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Kan V. Chandras, Ph.D., NCC, LPC
Professor/Coordinator
of Counseling Program
Fort Valley State University
Fort Valley, Georgia 31030
e-mail: chandrask@cox.net
David A. DeLambo, Rh.D., CRC
Assistant Professor
Department of Rehabilitation and Counseling
University of Wisconsin-Stout
Menomonie, Wisconsin 54751
e-mail: delambod@uwstout.edu
Sunil V. Chandras, Student
Macon State College, Georgia
129 Rio Pinar Drive
Warner Robins, GA 31088
e-mail: sunil305@cox.net
John Paul Eddy, Ph.D., NCC
Professor of Counseling
University of North Texas
Denton, Texas
e-mail: eddybeddy2001@yahoo.com
Since the Columbine school shootings, American
schools have been plagued by new attacks and threats. These incidences
and the resulting unrest in our schools, both public and private, have
been reported in the mass media (ABC News, April 29, 2003) highlighting
the growing tendency of American students to engage in interpersonal violence.
Violence is a problem not only in urban and suburban schools but also
in rural schools, with more adolescents and children being both perpetrators
and victims (Chandras, 1999).
There are many interpretations and explanations
about student violence (The Telegraph, 2002, 2005). According to research,
factors such as family violence, violence in the community, and violence
portrayed in the media incites students to commit violent acts (Maura,
1998). Easy access to guns greatly adds to the number of violent acts
committed by students. Generally, three types of violence, which adolescents
commit, are physical assaults, murders, and sexual assaults.
Generally, the perpetrators have been young,
typically disgruntled, white males (there were some incidences of female
students engaging in violent behaviors, Pennsylvania, March 7, 2001).
U.S. Department of Education (2003) and Newsweek (King & Murr, 1998)
listed a chronology of school-related shootings in recent years:
1. February 2, 1996: Barry Loukaitis, 14, killed a teacher and two
fellow students in Moses Lake, Washington.
2. February 19, 1997: Evan Ramsey, 16, killed his school principal
and a fellow student and wounded two in Bethel, Alaska.
3. October 1, 1997: In Pearl High School, Pearl, Mississippi, Luke
Woodham, 16, killed his mother, his ex-girlfriend and another student.
The shooting by Woodham was primarily aimed at a former girlfriend,
but wider issues were blamed in the >manifesto=.
4. December 1, 1997: In Heath High School, Paducah, Kentucky, Police
say Michael Carneal, 14, shot at a group of students, killing five
and wounding three. He shot into a before prayer group. He was sentenced
to 25 years in prison without the possibility of parole.
5. December 15, 1997: In Stamps, Arkansas, two students were wounded,
Colt Todd age 14, was hiding in the woods shooting at people while
coming to school.
6. March 24, 1998: In Jonesboro, Arkansas, Mitchell Johnson, 13,
and Andrew Golden, 11, killed five (four students and one teacher)
on August 11, 1998, they were convicted of murder and sentenced to
serve in a detention center until 18 or possibly 21 years of age.
7. April 24, 1998: Andrew Wurst, 14, opened fire at a school dance
in Edinboro, Pennsylvania, killing a teacher and wounding three students.
Motivation is unclear.
8. May 19, 1998: In Fayetteville, Tennessee, Jacob Davis, 18, killed
a classmate in a parking lot of his high school three days before
graduation. The victim was dating the ex-girlfriend of his killer,
18-year-old honor student Jacob Davis.
9. May 21, 1998: In Springfield, Oregon, Kipland Kinkel, 15-year-old
freshman, opened gunfire in the cafeteria with a rifle. He killed
two students and wounded 27 other students (plus two parents). The
shootings ended only when another student tackled Kinkel as he attempted
to reload. Kinkel was expelled from school for having a stolen pistol
in his locker. He murdered his parents and the next day he went on
a rampage in his school. His parents were both teachers. On November
10, 1999, Kip Kinkel was sentenced to 111 years in prison despite
documented schizophrenia.
10. April 20, 1999: In Columbine High School, Littleton, Colorado,
Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, opened gunfire in Columbine
High School killing one teacher, 12 students and wounding 23 other
students. They were teased by jocks and were labeled the ATrench Coat Mafia.@ Both committed
suicide.
11. May 20, 1999: Thomas J. Solomon, 15, Sophomore, opened gunfire
in Heritage High School, Conyers, Georgia, wounding six students.
He was taking antidepressant drugs (Ritalin) and broke up with his
girl friend.
12. November 19, 1999, Deming, New Mexico: Victor Cordova Jr., 12,
fired one shot into the lobby of Deming Middle School and hit Araceli
Tena, 13, in the back of the head. She died the next day.
