On April 20, 1999, the country stood still and watched a massacre unfold at Columbine High School. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered 13 students and staff in one of the most infamous school shootings in American history.
This shooting was just the beginning of many to follow in American schools and people have grown numb to the thought of children being murdered. Instead of people standing idle in front of their televisions, they continue on with their day. It’s just another story we scroll through on our news feeds. Kids are taking their last breath while we sip our coffee through our work day.
When it comes to breaking news coverage, very little has changed. Reporters don’t assume, they simply update the public with details as they develop while the incident is occurring.
The problem with the media’s coverage of school shootings is what we talk about once the last shot has been fired. The liberal and conservative agendas have caused a massive debate over guns, but it is very seldom they take the time to consider if the students within the schools feel safe and happy where they are.
The profile of a school shooter has a trend that rarely seems to change. A troubled kid, on the quiet side, with anger issues and a broken home. We talk about everything that was wrong with them, but never look to see if anyone reached out to them, or whether they were getting proper counseling or not. There are other measures that can be done to prevent a shooting other than taking the gun from their hands.
Now, gun control is definitely something that needs to be discussed with the public. Guns are, of course, a major issue in these recurring events, but we do not talk enough about mental health and what can be done to help people with these kinds of violent tendencies. No access to guns can stop school shootings, but being open to helping someone can as well.
A TED talk called “I was almost a school shooter” features Aaron Stark, who discusses what stopped him from committing the act. He lived a troubled life with drug-addicted parents.
“When you have nothing to lose you can do anything and that is a terrifying thought,” Stark said, “I decided that I was going to get a gun and attack my school…my best friend saw the place that I was in and even though I stole and lied to him, he didn’t care. He still brought me in and showed me acts of kindness.”
This is what kept Stark from committing these acts and it can definitely be done for many others. After shootings occur in schools, one of the biggest responsibilities goes to the school counselors. When students return to classes, counselors work to ensure that all students feel safe and prepared to return to regular activities. This is done by keeping an open door to students who may be experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or possible suicidal tendencies.
Counseling after a mass shooting also includes schools around the country based on the frequency of this occurrence. Many students in America do not feel safe in their schools anymore.
This is not surprising because there is a trend where shootings come in clusters. According to the Virginian Pilot, in the past five years alone, there were over 100 shooting incidents in schools and per The Washington Post, since Columbine, there have been at least 10 school shootings per year. At least 136 people have been killed in schools since then as well.
So, are we really taking the measures we need in schools to ensure the students’ safety and well-being in order to keep someone with similar issues to orchestrate the same act of violence?
According to The American Counseling Association, some of the coping mechanisms that are used after a mass shooting are to attend to self-care, pay attention to emotional health, recognize others that need support — all of which are good techniques to cope but it only helps so many and eventually the emotions may get the best of the survivors which can also trigger another violent act from someone else.
In March, two survivors from the mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., committed suicide because of guilt from the events that unfolded. Sydney Aiello, 19, and another current student at the high school died by suicide just days apart from each other. According to the New York Times, Aiello suffered from PTSD and also survivors guilt after she lost one of her best friends in the shooting.
It is unclear whether the most recent suicide was related to the shooting. The community is brought back to mourning just a little over a year after the shooting.
Parkland was also a place where students came together after a shooting in ways we have never seen before. Through the March for Our Lives movement and the memorable town hall meeting, students still were in pain and were in desperate need of help and received none.
When it comes to copycats, we have seen shooters orchestrate their attacks to be similar to the Columbine shooters. Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho had that idea as he admitted in his confession tapes. Nikolas Cruz, the Parkland shooter, also claimed in chilling videos how he wished to be a “professional school shooter.” Cruz was expelled from Parkland before the shooting and, based on footage from his interrogation, seemed like nobody was around to help him with his problems as they continued to escalate before the attack.
As said before by Stark, if you have nothing to lose you can really do anything and if you put a gun in that person’s hand it can have a horrific outcome, but that can be prevented.
We have seen countless horrific shootings since Columbine and the outcry to eliminate guns gets loud and then falls silent until the next incident. The cycle just continues. After years and years of fighting to end gun violence with what sadly seems like no gain, shouldn’t we as people seek to find any way possible to help those that are troubled since our government won’t listen?
This is something that is not discussed enough in the media. What can we do as people to stop the violence? To stop our classmates, children and teachers from being gunned down by someone who was really crying for help in ways we chose to ignore.
It is sad that someone who is troubled can get their hands on a gun so easily, but what is more sad is the fact that whatever they were going through in their lives brought them to that point and not a single person was there to change their mind. That is what we can do in the public and this is what our media coverage should be on. Peace and compassion can stop violence. Constant debates and the rebuttal of political agendas will not.
