Bullying & School Shootings

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There’s a fairly strong relationship between bullying and school shootings.  When kids are made to feel weak and powerless, they sometimes as out in violent ways, or resort to acts of terrorism.  

“Much of the violence in schools is really caused by children who are retaliating against bullies and other forms of peer pressure. In fact, among 48 incidents of recent school shootings, most of the shooters were responding to having been mercilessly bullied.”
– Malcolm L. Smith (2010)

Following the tragedy at Columbine, the media rushed in to frame Klebold and Harris (the two shooters) as two demented psychopaths whose actions were entirely independent of their environment, while going to great lengths to downplay the bullying and harassment they experienced at Columbine High School. Let us be clear: there is no excuse or justification for the horrible crimes they committed that day. Yet pretending that this tragedy had nothing to do with bullying or social dynamics at the school is also a cop-out, and a gross distortion of the facts.

There’s a reason there has been such a concerted effort by school officials to control the message and downplay the role that bullying played in this tragedy, and similar tragedies in general. As Garbarino & deLara (2002, p. 85) note, “Why are adults reluctant to see the systematic connections (between bullying and school violence)? Some of it is the result of their own psychological self-defense mechanisms. … As long as adults who view those kids who commit serious acts of violence at school as merely unstable or mentally ill, the school as a system does not have to make the connection, and thus it does not have to intervene in the consistent bullying that some students experience daily.”

The link between bullying & school shootings

Although school officials may try to downplay the role that bullying plays in such attacks, research shows the link is clearly there. After interviewing 41 school shooters in 37 separate incidents, one study found that two-thirds had been bullied by classmates and their attacks were motivated by a will to seek revenge. It’s also important to note that the shooters did not limit their attacks to students. Teachers and school administrators were also frequently targeted. (Vossekuil et al., 2002) While most of these incidents involve junior high and high school kids, it can also occur in grade school. In Flint, Michigan, an incident occurred that just might be the youngest known case of an intentional school shooting. A 6-year-old boy brought a gun to his school and killed a classmate in retaliation for a conflict the two youngsters had engaged in the day before. (Barboza, 2000)

Another study found that among students who are involved in bullying, an alarming number carry weapons around with them at some point. Forty-three percent of boys who said they had bullied others at least once a week in school had brought a weapon to school, while 29% of targets who had been bullied weekly brought weapons to school. (Seale, 2004)

Violence emerges from conflict, and bullying in every form includes conflict of some type. So the more conflict that is brought to our schools through bullying, the more school violence we’ll have. Trying to get our bullying problems under control would do more to ensure our children’s safety than campus police or metal detectors ever could.

More information about bullying:

 

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