School shooting: Difference between revisions
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[[Image:Marclepine.jpg|170px|thumb|left|200px|[[Marc Lépine]] who targeted women in his killing spree. Killed 14 people.]] |
[[Image:Marclepine.jpg|170px|thumb|left|200px|[[Marc Lépine]] who targeted women in his killing spree. Killed 14 people.]] |
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[[Image:Jokela-school-shooter.jpg|thumb|200px|right|The gunman responsible for the Jokela school shooting from one of the videos he had posted to the internet social site [[Youtube]] prior to the shooting, wearing a [[House (TV series)|House TV series]] shirt. [[Pekka-Eric Auvinen]] killed 8 people.]] |
[[Image:Jokela-school-shooter.jpg|thumb|200px|right|The gunman responsible for the Jokela school shooting from one of the videos he had posted to the internet social site [[Youtube]] prior to the shooting, wearing a [[House (TV series)|House TV series]] shirt. [[Pekka-Eric Auvinen]] killed 8 people.]] |
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[[Image:Amokschuetze-erfurt_robert-S_ddp.jpg|thumb|200px|left|[[Robert Steinhäuser]] dressed in a black ninja-style outfit and went through the classrooms shooting at teachers |
[[Image:Amokschuetze-erfurt_robert-S_ddp.jpg|thumb|200px|left|[[Robert Steinhäuser]] dressed in a black ninja-style outfit and went through the classrooms shooting at teachers and students. Killed 15 people.]] |
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[[Image:Whitman1963Yearbook.jpg|200px|thumb|[[1963]] yearbook photo of [[Charles Whitman]]. Killed 15 people.]] |
[[Image:Whitman1963Yearbook.jpg|200px|thumb|[[1963]] yearbook photo of [[Charles Whitman]]. Killed 15 people.]] |
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[[Image:JeffWeisein2005.jpg|thumb|200px|left|[[Jeff Weise]] as a sophomore in a [[2005]] class photo. Killed 9 people.]] |
[[Image:JeffWeisein2005.jpg|thumb|200px|left|[[Jeff Weise]] as a sophomore in a [[2005]] class photo. Killed 9 people.]] |
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Revision as of 09:16, 9 February 2008
School shooting is a term popularized in American and Canadian media to describe gun violence at educational institutions, especially the mass murder or spree killing of people connected with an institution. A school shooting can be perpetrated by one or more students, expelled students, alumni, faculty members, or outsiders. Unlike acts of revenge against specific people, school shootings usually involve multiple intended or actual victims, often randomly targeted.
School shootings receive extensive media coverage but are infrequent.[1] They often result in nationwide changes of schools' policies concerning discipline and security. Some experts have described fears about school shootings as a type of moral panic.[2]
Most of the school shootings that have occurred have almost always ended up with the perpetrators killing themselves. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold gained infamy for killing 13 people at Columbine High School and then themselves. The shooting led to widespread panic across America; schools were fitted with metal detectors, guards were allowed to search students and their belongings and those deemed a threat were sent to psychologists, psychiatrists and counselors. This had lead to controversy and anger from both students and parents. Michael Moore, who directed the documentary Bowling for Columbine stated explicitly in his film that these measures were redundant and did nothing to help students, teachers and parents.
| Suicide |
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Definition
School shootings are typically differentiated from other kinds of school violence. Mass killings at schools like the Beslan school hostage crisis are usually described as acts of terrorism. In the 1970s shootings at Kent State and Jackson State universities lead to student unrest, precipitated retaliatory or defensive shootings by National Guardsmen and police.
In the United States, one-on-one public school violence, such as beatings and stabbings, or violence related to gang activity, is more common in some densely populated areas which tend to be impoverished sections of cities. Ghettos are commonly associated with school shootings; inner city or urban schools were much more likely than other schools to report serious violent crimes with 17 percent of city principals reporting at least one serious crime compared to 11 percent of urban schools, 10 percent of rural schools, and five percent of suburban town schools in the 1997 school year.[3] Student-perpetrated school shootings in North America most often occur in overwhelmingly white, middle class non-urban areas.[citation needed] In some cases, the victims of the shootings are involved in bullying or other acts of violence and intimidation towards the perpetrators.
The chilling effect is that the perpetrator feels it is justifiable to kill, maim or wound the people who have intimidated him/her, or have closed him/her from social groups or have been physically and/or psychologically bullied. The perpetrator feels frustration, not being able to express him/herself in ways that would release stress, such as telling their problems to friends. Isolation seems to be the most common factor affecting school shooters, but since Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, both perpetrators of the Columbine high school massacre, had at the same instant killed over a dozen people, psychologists had lead to re-thinking how a school shooter thought.
Profiling School Shooters
School shooting is a topic of intense interest in the United States.[4] Though companies like MOSAIC Threat Assessment Systems sell products and services designed to identify potential threats, a thorough study of all U.S. school shootings by the U.S. Secret Service[5] warned against the belief that a certain "type" of student would be a perpetrator. Any "profile" would fit too many students to be useful and may not fit the potential perpetrators. Some lived with both parents in 'an ideal, All-American family.' Some were children of divorce, or lived in foster homes. A few were loners, but most had close friends.
