School Violence

Essay by cowboyjbUniversity, Bachelor's April 2005

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School Violence

Prevalence, Fears, and Prevention

School violence in some fashion exists almost everywhere. Every time anything serious happens it is always compared to Columbine. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris had a plan. Obsessed with violent video games and paramilitary techniques, they spent a year collecting an arsenal of semiautomatic guns and homemade bombs with which to perpetrate a crime that this nation will never forget.

Dubbed " the Trench Coat Mafia" for their habit of wearing black trench coats, the boys had long been bullied and scorned by classmates, so they decided to flex a little muscle, Having no particular reason to live, they decided to kill themselves, but in the process they also wanted to kill as many of their classmates as they could and blow up the school.

The day before their rampage, they sent an email to the local police declaring that their revenge against those who ridiculed them had been accomplished.

They blamed parents and teachers for turning their children into intolerant sheep, and then announced their own suicide. It was a bizarre forewarning.

At 11:30 a.m. on April 20, 1999, they hid weapons and bombs beneath their trench coats and then ran though the school, yelling and shooting. When they reached the library, they cornered and killed their largest number of victims before turning their guns on themselves. It all happened quickly, but with devastating impact. After police got into the building, they counter 34 casualties. Fifteen students died in the melee, including the shooters.

Yet the columbine massacre didn't stop there. In fact, around the country there were a number of copycat overtures that closed down schools in several states. Across the nation after the 1999 Columbine tragedy, other kids called in bomb threats, wore trench coats to school, or used the Internet...