School Violence
School violence has been an ongoing issue throughout the history of the education system. From Little Rock Nine, the integration of African-american and white children in the schools, To Sandy Hook, Columbine, and all other acts of aggression in between. Take note of the phrase "and all other acts of aggression in between", because it is deeply disturbing that there a myriad of examples of school violence. Schools are designed to be spaces where academics, athletics, and interaction unite simultaneously to provide a safe atmosphere for growth and development. The individual student discovers themselves and finds their identity through years of schooling, yet students generally never feel this way because we live in a society with status quo's that are unattainable. The film Bowling For Columbine and the articles regarding school violence voiced the concepts that society feels the need to be able to place blame on someone, and that we need to combat the culture of fear with safe and manageable violence prevention.
Bowling For Columbine highlighted the history of violence in America and other countries, and how violence is not only projected through our armed forces away, but the armed forces in your local neighborhood or home. In one of the initial opening scenes of the film we see Michael Moore at a bank in Michigan, where they gift you a free hunting rifle for depositing a certain amount of money into an account. Although they do conduct background checks and have the recipient file a series of paperwork, Moore emphasizes the issue of giving out guns as gifts. The shooting took place in Columbine, Colorado and the film analyzes the towns actions and beliefs towards guns and Moore establishes that it is because of these values that matters such as Columbine happen. The film does not only follow the town of Columbine, but towns across the entirety of America. In these towns we see an extreme passion for guns and armed weapons; one town in the video mandated that all residents must own guns, another had a form of militia in their town that promotes self protection of their loved ones with their own weaponry. There is even a scene where a local barber shop has ammunition for sale, not a gun store or professional place, but a place where they cut your hair. Moore depicts the sense of noncholance towards the sale and purchases of guns for all. I believe this to be one of his themes, that these tendencies we have towards guns and gun control, are the reason why shootings and violence happen, but when they do we blame other external factors. For example, Moore has an interview with Marilyn Manson, who people deemed responsible for motivating the two men to shoot up the school. This is because his alternative rock music promotes violence, and sexuality, and the exact opposite of the social norms for your typical western and southern towns. Manson at one point says he cannot comprehend how people blame him, and think that his music has more power than the violent acts of aggression that come from the government. This is why Moore references bowling throughout the film so often, because the boys being on the bowling team is an innocuous piece of information, yet somehow someway it could be the reason to blame. Moore desires to have people open their eyes and take responsibility for the values and ways of life they have indoctrinated.
Another theme Bowling For Columbine and the articles share are the desire to achieve school violence prevention. In an article "A majority of U.S. teens fear a shooting could happen at their school, and most parents share their concern" they shared a statistic that "Overall, 57% of teens say they are worried about the possibility of a shooting happening at their school, with one-in-four saying they are very worried" and "Parents of teenagers express similar levels of concern as teens themselves, with 63% saying they are at least somewhat worried about the possibility of a shooting happening at their child’s school" (Graf, 2020.) One can infer from these statistics that these are high percentages and that the country needs to take more action to allow students to feel comfortable. In Bowling for Columbine the owner of Lockheed Martin, which is a defense establishment in Littleton was interviewed by Moore and he deemed this plant to have played a factor in the shooting. Evan McCollum explains that this could happen anywhere, but it happened in their town in Colorado, and that the establishment donates money to an anger management training group because he feels kids have repressed emotions which lead to shootings. This connects to the concept of trying to mentally help the youth of America, because at the end of the day the person kills someone, not the gun. The film also depicts how life was after Columbine, where we see childrens bags being checked and metal detectors. However, there were extreme cases where teachers over analyzed a violent act such as a first grader being suspended for throwing a chicken finger. People were clearly on edge and that could lead to become more authoritarian than students would feel comfortable with. However, school violence is not only in regards to gun violence, but emotional abuse as well. The article "Preventing School Violence" took a survey amongst high school students in 2019 and "About 1 in 5 high school students reported being bullied on school property in the last year" and "Almost 9% of high school students had not gone to school at least 1 day during the 30 days before the survey because they felt they would be unsafe at school or on their way to or from school" (CDC, 2021.) These mental tolls that people experience are why the article states that students feel there should be more of an emphasis of taking care of mental health. When asked about preventative measures that should be taken, "86% of teens say that preventing people with mental illnesses from purchasing guns and that improving mental health screening and treatment would be effective..." (Graf, 2020.)
There is a novel called Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult that resonates with me in regards to school violence because the novel is about a young high school student who shoots up a school. The novel explores all the various factors that went into his desires and actions; including the home, school , social life, and other external factors. It also depicts the emotional connections and feelings of those who lose loved one and experience the shooting first hand. I also was interested in how the novel depicts the shooters perspective and his parents. The student is fueled by years of bullying, and it illustrates how no one would have ever known he was going to do that. There is also a commercial which relates to the novel and topic of school shooting, and it shows the student in miscellaneous places googling things and acting certain ways that no one picks up on. The student ends up shooting the school and the commercial basically explains that we need to pay more attention to students. In regards to a song, there is one called "Teenagers" by My Chemical Romance and I chose the song because it represents the fear the film talked about in regards to children once the shooting happened. The song basically talks about how society is fearful of children and teenagers because kids are killing one another in aggressive ways. The song fit perfectly with the concept of school shootings because it describes the life of teens and how they can be treated and how they will retaliate. Another song I chose is "American Soldier" by Toby Keith because the song describes the life of a soldier and how he is trying to be a father, husband, and all these things at once while defending our country. The film spoke about our military a lot in the beginning in a negative light, and I wanted to highlight that at the end of the day these people enter the military for the right reasons, which is to protect our country because Freedom does not come Free. Our soldiers are told what to do by the government, and it might not always seem right, but we will never know the reality behind why certain things are carried out. It is still important to acknowledge that people don't enter the military to have a shooting spree on others.