While it may be simplistic to assume a straightforward "profile", the study did find certain similarities among the perpetrators. "The researchers found that killers do not 'snap'. They plan. They acquire weapons. These children take a long, considered, public path toward violence."[6] Princeton's Katherine Newman points out that, far from being "loners", the perpetrators are "joiners" whose attempts at social integration fail, that they let their thinking and even their plans be known, sometimes frequently over long periods of times. The shootings seem as though an attempt to adjust their social standing and image, from "loser" to "master of violence."
Many of the shooters told Secret Service investigators that alienation or persecution drove them to violence. According to the United States Secret Service, instead of looking for traits, the Secret Service urges adults to ask about behavior: "What has this child said? Do they have grievances? What do their friends know? Do they have access to weapons? Are they depressed or despondent?"[7]
One of the "traits" that has not yet garnered as much attention is gender; that most of the shooters have been men or young boys has not gotten as much attention as the other “warning signs.” Gender violence has also been a part of recent school shootings. Bob Herbert addresses this in an October 2006 New York Times editorial. However, on February 8, 2008, a young woman at Louisiana Technical College shot two students and herself. [1]
Other killers such as Thomas Hamilton, a fully grown adult male, in Scotland attacked school children in his killing spree which lead to much debating and the safety of school children in Scotland. Hamilton was not a student but rather killed school children at a primary school, this came as shock for Scotland as a school shooting to this extent had never happened before especially in a primary school.
Notable Shootings
North America
The USA
Canada
| Name | Location | Date/Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Centennial Secondary School shooting | Brampton, Ontario Canada | May 28, 1975 | The Brampton Centennial Secondary School massacre was a school shooting, which occurred at Brampton Centennial Secondary School in Brampton, Ontario, Canada. It was the first school shooting in Canada.[8] |
| St Pius X High School School | Ottawa, Ontario, Canada | October 27 1975 | The St. Pius X High School shooting was a school shooting that occurred on October 27, 1975, at St. Pius X High School in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Robert Poulin, an 18-year-old St. Pius student, opened fire on his classmates with a shotgun killing one and wounding five before turning the gun on himself and committing suicide. Poulin had raped and stabbed his 17-year-old friend Kim Rabot to death prior to the incident. A book entitled Rape of a Normal Mind was written about the incident. |
| École Polytechnique Massacre | Montreal, Quebec, Canada | December 6 1989 | The École Polytechnique Massacre, also known as the Montreal Massacre, occurred on December 6, 1989 at the École Polytechnique in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Twenty-five year-old Marc Lépine, armed with a legally obtained semi-automatic rifle and a hunting knife, shot twenty-eight people, killing fourteen (all of them women) and injuring the other fourteen before killing himself. |
| Concordia University massacre | Montreal, Quebec, Canada | August 24 1992 | The Concordia University massacre was a school shooting on August 24, 1992 that resulted in the deaths of four people at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The shooter was Dr. Valery Fabrikant, a former Associate Professor of mechanical engineering at Concordia and a colleague of the slain men. |
| W. R. Myers High School shooting | Taber, Alberta, Canada | April 28 1999 | The W.R. Myers High School shooting occurred on April 28, 1999, at W. R. Myers High School in Taber, Alberta, Canada when a 14-year-old walked into his school and randomly shot at three students, killing Jason Lang and injuring another.[9] This shooting took place only eight days after the Columbine High School Massacre, and is widely believed to have been a copycat crime. |
| Dawson College shooting | Montreal, Quebec, Canada | September 13 2006 | The Dawson College shooting occurred on September 13, 2006 at Dawson College, a CEGEP in Westmount near downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The perpetrator, Kimveer Gill, began shooting outside the de Maisonneuve Boulevard entrance to the school, and moved towards the atrium by the cafeteria on the main floor.[10][11] One victim died at the scene, while another 19 were injured, eight of whom were listed in critical condition with six requiring surgery.[12][13][14] The shooter later committed suicide by shooting himself in the head, after being shot in the arm by police.[15] |
| C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute shooting | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | May 23 2007 | Two 17-year-old Canadian citizens, whom the media can not identify under the provisions of Canada's Youth Criminal Justice Act, were arrested on May 27, 2007 and charged with first-degree murder. Prior to one of the arrests, police had taken the unusual step of obtaining a judicial order to publish one suspect's name and photograph as he was considered armed and dangerous. Media reported his identity and photo, then had to take the stories off their websites after he was arrested hours later. |
The World
| Name | Location | Date/Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raumanmeri school shooting | Rauma, Finland | January 24 1989 | Two students were fatally shot by a 14-year old student at the Raumanmeri secondary school. The shooter had claimed to be a victim of bullying. |
| Dunblane massacre | Dunblane, Scotland, United Kingdom | March 13, 1996 | The Dunblane massacre was a multiple murder-suicide which occurred at Dunblane Primary School in the Scottish town of Dunblane on 13 March 1996. Sixteen children and one adult were killed, in addition to the attacker, who committed suicide. It remains the deadliest attack on children in United Kingdom history. |
