the students but the teachers indicating a sour relationship of the student towards authority and disregard of teachers’ authority (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 34). The increase in the use of forearms to conduct violence in school has been attributed to the law allowing people to own firearms. These weapons are readily available and not legal in any way to carry around. With the teenagers being glued to the television or internet playing violent games and watching violent programs, this has affected their sense of interaction with people or acting around people. These teenagers act out their anger and dissatisfaction through engaging in violent acts as they see in their video games. They engage in violent acts from home to school. Family violence is another cause of violence in school by the students. Children who have grown up in homes where violence is a common phenomenon tend to use the same violence even in school. These students have grown up knowing that violence is the only way to solve problems, deal with the opposite gender especially the females and to make other submissive or to give in. These students in order to get what they want with their teachers and students result to using different forms of violence. Social exclusion is another cause of the extreme violent acts in schools. People who feel socially isolated from the peers or from the society in general tend to be the ones who go to large extends to try to prove that they can not only fit with the others but can also be their equals. The violence in this case is targeted to the peers that were socially excluding them openly. An example of such violence took place in September, 2003 in Cold Spring Minnesota at the Rocori High School. A 15 year old shot two students, one of whom died on the spot and the other died later. This was targeted shooting towards these two students and was something that had been premeditated. Drugs and substance abuse as a way to escape from the reality of the society and an individual’s life also leads to acts of violence with just minimal provocation. Such adults or students need an outlet to their frustrations and they let their drugs induced bodies dictate their actions. These are the people who have been involved in random school shootings with no particular target in mind and they end up killing and injuring many people. Some may not even be fully aware or able to comprehend their actions until the drugs are out of their system completely. In most cases, once they realize what they have done, they commit suicide as they cannot be able to get in terms with the guilt. The students learn through observation about violence according to the social learning theory. This means that whatever form of violence they see being used, they copy the same in trying to achieve the same results or even as a way to fit. Their intentions and motives may be good but their actions to fulfill their intentions are not accepted by society. Workplace Violence Cases of workplace violence have not been reported much in the media as they are covered up to protect the image of the companies or organizations where the incidences happen. The causes of violence in the workplaces are different from those in schools and performed by a different category of people as well. School violence is mostly conducted by teenagers while workplace violence is conducted by adults. The many examples of workplace violence include sexual violence, physical abuse and violence, mass shootings among others. These types of violence are directed towards fellow colleagues as well as the employers and managers or supervisors (Elias 197). The first social cause of workplace violence is rebellion towards social changes within the workplace. These changes affect the life of the individual directly and they simply cannot accept these changes. In such cases, the violence is directed towards the individual who has made the changes. The violence in this case ranges from physical assault to destruction of property and in the process may harm people and objects. When employees are terminated from their employment in what they think to be wrongful termination or without adequate warning about it, they engage in violent acts endangering the employer and the employees in the workplace. Cases have been reported in the country where people engaged in mass shootings in a former office simply because he was terminated from his work and did not wish the others to enjoy it as well. This is a sociological issue because the individual is not ready to face the society as they think of themselves as failures and know people consider them as a failure as well who could not keep his job. People who have grown up in violent social environment from parental homes to neighborhoods tend to have violent tendencies in themselves and they solve everything using violence. Such people are always trouble makers in the workplace using violence towards everybody without finding anything wrong with it as they have grown that way. When such people with anger management issues tackle difficulties in relating to their employees or get into disagreements with them, they result to violence to handle the situation. They cause vandalism and property damage to the individual’s personal property and threaten to do the same to others as well. Gender based violence is a common type of violence in the workplace. This is a social problem because it affects not only the victim of the violence but the whole of that gender in the society. Men are the common perpetrators in this type of violence and especially when they work under the leadership of a female supervisor or manager. They tend to violate the work ethics and code of conduct when interacting with the superior female worker and disobeying their authority. Insubordination as well as sexual violence is common towards the manager. There have been reported cases of the employee sexually violating the female superior through rape simply because they would not take commands or verbal lash from a female as they consider their gender inferior. Such violent individuals have grown up observing the females around him being treated the in the same demeaning way by the male and hence only mirrors the behavior they have observed and learnt from (Elias 215). Drugs and substance abuse is another cause of violence in the workplace. Employees who come to work intoxicated are very violent and especially when crossed or have been holding grudges. It is a common phenomenon in the cases of shootings in the workplace to learn that the shooter was intoxicated or high on drugs. The drugs prevent them from thinking and reasoning abstractly and simply provide the false courage to commit the violence without any guilt feelings. Most of the victims of such violence have crossed paths with the perpetrator in one way or another. Workplace violence is an ongoing social behavior that is nowhere near ending and in fact may even increase in the future. Researchers agree that even though the workplace violence may have social cause, there is always a psychological or economic fuel to the violence even if it is on a minimal extent. The perpetrators of violence is both schools and workplaces have some similarity in some of their causes of committing their violent activities as has been seen above. Some of the solutions implemented to assist with curbing the school violence can also be applied in the workplaces as well including regular mandatory counseling sessions. Work Cited Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “School-associated student homicides—United States, 1992–2006.” MMWR 2008; 57(02): 33–36. Chen, Ji-Kang and Ron Astor. “Students’ personal traits, violence exposure, family factors, school dynamics and the perpetration of violence in Taiwanese elementary schools.” Health Education Research, 2011: 26 (1): 150-166. Elias, Steven. Deviant and Criminal Behavior in the Workplace. New York: NYU Press, 2013. Read More