Bowling For Columbine highlighted the history of violence in America and other countries, and how violence is not only projected through our armed forces away, but the armed forces in your local neighborhood or home. In one of the initial opening scenes of the film we see Michael Moore at a bank in Michigan, where they gift you a free hunting rifle for depositing a certain amount of money into an account. Although they do conduct background checks and have the recipient file a series of paperwork, Moore emphasizes the issue of giving out guns as gifts. The shooting took place in Columbine, Colorado and the film analyzes the towns actions and beliefs towards guns and Moore establishes that it is because of these values that matters such as Columbine happen. The film does not only follow the town of Columbine, but towns across the entirety of America. In these towns we see an extreme passion for guns and armed weapons; one town in the video mandated that all residents must own guns, another had a form of militia in their town that promotes self protection of their loved ones with their own weaponry. There is even a scene where a local barber shop has ammunition for sale, not a gun store or professional place, but a place where they cut your hair. Moore depicts the sense of noncholance towards the sale and purchases of guns for all. I believe this to be one of his themes, that these tendencies we have towards guns and gun control, are the reason why shootings and violence happen, but when they do we blame other external factors. For example, Moore has an interview with Marilyn Manson, who people deemed responsible for motivating the two men to shoot up the school. This is because his alternative rock music promotes violence, and sexuality, and the exact opposite of the social norms for your typical western and southern towns. Manson at one point says he cannot comprehend how people blame him, and think that his music has more power than the violent acts of aggression that come from the government. This is why Moore references bowling throughout the film so often, because the boys being on the bowling team is an innocuous piece of information, yet somehow someway it could be the reason to blame. Moore desires to have people open their eyes and take responsibility for the values and ways of life they have indoctrinated.
Another theme Bowling For Columbine and the articles share are the desire to achieve school violence prevention. In an article "A majority of U.S. teens fear a shooting could happen at their school, and most parents share their concern" they shared a statistic that "Overall, 57% of teens say they are worried about the possibility of a shooting happening at their school, with one-in-four saying they are very worried" and "Parents of teenagers express similar levels of concern as teens themselves, with 63% saying they are at least somewhat worried about the possibility of a shooting happening at their child’s school" (Graf, 2020.) One can infer from these statistics that these are high percentages and that the country needs to take more action to allow students to feel comfortable. In Bowling for Columbine the owner of Lockheed Martin, which is a defense establishment in Littleton was interviewed by Moore and he deemed this plant to have played a factor in the shooting. Evan McCollum explains that this could happen anywhere, but it happened in their town in Colorado, and that the establishment donates money to an anger management training group because he feels kids have repressed emotions which lead to shootings. This connects to the concept of trying to mentally help the youth of America, because at the end of the day the person kills someone, not the gun. The film also depicts how life was after Columbine, where we see childrens bags being checked and metal detectors. However, there were extreme cases where teachers over analyzed a violent act such as a first grader being suspended for throwing a chicken finger. People were clearly on edge and that could lead to become more authoritarian than students would feel comfortable with. However, school violence is not only in regards to gun violence, but emotional abuse as well. The article "Preventing School Violence" took a survey amongst high school students in 2019 and "About 1 in 5 high school students reported being bullied on school property in the last year" and "Almost 9% of high school students had not gone to school at least 1 day during the 30 days before the survey because they felt they would be unsafe at school or on their way to or from school" (CDC, 2021.) These mental tolls that people experience are why the article states that students feel there should be more of an emphasis of taking care of mental health. When asked about preventative measures that should be taken, "86% of teens say that preventing people with mental illnesses from purchasing guns and that improving mental health screening and treatment would be effective..." (Graf, 2020.)
There is a novel called Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult that resonates with me in regards to school violence because the novel is about a young high school student who shoots up a school. The novel explores all the various factors that went into his desires and actions; including the home, school , social life, and other external factors. It also depicts the emotional connections and feelings of those who lose loved one and experience the shooting first hand. I also was interested in how the novel depicts the shooters perspective and his parents. The student is fueled by years of bullying, and it illustrates how no one would have ever known he was going to do that. There is also a commercial which relates to the novel and topic of school shooting, and it shows the student in miscellaneous places googling things and acting certain ways that no one picks up on. The student ends up shooting the school and the commercial basically explains that we need to pay more attention to students. In regards to a song, there is one called "Teenagers" by My Chemical Romance and I chose the song because it represents the fear the film talked about in regards to children once the shooting happened. The song basically talks about how society is fearful of children and teenagers because kids are killing one another in aggressive ways. The song fit perfectly with the concept of school shootings because it describes the life of teens and how they can be treated and how they will retaliate. Another song I chose is "American Soldier" by Toby Keith because the song describes the life of a soldier and how he is trying to be a father, husband, and all these things at once while defending our country. The film spoke about our military a lot in the beginning in a negative light, and I wanted to highlight that at the end of the day these people enter the military for the right reasons, which is to protect our country because Freedom does not come Free. Our soldiers are told what to do by the government, and it might not always seem right, but we will never know the reality behind why certain things are carried out. It is still important to acknowledge that people don't enter the military to have a shooting spree on others.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021, September 2). Preventing school violence |violence prevention|injury Center|CDC. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved October 2, 2021, from https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/youthviolence/schoolviolence/fastfact.html.
Graf, N. (2020, May 30). Majority of teens worry about school shootings, and so do most parents. Pew Research Center. Retrieved October 2, 2021, from 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/.
Moore, M., & Moore, M. (n.d.). Bowling for Columbine.
Comments
Post a Comment