| Sanaa massacre | Sanaa, Yemen | March 30 1997 | The Sanaa massacre was a school massacre that occurred in Sanaa, Yemen, on March 30, 1997. Mohammad Ahman al-Naziri, 48, attacked hundreds of pupils at two schools, killing six children and two adults with an assault rifle. Naziri, whose five children attended the Tala'i school, alleged that one of his daughters had been raped by the school administrator. No evidence was found of this. Naziri was sentenced to death the next day and executed on April 5, 1997. |
| Erfurt massacre | Erfurt, Germany | April 26 2002 | The Erfurt massacre was a school shooting that occurred on April 26, 2002 at the Johann Gutenberg Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany. Sixteen people were killed before the perpetrator committed suicide. The victims comprised 13 school staff (12 teachers and one administrator), two students and one police officer. In addition, seven people were injured. |
| Monash University shooting | Melbourne, Australia | October 21 2002 | The Monash University shooting refers to a shooting in which a student shot his classmates and teacher, killing two and injuring five. It took place at Monash University in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on October 21, 2002. |
| Unknown | Carmen de Patagones, Argentina | September 28 2004 | Three students killed and six wounded by a 15-year-old Argentinian student in a town 620 miles south of Buenos Aires |
| Geschwister School attack | Emsdetten, Germany | November 20 2006 | Sebastian Bosse, an 18-year old male, and former student, had fired shots with sawen off shotguns on campus, wounding three students and two faculty members. Pipe bombs that were set off had injured sixteen police officers and sixteen other people inside the school. The shooter then took his own life.[16] |
| Beirut Arab University shooting | Beirut, Lebanon | January 25 2007 | Four people were shot dead in clashes between pro- and anti-government activists on Thursday and about 200 were hurt in the violence that flared after a scuffle between students at a Beirut university. The opposition accused the government camp of starting the riots and the four dead included two Hezbollah students, who were fired at from rooftops. |
| Jokela school shooting | Tuusula, Finland | November 7 2007 | The incident resulted in the deaths of nine people: five male students (ages 16-18) and one female adult student (age 25) the school principal, Helena Kalmi (age 61); the school nurse (age 43); and Auvinen himself, who was also one of the school's students. One other person suffered gunshot wounds, and eleven people were injured by shattering glass while escaping from the school building. The day before the incident, Auvinen posted a video on YouTube predicting the massacre at the school. |
| Euro International school shooting | Gurgaon, India | December 11 2007 | The Euro International school shooting occurred on December 12, 2007 at Euro International, a private secondary school in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. The gunmen were 14-year old Akash Yadav and 13-year old Vikas Yadav, who were both students at the school. |
Famous Cases
| Name | Location | No.Of Victims |
|---|---|---|
| Pekka-Eric Auvinen | Perpetrator of the Shooting at Jokelan koulukeskus, Finland | 8 |
| Michael Carneal | Perpetrator of the Heath High School Shooting | 3 |
| Seung-Hui Cho | Perpetrator of the Virginia Tech massacre | 32 |
| Laurie Dann | Perpetrator of Hubbard Woods Elementary School shooting | 1 |
| Valery Fabrikant | Perpetrator of the Concordia University massacre | 4 |
| Kimveer Gill | Perpetrator of the Dawson shooting | 1 |
| Andrew Golden and Mitchell Johnson | Perpetrators of Jonesboro massacre | 5 |
| Thomas Hamilton | Perpetrator of the Dunblane massacre | 17 |
| Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold | Perpetrators of Columbine massacre | 13 |
| Kip Kinkel | Perpetrator of the Thurston High School shooting | 4 |
| Marc Lépine (Gamil Rodrigue Gharbi) | Perpetrator of Ecole Polytechnique massacre | 14 |
| Barry Loukaitis | Perpetrator of the Frontier Junior High shooting | 3 |
| Robert Poulin | Perpetrator of the St. Pius X High School shooting | 2 |
| Evan Ramsey | Perpetator of the Bethel High School shooting | 2 |
| Charles Carl Roberts IV | Perpetrator of the Amish school shooting | 5 |
| Jamie Rouse | Perpetrator of the Richland High School shooting | 2 |
| Michael Slobodian | Perpetrator of the Brampton Centennial Secondary School shooting | 2 |
| Todd Cameron Smith | Perpetrator of the W. R. Myers High School shooting | 1 |
| Brenda Ann Spencer | Perpetrator of the Cleveland Elementary School shooting | 2 |
| Robert Steinhäuser | Perpetrator of the Erfurt massacre | 15 |
| Jeff Weise | Perpetrator of the Red Lake massacre | 9 |
| Charles Whitman | Perpetrator of the University of Texas at Austin Tower Massacre | 15 |
| Charles Andrew Williams | Perpetrator of the Shooting at Santana High School | 2 |
| Luke Woodham | Perpetrator of the Shooting at Pearl High School | 3 |
| Andrew Wurst | Perpetrator of the Shooting at Parker Middle School | 1 |
| Key |
|---|
| Deadliest shootings. |
| Bold: Most violent. |
Impact
School shootings in the USA have to a larger extent influenced American society and culture, for instance the following lists numerous television, film and documentary series that have featured at one time or another an incidence of school shootings or person(s) involved. Since so many of the shooting have occurred in the USA, it has impacted the USA more so than any other country. Industries such as music, film, literature and theatrics have been actively involved in portraying a killers behaviour, adding also to how victim's respond afterwards. Some critics however cite that this has lead to stereotypical attitudes being attributed to killers. For example one stereotype which is frequently common amongst people is that a killer is usually a loner, a loser and/or a psychopath which may be completely biased and untrue. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold however changed many people's view on such stereotypes when the killed together, but nonetheless the stereotypes are very much in society in general. Many thought the killers who attributed to school massacres were loners but usually had a close group of friends to associate with.