13. December 6, 1999, Fort Gibson, Oklahoma: Seventh-grader, Seth
Trickey was a religious, straight-A student. He came to school, stood
under a tree, pulled out his father=s 9-mm semiautomatic handgun
and fired at least 15 rounds into a group of classmates. Four were
wounded.
14. February 29, 2000, Mount Morris Township, Michigan: A six-year-old
boy, whose identity has not been released, left the crack house where
he lived and went to school at Theo J. Buell Elementary. He called
out to fellow first-grader Kayla Rolland, AI
don=t like you!@ ASo?@ she said.
The boy swung around and shot her with the loaded .32 semiautomatic
handgun he had taken from home. Kayla died soon afterward.
15. May 18, 2000, Millbrae, California: A 17-year-old senior at Mills
High School, whose identity has not been released, was arrested after
another student reported being threatened with a gun. They found
an arsenal of 15 guns, rifles, knives and ammunition at the boy=s
home, all apparently belonging to his father.
16. May 26, 2000, Lake Worth, Florida: Nathaniel Brazill, 13, was
sent home for throwing water balloons. Police said that he returned
with a .25-cal. semiautomatic handgun, went into an English class
and killed teacher Barry Grunow, 35.
17. February 11, 2001, Palm Harbor, Florida: Scott McClain, a 14-year-old
eighth-grader, wrote a detailed e-mail to at least one friend describing
his plans to make a bomb and possibly target a specific teacher at
Palm Harbor Middle School. The friend=s mother alerted Sheriff=s deputies, who said they found a partly assembled bomb in McClain=s bedroom that would have had a Akill radius@
of 15 feet.
18. February 14, 2001, Elmira, New York: Jeremy Getman, a 18-year-old
senior, passed a disturbing note to a friend, who alerted authorities.
A police officer found Getman in Southside High School=s cafeteria,
reportedly with a .22-cal. Ruger semiautomatic and a duffel bag containing
18 bombs and a sawed-off shotgun. An additional eight bombs were
found in his home.
19. March 5, 2001, Santee, California: Charles Andrew Williams,
15, opened fire from a bathroom at Santana High, killing two and wounding
13.
20. March 7, 2001, Williamsport, Pennsylvania: Elizabeth Catherine
Bush, 14, was threatened and teased mercilessly at her old school
in Jersey Shore and transferred the previous spring to Bishop Neumann,
a small Roman Catholic school. There she took her father=s revolver
into the cafeteria and shot Kimberly Marchese in the shoulder. Bush
was reportedly still being teased and was depressed.
21 March 7, 2001, Twenty-nine Palms, California: Cori Aragon was
one of 16 students at Monument High School in the Mojave Desert to
discover that her name was on the hit list of two 17-year-old boys
arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder and civil rights
violations. Police said that they found a rifle in one home, the
hit list in the other.
22. March 23, 2001, El Cajon, California: A 18-year-old student,
Jason Hoffman, opened gunfire at Granite Hills High School, wounding
four others before he was shot by a campus police officer. In all,
10 people were injured in the afternoon shootout.
23. January 15, 2002, Martin Luther King Jr. High School, Manhattan,
New York: Vincent Rodriguez, 18, was charged with two counts of first-degree
attempted murder and first-degree assault. Rodriguez shot Andre Wilkins,
aged 18, and Andrel Napper, aged 17. Police report the shooting was
due to teasing of his girlfriend and because they >pulled a bandanna off her head=.
24. January 16, 2002, Appalachian School of Law, Grundy, Virginia:
A 42-year-old Peter Odighizuma, a naturalized citizen from Nigeria,
shot and killed Dean L. Anthony Sutin and Professor Thomas Balckwell
in their offices. Then, he went down into a common area and fired
upon a crowd of students injuring three students. Reports claim Odighizuma
had been suspended from school earlier Wednesday and had a history
of mental instabilities that school officials were aware of.
25. October 29, 2002, University of Arizona School of Nursing, Tucson:
Robert Flores, Jr., age 41, walked into a classroom and killed three
nursing professors and then committed suicide. The reason for killing
was that he was told that he could not take the midterm examination.
Flores suffered from depression.
26. April 14, 2003, John McDonogh High School, New Orleans, Louisiana:
Four gang members, Tyrone Crump (17), Herbert Everett (18), Michelle
Fulton (17), and Larry Moses (19), entered the gymnasium and two of
the gang members opened fire. The result was that Jonathan Williams
dead at the scene and two girls were wounded. These attackers never
attended the school (Fox News, April 14, 2003).
27. April 24, 2003, Red Lion Junior High School, Red
Lion, Pennsylvania: James Sheet, age 14, shot and killed the Principal,
Eugene Segro, 51 years old and then killed himself (ABC News, 2003).
