On April 20, 1999 a massacre took place at Columbine High School in Jefferson County Colorado. The two teen shooters Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 13 people and wounded over 20 others. After, the two perpetrators turned the guns on themselves ending their own lives. At the time this was the worst high school shooting in US history. This event induced a governmental on school safety and gun control.
Following the shootings, a large amount of schools decreed zero tolerance policies. For those cases which regarded threatening behavior and violence on school grounds. This tragedy brought light to the importance of identifying risk factors for youth violence, as well as the need for the development and enactment of programs based on the early detection of these risk factors and prevention of school violence.
Researchers from the University of Northern Colorado have been examining the changes that schools have made since 1999 to prevent future incidents like Columbine. Surveys were sent out asking schools about mental health services and violence prevention programs before and after the event. The surveys showed the help after the shooting had increased by a large amount. A 20% increase in schools with crisis plans. 10% increase in group counseling. 9% of more schools had a crisis plan. 7% more schools offered social skills training. A larger number of schools not only increased their counseling but also school security. About 63% of schools had more advanced mechanism. 40% instilled stricter discipline. 17% started doing locker searches. 13% increased mental health providers.
Though this will make a big difference it’s not enough. Regardless of these changes many mental health professionals needed to be available in schools. Mainly to put together conflict resolution programs with students and parents. Sadly lack of funds were a major issue and the availability of people to help out. Thankfully many changes have been made in public high schools all over the US since the tragedy. Less is known about individual high schools across the states but as a whole safety has increased. Furthermore preventing youth violence is not only a responsibility of the school but also parents and students.
A large number of risk factors for the violence has been identified as history of aggression, history or mental illness, substance use, abusive childhood, bullying, depression, bad parenting, and violence in the media. Many places have been exposed to risk factors and early warning signs from the APA which expands on reasoning for the violence.
Not only have schools changed their ways of responding to situations like these but law enforcement as well. “Before the Columbine schooling no one knew what the term active shooter mean” (James Gagliano FBI) “Within 13 minutes of the first 911 call, Klebold and Harris fatally shot 12 students and a teacher and wounded 23 other people before killing themselves with gunshot wounds to the head. SWAT teams entered the school 47 minutes after the gunfire erupted. An exhaustive FBI review of the police response at Columbine led to more rapid response strategy during active shooter situations.” After this the responding officers learned they would have to set up a secure perimeter around the crime scene before moving on the suspect. “The tactic, known in law enforcement circles as rapid deployment involving the first officer at the scene, began in earnest after the Columbine shooting.” (CNN)
A fine training program has helped the enforcements lower the threat. “The lessons learned from Columbine led the US Justice Department and other federal agencies to partially fund an active shooter program known as Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training, or ALERRT, Schweit wrote.
The training, which was developed by the San Marcos, Texas, Police Department and the Hays County, Texas, Sheriff’s Department and adopted by Texas State University in San Marcos, includes a 16-hour course that “prepares first responders to isolate, distract and end the threat when an active shooter is engaged,” ( Schweit)
“Another key lesson of Columbine: We need to prepare students and teachers better for an emergency. The Columbine shooters caught their high school unprepared. We’re less naïve now. Most kids and their teachers are now drilled on lockdowns and evacuations. Police departments have up-to-date floor plans and alarm codes.”
“No one can say for sure why Klebold and Harris committed such a horrific crime. Many people have come up with theories including being picked on in school, violent video games , violent movies, music, racism , Goth, problematic parents, depression, and more.
It is hard to pinpoint one trigger that started these two boys on a murderous rampage. They worked hard to fool all those around them for over a year. Surprisingly, about a month before the event, the Klebold family took a four-day road trip to the University of Arizona, where Dylan had been accepted for the following year. During the trip, the Klebold’s didn’t notice anything strange or unusual about Dylan. Counselors and others also didn’t notice anything unusual.
Looking back, there were telltale hints and clues that something was seriously wrong. Videotapes, journals, guns, and bombs in their rooms would have been easily found if the parents had looked. Harris had made a website with hateful epithets that could have been followed up on.
The Columbine Massacre changed the way society looked at children and at schools. Violence was no longer just an after-school, inner-city occurrence. It could happen anywhere”.
Even though this tragic event struck the community in such an extensive way there is still no end to these tragedies. There have been more than a dozen more shootings and we still haven’t learned our lesson till this day we still have no gun control and no sense of urgency toward this matter examples such as
- 2007 Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, Va. — 33 deaths
- 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Conn. — 27 deaths
- 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland, Fla. — 17 deaths
- 2015 Umpqua Community College, Roseburg, Ore. — 10 deaths
- 2018 Santa Fe High School, Santa Fe, Tex. — 10 deaths
- 2005 Red Lake Senior High School, Red Lake, Minn. — 7 deaths
- 2012 Oikos University, Oakland, Calif. — 7 deaths
- 2006 West Nickel Mines School, Bart Township, Penn. — 6 deaths
- 2008 Northern Illinois University, Dekalb, Ill. — 6 deaths
- 2014 Marysville Pilchuck High School, Marysville, Wa. — 5 deaths
After columbine you would imagine that things couldn’t get worse. In the 19 years since Columbine rocked America to its core, the country has seen so many more mass shootings that the attack isn’t even among the 10 deadliest mass shootings in modern US history.
“Three of the five deadliest shootings have occurred in just the last year and a half. Let alone school shootings the lack of gun control has brought upon us”
- The Harvest Music Festival: 58 killed
- Pulse nightclub: 49 killed
- First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs: 26 killed
- Luby’s Cafeteria: 23 killed
This list can go on and on. This is where I have issue with both the NRA and our Federal, State and Local Governments. The NRA has made too many concessions and given away too many freedoms in order to effect a compromise. They continue to do this. I feel there needs to be a Criminal Background Check, and a Medical History Background Check to confirm whether someone that is a danger to society or mentally ill or unstable are not able to purchase firearms. Meaning they have not been diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia, or any other mental illness that requires drugs to maintain their “normal”. The problem seen in the states is first and foremost the culture around guns and gun ownership. What could be of some use to start to change that is tighter gun restrictions on who can own a gun and who can buy ammo etc. Some say that it’s easy to get a gun illegally which is true BUT most mass shootings seem to happen when a unstable person has easy access to guns. That is the major problem. I am not in support of banning guns necessarily but there is something to be said for countries that have. The statistics show where there are tighter restrictions on guns such as Canada and the UK there are less shootings and gun crimes in general. So my conclusion in not to ban all guns, or to make harsher punishments for people that commit gun crimes in order to deter future criminals; My point is mainly to say the government and other agencies need to help change the culture around guns and make it harder for people to get guns, especially automatic rifles and pistols. If everyone has guns there will be more gun violence not the other way. The logic behind the saying “the only thing that will stop a bad man with a gun is a good man with a gun” is simply not correct. This could be argued all day but I want to end on that note. The culture needs to change. Change has to be made in order to make progress we have to do better with who we let bear these weapons.
2019-2-26-1551198753