Films
Main Theme
| Name | Director | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Deadly Tower | Jerry Jameson | 1975 | Charles Whitman is student at the University of Texas in Austin. He often suffers from headaches, during which he tends to violence. One night, he kills wife and mother, buys a number of rifles and loads of ammunition and takes them to the top of the tower of the university, where he barricades himself. With his long-range weapons his starts to shoot at everything that moves. Already until the police arrives, there are numerous people wounded or dead.[17] |
| Detention: The Siege at Johnson High | Micheal W. Watkins | 1997 | A former high school student, Jason Copeland, returns to his school to take his revenge on the teachers for failing him out of school.[18] |
| Light It Up | Craig Bolotin | 1999 | On a winter day in a southside Queens high school, events collide and six students are suddenly in an armed standoff with the NYPD.[19] |
| Duck! The Carbine High Massacre | William Hellfire and Joey Smack | 2000 | This was the first post-Columbine film on the subject of school shootings, and arguably the most offensive. It contained much blood and gore, nudity, inappropriate sexual references and some racism (incited by the black character towards his white peers, rather than from the protagonists). The main actors/directors Smack and Hellfire were arrested for having weapons on a school campus for one of the shots outside an elementary school. They were jailed for a short amount of time. |
| Home Room | Paul F. Ryan | 2001 | Even though he started writing the script before the event, director Paul F. Ryan later based the film on the Columbine High School massacre; the film was released only three years after the incident. Ryan and Christensen visited Columbine High School before the film's release to speak to students, faculty and parents, who received a private screening of the film. The response was generally positive and Ryan has since returned as a guest of the school twice |
| Bowling For Columbine | Michael Moore | 2002 | The film explores what Moore suggests are the causes for the Columbine High School massacre and other acts of violence with guns. Moore focuses on the background and environment in which the massacre took place, and some common public opinions and assumptions about related issues. The film looks into the nature of violence in the United States, focusing on guns as a symbol of both American freedom and its self-destruction. |
| Elephant | Gus Van Sant | 2003 | As the first high-profile movie to address high school shootings since Columbine, the film was controversial for its subject matter and possible influence on teenaged copy-cats. Elephant received an R rating from the MPAA. |
| Zero Day | Ben Coccio | 2003 | Zero Day (2003) is a movie directed by Ben Coccio, about a school shooting much along the lines of the Columbine High School massacre. The film was made in response to the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. According to Coccio, he began writing the film shortly afterwards, |
| Heart of America | Uwe Boll | 2004 | Heart of America is a 2004 drama film by German director Uwe Boll about a fictional school shooting in a suburban high school. It is believed to have been inspired by such shootings as the Columbine High School Massacre. The film is MPAA Rated R for Violence, Drug Use, Sexuality and Language, (All Involving Teens). It is the first Uwe Boll film to not have a spot on the IMDb's bottom 100 since it received praise. |
| American Yearbook | Brian Ging | 2004 | American Yearbook follows the life of Will Nash (played by Nick Tagas), a high-school student who is tormented by bullies Ian and Jason (Chris Ratti and Ryon Nixon). Will befriends Chance Holden (played by Jon Carlo Alvarez), another outsider, who eventually suggests that they "pull a Columbine" - get a gun and shoot the bullies. |
| Dark Matter | Shi Zheng Chen | 2007 | Liu Ye plays young scientist whose rising star must confront the dark forces of politics, ego, and cultural insensitivity. The film is based on true events. |
Sub-plot
| Name | Director | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| If.... | Lindsay Anderson | 1968 | if.... is a 1968 cult film by British director Lindsay Anderson about an armed rebellion at a British public school. The film is associated with the 1960s counterculture movement; it was filmed at the time of the student uprisings in Paris in May 1968, and it includes controversial statements such as "There's no such thing as a wrong war. Violence and revolution are the only pure acts" and features surrealist sequences throughout. On its release in the UK it was given an X certificate. |
| Massacre at Central High | Rene Daalder | 1976 | The movie has been described as 'predicting punk and Columbine', and as 'the epitome of the '70s meathead ethic fused with an apt social commentary'. The much-better-known 1989 film Heathers borrowed several plot elements from Massacre at Central High |
| Heathers | Michael Lehmann | 1989 | Heathers is a 1989 black comedy film starring Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, and Shannen Doherty. |
| Toy Soldiers | Daniel Petrie Jr. | 1991 | The Regis School is a prep school which plays home to many wealthy and rebellious teenagers with important parents who were kicked out of every other school. |
| The Basketball Diaries | Scott Kalvert | 1995 | Controversy arose again in the wake of the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999. The film contains a dream sequence in which Jim enters his school while wearing a black trenchcoat and shoots several students and teachers with a shotgun while his friends cheer him on. |
| Pep Squad | Steve Balderson | 1998 | Set in and around a small town high school in Kansas, Beth is a naive senior student who asks her two new friends, the slick and outgoing Julie, and her boyfriend Scott to help her cover up the accidental killing of the hated school principal.[20] |