28. In March 21, 2005, Red Lake Senior High School, Red Lake, Minnesota:
Jeff Weiss, 16, fatally shot five students, a teacher and a security
guard before killing himself (Pioneer Press, 2005).
These tragedies prompt inescapable questions:
What is the cause of this disturbing trend? How does one reach that point?
What is happening in American families and the larger society to cause
adolescents to resort to violence? What had the parents and school personnel
done or not done, to add their schools to the growing list of communities
where adolescent anger turned schools into battlegrounds? It is difficult
to find specific answers to these questions.
After studying the psychological characteristics and
backgrounds of these adolescents, the following profile was constructed
and may represent the characteristics of school shooters:
1.
Male Caucasian;
2.
Lonely and feel rejected
by others;
3.
Angry toward someone
or something;
4.
Lack positive relationships
and communication in school and family;
5.
Obsessions with violent
acts;
6.
Obsessions with guns
and other weapons;
7.
Substance abuse;
8.
Bullied and demeaned
by other students;
9.
Family pathology (violent
home life, parental neglect, insecurity, etc.);
10.
Depression;
11.
May show delusion of grandeur or other mental illness;
Prevention Strategies
Schools may use outreach, advocacy
and consultation services in school violence prevention. In outreach,
counselors seek out those who fit the profile and assist them to resolve
their problems before violence occurs. Outreach also utilizes school and
community professionals of various backgrounds for help with at-risk populations.
In advocacy, the counselor acts as an emissary for the student and asks
the assistance of community leaders for providing necessary funds or other
assistance for school projects to curb violence. As an advocate, the
counselor works with teachers, administrators, school board members, community
leaders, students and others to manage programs directed at curbing school
violence (Smaby & Daugherty, 1995). Another strategy that could
be utilized in school is crisis management. It involves strategies
of close surveillance of students in schools. The strategies may include
installing metal detectors, communicating trouble spots on campus, telephone
Ahot
lines@
to report crisis situations, hiring guards to supervise hallways, and
strictly enforcing laws for criminal acts on campus. Crisis management
solutions have preventive effects (Richtig, & Homak, 2003; Wolfe,
1995).
Schools are encouraged to use mediation
on their campuses between students and school personnel. School personnel
educate students to resolve conflicts and disputes through mediation (Carlson
& Lewis, 1993; Elias, 1998).
Conflict resolution skills training programs
brought results and aimed at peer mediation, conflict resolution and anger
management. It may include violence prevention curriculum and promotion
of nonviolence for adolescents (Orr, 2001).
Conclusion
In light of the increasing school violence,
counselors, teachers and other school personnel should be ready
and able to meet crises and prevent when they occur in schools. A trusting
relationship between counselors and students will help curb school violence.
Schools should develop nonviolent environments in which students and school
personnel can settle differences through discussion, mediation, and compromise.
Of course, they need the cooperation and assistance from families and
community leaders.
Reference
ABC News. (April 29, 2003). Police seek motive
in school shooting: Pennsylvania police search for motive after 14-year-old
boy kills principal. Retrieved April 29, 2003, from http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/schoolshooting_030425.html.
Carlson, J., & Lewis, J. (1993). Counseling
the adolescent: Individual, family, and school intervention. Denver,
CO: Love Publishing.
Chandras, K. V. (1999, Fall). Effective counseling
strategies to cope with violence in schools. GSCA Journal, 1(6),
1-10.
Elias, M. J. (1998). Resolving conflict and
preventing violence, school failure and dropout, and related problem behaviors.
NASSP Bulletin, 82(596), 1-6.
Fox News (April 14, 2003). Student killed in
shooting at New Orleans high school: Suspects arrested.
King, P., & Murr, A. (1998, June 1). A
son who spun out of control. Newsweek, 131(22), 32-33.
Maura, O. (1998). Factors mediating the link
between witnessing interparental violence and dating violence. Journal
of Family Violence, 13(1), 39-57.
Orr, T. B. (2001). Students keeping the peace.
Current Health, 28(4), 3, 28.
Pioneer Press (March 29, 2005). Tribal leader’s
son arrested: 15-year-old allegedly discussed shootings with Jeff Weiss.
p. 1A.
Richtig, R., & Hornak, N. J. (2003). 12
lessons from SCHOOL CRISES. Education Digest, 68(5), 5, 20.
Smaby, M. H., & Daugherty, R. (1995).
The school counselor as leader of efforts to have schools free of drugs
and violence. Education, 115(4), 612-622.
The Telegraph,
Friday, August 16, 2002, p.
4A
The Telegraph,
Friday, July 19, 2005, p. 3A
U.S. Department of Education (2003). School
shootings. Retrieved April 29, 2003 via Internet Access: http://www.holology.com/shooting.html
Wolfe, D. (1995). Three approaches to coping
with school violence. English Journal, 84(5),
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