School Violence

On the morning of April, 20 1999 school violence came into the homes and schools of millions of Americans. Columbine High School in Colorado was rocked when two teenage gunmen came to school with ammunition where their textbooks were supposed to be. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, both students at Columbine, came to school with guns and a killer purpose. After killing 12 people and wounding 24 more, they ended their reign of blood by taking their own lives.

This episode of human violence spawned an intense debate over gun control and school violence.  Were they linked? Did the laxity of one lead to the other? The debate didn’t stop there. Soon Americans started questioning the effect that violent videogames had on impressionable children and the imprint that violent movies and television shows leave on their young minds.

The truth of the matter is this; no matter how much control you have over guns, or how videogames are rated, or how much violence is on TV there will be school violence. The human being has been shaped to be an aggressive creature, with the potential for violence. Biblically, human beings have fought amongst each other over land, possessions, people, beliefs, and wrongs done.  Even if all of these reasons were not justified and all of them unnecessary, they all did result in violence.

A part of the human condition is the need for dominance and control over situations. This isn’t any different in the school setting. Encina High School, Sacramento, California in 1996; a freshman girl and a junior boy get into a food fight. This food fight turns into a fight of egos, which in turn escalates into a physical fight. This would have been easily suppressed by faculty if it wasn’t for one small problem.

The young girl was Hispanic and the young boy was black.  Soon after the food fight started young people from both racial sides became involved. One group began blaming the other, and a larger fight ensued. Three separate police departments arrived and tried to subdue the fighting masses, but the smell and thrill of violence only flamed the anger of the crowd.

The Encina High School Riots were front page news for months afterward. Parents and students appalled at how out of hand one small altercation became. What was the cause? Why did it get so out of hand? The answer to that is very simple. People are violent creatures.  Many of the students involved in the riot had no real reason to participate. They were just there, and they were willing.

School violence isn’t the result of videogames, movies on TV, or even the lack of gun control. School violence is the result of a world full of people shaped by other violent people - and the vicious cycle continues.