| Pay It Forward | Mimi Leder | 2000 | A schoolboy in Las Vegas, Nevada named Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment) is given a project to complete by his social studies teacher Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey), who has terrible burn scars on his face and neck. His task is to come up with a plan that will change the world through direct action. |
| Lost and Delirious | Léa Pool | 2001 | Lost and Delirious is a 2001 Canadian drama film directed by Léa Pool and loosely based on the novel The Wives Of Bath by Susan Swan. |
| O | Tim Blake Nelson | 2001 | The film's intended release date coincided with the Columbine High School massacre. |
| Bang Bang You're Dead | Guy Ferland | 2002 | At Rivervale High School, Trevor Adams (Ben Foster) is an outcast trying to fit back in after a bomb threat he made the previous year. |
| American Gun | Aric Avelino | 2005 | American Gun centers around three stories dealing with the results of gun use: an inner city school principal (Whitaker), a single mother (Harden), and an A student (Cardellini) who works at her family's gun shop. |
| Empire Falls | Fred Schepisi | 2005 | Empire Falls is a 2001 novel written by Richard Russo. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2002. |
| Pretty Persuasion | Marcos Siega | 2005 | Pretty Persuasion is a black comedy/satirical film focusing on themes of sexual harassment and discrimination in schools, and attitudes about females in media and society. |
Race Related
| Name | Director | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Higher Learning | John Singleton | 1995 | Originally John Singleton wanted Leonardo DiCaprio to play Remy, while Michael Rapaport was originally going to play Scott Moss. DiCaprio was cast, but unable to be in the film because of a scheduling conflict with The Quick And The Dead. So Singleton had Rapaport play Remy once Hauser was cast. Leonardo DiCaprio had also starred in The Basketball Diaries. |
| American History X | Tony Kaye | 1998 | In a 2007 poll sponsored by Entertainment Weekly, the film was voted among the most violent films of all time. |
Documentaries
| Name | Director | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bowling for Columbine | Michael Moore | 2002 | The film explores what Moore suggests are the causes for the Columbine High School massacre and other acts of violence with guns. Moore focuses on the background and environment in which the massacre took place, and some common public opinions and assumptions about related issues. The film looks into the nature of violence in the United States, focusing on guns as a symbol of both American freedom and its self-destruction. |
| Zero Hour: Massacre at Columbine High | N/A | 2004 | Zero Hour is a Canadian-made, British produced, documentary series which had featured the Columbine massacre |
| The Killer at Thurston High | N/A | N/A | Kipland Philip Kinkel (born August 30, 1982) is an American spree killer who became the youngest person in Oregon history to receive a de facto life sentence without parole. He killed his parents, and afterwards two of his classmates while wounding 25 at Thurston High School in Springfield, where he was a student. Kinkel was 15 years old at the time of the incident, and had a history of clinical depression. He is currently serving a 111-year custodial order, and will never be eligible for parole. The documentary examines what led up to the shooting. |
| I Don´t Like Mondays | John Dower (UK) | 2006 | A documentary about the killing spree of Brenda Spencer, the 16-year-old schoolgirl who opened fire on a school playground in January 1979, killing two men and injuring eight children. Her only explanation of her actions was "I don't like Mondays". This incident was the first ever school shooting of its kind, and inspired the Boomtown Rats' number one hit song "I Don't Like Mondays".[21] |
Plays/Dramas
| Namw | Notes |
|---|---|
| Columbinus | Columbinus is a play sparked by the April 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Jefferson County, Colorado, probes the psychological warfare of alienation, hostility and social pressure that goes on in high schools across America. |
| Bang Bang You're dead | This play was made to show and end violence and teasing between teenagers in schools. When the play was performed for the first time, more than 100,000 downloads from internet occurred of the video play and many other schools around the world began to perform the play. The play centers on the lead character Josh, a teenage boy who shoots his parents and five schoolmates, and is then haunted by physical manifestations of his memories of them. |
Television
| Televisiom Show | Episode | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 7th Heaven | Season 6, Episode 2 ("Teased"),[22]
Season 3 Episode 7 ("Johnny Get Your Gun") | |
| Boston Public | Season 1, Episode 9: "Chapter Nine" | |
| Buffy The Vampire Slayer | Season 3, Episode 18: "Earshot" | The Columbine High School massacre occurred one week before this episode was originally scheduled to air. Because this episode involved a scene with a student loading a rifle (for suicide, not mass murder), the WB preempted it with the episode "Band Candy". A bootleg copy soon appeared on the Internet, but the episode did not air until the following autumn. The season finale was also preempted due to "school violence concerns." The Buffy novel, The Evil That Men Do was also delayed due to the Columbine incident, it was published one year later than planned. |
| Degrassi: The Next Generation | Season 4, Episode 8: "Time Stands Still, Part Two" | Jimmy becomes a member of the "Whack Your Brain" team, and realises the anti-Rick campaign has gone too far. He tells Jay Hogart, Spinner and Alex to lay off Rick, but they're not convinced, and humiliate him in front of the entire school. Joey has financial troubles, and decides to sell the house. When his real-estate agent gets nowhere, he asks ex-girlfriend realtor Sydney to help.
