ABC News’ Nightline had a report Wednesday evening about school shootings in which two things stood out for me. The first was that 75% of school shooters were victims of bullying and that the shooter they interviewed was removed from reality when it was happening, having been desensitized to the shooting violence by the video games he had been playing.
Over and over, we hear of shooters having been tormented by the bullies at school or taunted and abused by the general student body. And, yet, despite all the attention this point receives and the supposed actions that school officials take, little is done to address the most important cause of the shootings- bullying. There is a “zero-tolerance” policy in most schools against weapons, anything that could be construed as a weapon, thinking about weapons, writing about the subject, drawing pictures, even kindergarteners holding their fingers in a gun position. ANd, yet, little if anything is done to the bullies who provoke this.
I was bullied and abused in junior high school and live with the after affects to this day. Had I had access to a gun in 1971 when this abuse was at its peak, it would have been quite easy for me to have committed one of these atrocities. The teachers and administrators at my school blamed me for the bullying. The coaches at the school encouraged the jocks to bully me, saying it would make me a man. The Assistant Principal told me that I should fight back, and then paddled me for fighting back. My redneck stepfather ridiculed and criticized me daily for not fighting back. And, no one, NO ONE, made any attempt to help me or the dozens of other kids, all nonconformists, who were bullied, beaten, and tormented on a daily basis in my school.
Until we stop, as a society, glorifying the bully and the snob, this will continue. As long as we view the shooters as monsters, instead of as victims pushed over the edge by other kids who find it amusing to taunt or bully them, it will continue.
I don’t condone school shootings and I feel great sympathy for the shooting victims. But, I wonder if any of the jerks who bullied Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who beat them and taunted them every day, ever think about the cul[pability THEY have in the Columbine massacre?
Somewhere out there, right this minute, is a boy who has been taunted, bullied, beaten, and humiliated by the other kids at school, whose plight has been ignored by the teachers, the coaches, and the administrators, whose parents are just as indifferent or just as cruel, and who sees either the deaths of others or his own death as they only way out. I grieve for that boy for I know what he is feeling.
People always try to make it out like Harris and Klebold were these outcasts, when in fact they had friends, I think one of them even had a girlfriend.
I think the fact that the media is always attacking the idea of the ‘outcast’ is the real problem. We’re taught to hate those who are different or don’t have friends, so when anything terrible happens we immediately jump on the idea that they were different. Bullying happens even more now, and it’s not just the kids who are different (though they probably get the majority of it).
Along with that there’s another side to it: fame. You kill people you become infamous. Some people even celebrate on the shooters’ birthdays, and basically worship them like celebrities. So it’s not just the hating, it’s also the idolizing. A lot of kids who are nobodies want to be somebody, even if it’s just 15 minutes of fame for something terrible.
I was the kid who hung out with the drug dealers because no one else wanted to be seen with me. I got ridiculed by just about everyone at one time or another. I was always alone.
People stand around blaming TV violence or videogames for everything, because they want a reason. The truth is it doesn’t take movies to kill somebody. People have been doing that long before television was around. It’s like you were talking about: people bully you enough and you get pushed over the edge. That’s all it takes.
Imagine how many kids watch violence and DON’T do something violent. I’m sick of the blaming. It’s people who cause this, not slasher flicks or action movies.
Honestly, I think that shooter they interviewed was a liar. It takes more than Doom or Grand Theft Auto for someone to pick up a gun, look another person in the face, then shoot them with it. He sounds like he’s looking for a plee of temporary insanity. And yeah, perhaps some kids have trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality, but the fact is it’s generally because of bullying that it happens.
Lucien- you make good points and I skipped over the point about violent games. The primary cause is the bullying and the abuse.
However, I think the desensitizing effect of a constant exposure to violent games and programs can contribute. I wouldn’t blame it solely or primarily for school violence, but I think it can make people less immune to the negative effects.
I agree that the person interviewed was using it as an excuse. It is a shame ABC chose not to interview someone who better epitomizes the victims of endless abuse who turn to shooting when pushed over the edge.
Thank you for your comment!