Rick comes back to school after being humiliated during the "Whack Your Brain" contest. Toby and Mr. Raditch tell him to take the afternoon off, but Rick chooses to stay. Cleaning himself up in the washroom, Spinner and Jay trick Rick into thinking the prank was carried out by Jimmy, and he vows revenge, causing two students to be shot, and one killed. Caitlin Ryan returns from Africa and saves Joey's home by buying it herself. |
| Chicago Hope | Season 4, Episode 24: "Physician, Heal Thyself" | |
| COPS | "Shots Fired" | |
| CSI | Season 2, Episode 4: "Bully For You" | When a high school student dies, the team find out the victim was part class clown and part class bully, and that consequently there are several suspects. This forces the CSIs to reminisce about their own high school days and their perceived roles. Meanwhile, Nick and Sara deal with a highly decomposed body found in a leather bag. |
| CSI: Miami | Season 1, Episode 20: "Grave Young Men" | |
| ER | Season 6 Episode 24: "May Day" | |
| Family Matters | Season 6, Episode 15: "The Gun" | In one of the series' grittiest episodes, female gang members steal Laura's jacket at gunpoint. She is then told she can expect to get shot if she reports the crime. Laura, scared for her life, decides she needs to buy a gun for self-defense. Urkel begs her to reconsider, but Laura is resolved to protect herself. Just before she can complete her purchase with a gun salesman at school, she hears gunfire, then screams. One of Laura's best friends has been badly wounded by the same girl that threatened her earlier, all because she wouldn't give her a pair of expensive shoes. In the end, Urkel begins a "Save a Life, Turn in Your Gun" drive as a way to cut down on school violence. Note: This episode ended with a public service announcement about gun violence by Jaleel White and Kellie Shanygne Williams, in which White reveals his true voice. |
| The George Lopez Show | Season 5, Episode 6: "George Finds Therapy Benny-ficial" [2] | |
| Homicide: Life on the Street | Season 6, Episode 18: "Full Court Press" | |
| Joan of Arcadia | Season 1, Episode 11: "The Uncertainty Principle" | |
| Law & Order | Season 11, Episode 22: "School Daze" | Inspired by the Columbine High School massacre |
| Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Season 7, Episode 6: "Raw" | After a six-year-old boy dies in a school shooting, detectives trace the gun used back to a white supremacist's gun shop. Munch and Tutuola both face hatred and prejudice from the major suspects in the case, but their investigation soon takes them from the man who pulled the trigger back to the gun shop owner, who makes no bones about his hatred of anyone who isn't white. |
| My So-Called Life | Season 1, Episode 3: "Guns and Gossip" | |
| Numb3rs | Season 2, Episode 19: "Dark Matter" | As Don and his team investigate the motive behind two students' deadly school shooting, Charlie uses the school's radio frequency identification system to track the shooters' movements through the school's hallways. |
| One Tree Hill | Season 3, Episode 16: "With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept" | Due to the aftermath of the release of the time capsule, chaos breaks out. Someone is holding students of Tree Hill hostage with a gun, shooting. While lives hang in the balance, Nathan and Lucas put themselves at risk to protect their friends and loved ones. Young lives are shattered and two lives will end. |
| The Outer Limits | Season 2, Episode 16: "Final Exam" | Dr. John Martin (Brett Cullen), a negotiator for the Department of Energy Nuclear Response Team, is called in when a disgruntled grad student takes hostages at a university. The student, Seth Todtman (Peter Stebbings) claims to have invented a cold-fusion bomb and is threatening to detonate it, killing millions, unless the government brings him five people on a list and kills them for him. |
| Promised Land | Season 2, Episode 21: "When Darkness Falls" | |
| The Shield | Season 5, Episode 1: "Extraction" | Wagenbach and Wyms investigate a riot at a high school that stemmed from racial tensions. Lemansky gets an unexpected visit from Internal Affairs Lt. Jon Kavanaugh. Lowe tries out his new role as training officer for rookie Tina Hanlon, and Sofer refuses to disclose the father of her baby. |
| South of Nowhere | Season 2, Episode 13: "Trouble in Paradise" | On prom night, Clay and Chelsea look for one last evening of happiness, while Glen goes to drastic measures looking for a purpose to his life. Madison's losing her marbles, and Aiden might lose all the women in his life, thanks to one shocking secret. |
| Static Shock | Season 2, Episode 12: "Jimmy" | The episode is told by Virgil to a counselor: A new boy at Dakota High named Jimmy Osgood is being bullied and humiliated by a bunch of kids at school. Jimmy becomes depressed, suicidal, and has only thoughts of revenge on the kids who were making his school life so miserable. It finally gets to the point that Jimmy steals his father's gun and brings it to school, threatening Nick Connor, the leader of the bullies, with it. Frieda and Richie manage to talk Jimmy out of hurting anyone, but then Nick's cronies attack Jimmy, causing him to accidentally shoot Richie in the leg. The show ends with Static giving a Public Service Announcement about Gun Violence at schools. |
| The Dead Zone | Season 3, Episode 9: Cycle of Violence | Johnny has a vision of a school shooting. It turns out to be years in the future, and Johnny prevents the molestation that causes it. The principal's draconian measures to prevent it causes a security guard to kill a troubled, but innocent student. |
| Third Watch | Season 2, Episode 22: "...And Zeus Wept" | |
| Touched By An Angel | Season 8, Episode 18: "Minute By Minute" | |
| The Unit | Season 2, Episode 20: "In Loco Parentis" | The team must work with a SWAT unit to rescue the students of an elite international private school in the Washington suburbs who have been taken hostage by unknown captors. On base, Lissy becomes interested in the son of an Officer. |
| Veronica Mars | Season 2, Episode 21: "Happy Go Lucky" | After Lucky shoots up the school, Veronica and Keith Mars finally investigate Woody Goodman and find out he's a child molester. Also, Aaron Echolls' trial comes to a close. |
| Rebus | Season 4, Episode 2: "A Question Of Blood" | |
| Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles | Pilot (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) | The story begins in 1999 with Sarah Connor and her son John, now 15, on the run. A Terminator attacks John's school and shoots John. Sarah pleads with the Terminator to kill her, because nothing matters anymore. |
Music
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Other
- Several songs by Insane Clown Posse have been about attempting a school shooting.
- "With Hope", by Steven Curtis Chapman, is not about a shooting, but is dedicated in part to the three students killed in the 1997 Heath shooting. Chapman graduated from Heath in 1981.
- Swedish rap group Mobbade Barn Med Automatvapen got their name from school shootings in general. The name is in Swedish and means "bullied kids with automatic rifles".
Literature
Novels
| Title | Year | Author | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Scarf | 1947 | Robert Bloch | Not an actual school shooting novel, only elements of mass murder fantasies, destruction and chaos. |
| Rage | 1977 | Stephen King | The book was the inspiration for several school shooters including Michael Carneal, who shot three students on December 1 1997 in West Paducah, Kentucky had a copy of Rage in his locker, and Barry Loukaitis, who killed two fellow students and his algebra teacher on February 2, 1996, in Moses Lake, Washington, even quoted directly from the book ("This sure beats algebra, doesn't it?") after shooting his teacher. |
| Rape of a Normal Mind | 1977 | Christopher Cobb and Bob Avery | A book entitled Rape of a Normal Mind was written about the incident about the St. Pius X High School shooting incident involving Robert Poulin, an 18-year-old St. Pius student, who opened fire on his classmates with a shotgun, killing one and wounding five others before turning the gun on himself and committing suicide. Poulin had raped and stabbed his 17-year-old friend Kim Rabot to death prior to the incident. A book entitled Rape of a Normal Mind was written about the incident. |
| Empire Falls | 2001 | Richard Russo | Pulitzer Prize winning novel. |
| Give A Boy A Gun | 2002 | Todd Strasser | The storyline, which is constructed by quotations made by characters in this fictional book, almost mimics the Columbine High School Massacre on April 20, 1999. The main characters are Brendan Lawlor and Gary Searle, who are outcasts at their school and are bullied everyday. The book is written in flashbacks from their friends and from teachers and even bullies. Within the book it is revealed what went through both boys heads, and what they were going through. It reveals what they thought and why. It takes you into the mind of a school shooter. |
| After | 2003 | Francine Prose | Its plot is reminiscent of 1984 by George Orwell. The book takes place after the Columbine High School massacre and the nearby school shooting is reminiscent of the event. |
| A Question of Blood | 2003 | Ian Rankin | At a private school two teenagers are killed by an ex-Army loner who then turns the gun on himself |
| Hey Nostradamus! | 2003 | Douglas Coupland | Cheryl, a victim of a 1988 high school shooting in North Vancouver, tells the story of the significant events in her life up to the shooting. |
| Vernon God Little | 2003 | DBC Pierre | The title character is a fifteen-year-old boy who lives in a small town in the U.S. state of Texas. When his friend Jesus Navarro commits suicide after killing sixteen bullying schoolmates, suspicion falls on Vernon, who becomes something of a scapegoat in his small hometown of Martirio. Fearing the death penalty, he goes on the run to Mexico. |
| We Need to Talk about Kevin | 2003 | Lionel Shriver | Written from the perspective of the killer's mother, Eva Khatchadourian, and documents her attempt to come to terms with her son Kevin and the murders he committed. |
| Project X | 2004 | Jim Shepard | |
| School Days | 2005 | Robert B. Parker | |
| Shooter | 2005 | Walter Dean Myers | |
| Brockway High | 2006 | Zoey Hardy | |
| Endgame | 2006 | Nancy Garden | |
| Nineteen Minutes | 2007 | Jodi Picoult | The book is about a school shooting, and focuses on the events leading up to and following the incident (See Virginia Tech massacre). |
| She Said Yes | N/A | Misty Bernall | In the months following Bernall's death, her mother, Misty Bernall, authored the book She Said Yes: The Unlikely Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall (ISBN 0-7434-0052-6). In this book Misty Bernall discusses her daughter's turbulent teenage life, spirituality, and alleged martyrdom. |
| Ravenhill | N/A | Timothy Hillmer | |
| Jack #2 ("Angry Brian") | N/A | David Hopkins | Jack is a furry webcomic by David Hopkins. It is set in a world populated by anthropomorphic animals and focuses on judgment and afterlife, which function here according to Christian beliefs. Jack is noted for its depiction of disturbing and distasteful acts, including, "rape, drug use, swearing, graphic sexual acts, incest, cannibalism, nudity, savage violence, and images of Hell." |
Books
- The Copycat Effect (2004) by Loren Coleman ISBN 0-7434-8223-9
- Rampage: the Social Roots of School Shooting (2004) by Katherine Newman
- School Shootings (2004) by Frank J. Robertz
References
- ^ CNN (March 25, 1998). School shootings have high profile but occur infrequently.
- ^ Killingbeck, Donna. The Role of Television News in the Construction of School Violence as a 'Moral Panic." Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 8(3) (2001) 186-202
- ^ National Center for Education Statistics' Violence and Discipline Problems in U.S. Public Schools, 1996-97.
- ^ "'Profiling' School Shooters". Frontline. 2007-03-17. Retrieved 2007-03-17.
{{cite news}}:|first=missing|last=(help) - ^ "The Final Report and Findings of the Safe School Initiative" (PDF). 2002-05-01.
- ^ PBS article on murder profiles
- ^ Bill Dedman, Deadly Lessons: School Shooters Tell Why, description of Secret Service study. (October 15 2000) Chicago Sun-Times. Accessed April 8 2006
- ^ Slobodian is the first recorded high-school killer in the country
- ^ One dead, one wounded in Alberta school shooting, cbc.ca, November 10, 1999
- ^ "The Montreal Killer Was a Death-Obsessed Goth". Toronto Daily News. 2006-09-14. Retrieved 2006-09-15.
- ^ "Two gunmen open fire at Dawson College". The Gazette. 2006-09-13. Retrieved 2006-09-13.
- ^ "Press Release". Service de police de la ville de Montréal. Wed Sep 13, 2006 11:21pm EDT.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "UPDATE 7-Gunman kills one, wounds 19 at Montreal college". Reuters. Wed Sep 13, 2006 7:23pm EDT. Retrieved 2006-09-14.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Woman, gunman dead in Montreal school rampage". CBC News. 2006-09-13. Retrieved 2006-09-13.
- ^ ""Montreal gunman killed himself: autopsy"". CBC. Retrieved 2006-09-15.
{{cite news}}: Text "date 2006-09-14 18:11 EDT" ignored (help) - ^ Teen attacker dies after shooting five in Germany November 20, 2006.
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072852/
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118969/
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0172726/
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0131534/
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0778744/
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0503726/
See also
External links
- The Depressive and the Psychopath: The FBI's analysis of the Columbine killers' motives
- Schoolboy killing stuns Canada (The Guardian)
- Crime Library article about school shootings
- BBC timeline of US school shootings
- Indianapolis Star: School violence around the world (November 2004)
- The Scene of the Crime Was the Cause of the Crime - Excerpt from Going Postal: Rage, Murder, and Rebellion -- From Reagan's Workplaces to Clinton's Columbine and Beyond by Mark Ames.
- Dreading Columbine - Sociological exploration of suburban school shootings.
- Deadly Lessons: Understanding Lethal School Violence
- Teaching Kids to Kill
- Chronology of School Shootings
Reports
- Mass Shootings at Virginia Tech Report of the Review Panel
- U.S. study of school shootings, "The Final Report and Findings of the Safe School Initiative"
- Advice for safe schools, Threat assessment in schools: A Guide to managing threatening situations and to creating safe school climates