School Mass Shootings in America

2020 ◽  
pp. 75-84
Author(s):  
Seungmug (Zech) Lee
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Virginia Tech ◽  
College Campuses ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
School Settings ◽  
Columbine High School ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Preliminary Research ◽  
K 12 ◽  
The U.S

The killings at Columbine High School in 1999, Virginia Tech in 2007, the Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 are four dire examples of mass shootings in school settings by current or former students in the U.S. Schools—K-12 and college campuses—which have long been considered a sacred place for our children and young people receiving education. According to the data collected by the author, since 1999, school mass shootings (SMS) have increased steadily, causing higher casualty with more powerful weapons and planned schemes. School and campus security have become significant concerns. One big question to all Americans is, are our schools really safe enough to send our children to in order to learn and grow? This article presents preliminary research findings of SMS incidents based on 71 cases with the discussion.

scholarly journals Cyber Bullying Among Female College Students

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Briana Brewer ◽  
Amelia Cave ◽  
Anne Massey ◽  
Anne Vurdelja ◽  
Jeanne Freeman
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
College Campuses ◽  
Cyber Bullying ◽  
Female College Students ◽  
Undergraduate Women ◽  
College Population ◽  
K 12 ◽  
The U.S

Background and Purpose: Cyber bullying is often assumed to only occur in grades K-12, yet reports of such behaviors on college campuses and in the workplace are increasing. The U.S. Federal Government has recently called for policy development regarding cyber bullying to occur in higher education. This study explored perceptions of frequency and severity of cyber bullying among college students. Consequences of cyber bullying and the need for resources on college campuses were also explored. Methods: In 2011, a total of 18 undergraduate women participated in three focus groups, each lasting approximately 75 minutes. Results: Emergent themes revealed participants do not consider cyber bullying to be a significant issue currently, but likely will increase in prevalence among the college population. Many participants were familiar with the cyber bullying term but were unaware of its definition, nor could they provide examples. Further, the majority of participants were unaware of resources for victims of cyber bullying. Implications: Findings from this study reveal the need for educational programs geared toward college students about the meaning and consequences of cyber bullying. Further, resources for victims of cyber bullying should be made available on college campuses.

scholarly journals Using the Schoolwide Expectations Survey for Specific Settings to Build Expectation Matrices

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Lynne Lane ◽  
Wendy Peia Oakes ◽  
David J. Royer ◽  
Emily D. Cantwell ◽  
Holly Mariah Menzies ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Critical Component ◽  
Instructional Tools ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
School Settings ◽  
Nested Data ◽  
Mixed Effects Modeling ◽  
Faculty And Staff ◽  
K 12

Schoolwide expectations are a critical component of tiered systems of support, particularly when established with input from faculty and staff and then taught to all students. The expectation matrices depicting these expectations for all key settings serve as important instructional tools when teaching schoolwide expectations. In this study, we examined psychometric properties of the Schoolwide Expectations Survey for Specific Settings (SESSS)—a measure designed to assist school teams in K-12 settings constructing schoolwide expectations for seven school settings with input from all faculty and staff—with results indicating strong internal consistency of items. These settings are classrooms, hallways, cafeterias, playgrounds, restrooms, buses, and arrival/dismissal. In addition, we examined the degree to which adults in elementary, middle, and high school converged and diverged in their expectations for each setting. Using mixed-effects modeling for nested data, we found some expectations varied among school levels in some noninstructional settings. We conclude with limitations and future directions.

The War against Reality: A Youth Perspective on the Columbine High School Massacre

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Celine (Ha-Young) Song
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Young People ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Virginia Tech ◽  
Mass Murder ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
Columbine High School ◽  
Youth Population ◽  
Youth Perspective

This paper takes a critical look at the cases of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, two boys responsible for the Columbine High School massacre, and Seung-Hui Cho, responsible for the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech. After careful examination of the published literature on relevant topics including junior delinquency, school massacres, and the increasing access to media, I propose that these violent incidents are logical consequences of an escapist approach to reality, undeniably prevalent in the current youth population at large. Fantasies (any product of the imagination), conjured up by books, movies, games, television, internet, and drugs, provide an escape away from the unsatisfactory reality, and serve as one weapon in the war against it. Although fantasizing can be therapeutic and creative in moderation, when one is hopelessly ill-equipped to deal with the obstacles of real life, one becomes more and more dependent on fantasies as the solution to all problems. In the case of Harris, Klebold and Cho, this dependence escalated to violent hatred against reality. However, violence in movies and video games are not what leads people to mass murder. Rather, the fault is in the society that breeds a generation of escapists who need such fantasies to survive. The readymade fantasies on television – violent, sexual, and otherwise – that many criticize as the source of evil in these young people are mere symptoms of a greater phenomenon, produced to meet the overwhelming and preexisting demand for an escape. 

scholarly journals Philosophical Questions about Teaching Philosophy: What's at Stake in High School Philosophy Education?

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor Norris
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
High School ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Early Results ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Subject Areas ◽  
School Philosophy ◽  
Preliminary Research ◽  
Philosophical Questions

What is at stake in high school philosophy education, and why? Why is it a good idea to teach philosophy at this level? This essay seeks to address some issues that arose in revising the Ontario grade 12 philosophy curriculum documents, significant insights from philosophy teacher education, and some early results of recent research funded by the federal Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) in Canada. These three topics include curricular disputes, stories of transformation from philosophy student to philosophy teacher, and preliminary research findings. All underscore the importance and complexity of philosophy education, as well as its challenges and benefits, including the cross-curricular benefits philosophy education imparts to the study of other subject areas. Collectively, these serve as a springboard for asking some larger and broader philosophical questions about the teaching and learning of philosophy, and they demonstrate that this is a promising new area of study and of teaching for philosophers of education. I will raise some questions about philosophy that will help frame the next stage in the SSHRC research into the teaching and learning of philosophy in Ontario, and which I contend are new and fundamental questions to ask about philosophy itself.

The Surprising Advance of Gun Control Politics after Parkland

2020 ◽  
pp. 213-236
Author(s):  
Sophia Young
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Gun Control ◽  
School Shooting ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Opportunity Structure ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
Columbine High School ◽  
Social Media Tools

The 1999 Columbine high school massacre marked the start of an era of recurrent US mass shootings in settings once considered safe. In the aftermath of each horrific event, gun safety advocates tried to persuade state and national politicians to adopt new regulations but with little success—until recently. This chapter compares the political aftereffects of six major mass shootings to illuminate why the 2018 Parkland high school shooting led to more political change in favor of gun regulations than the previous events. Despite an unfavorable partisan climate, the Parkland shooting spurred teenage activists adept with social media tools to take advantage of the political opportunity structure created by prior grassroots resistance organizing. In response, politicians—especially Democrats—have embraced the gun safety cause as never before.

The Real School Safety Problem

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Kupchik
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
School Safety ◽  
Zero Tolerance ◽  
Safe Schools ◽  
Original Research ◽  
School Security ◽  
Safety Problem ◽  
The Real ◽  
K 12 ◽  
The U.S

Since the 1990s, K-12 schools across the U.S. have changed in important ways in an effort to maintain safe schools. They have added police officers, surveillance cameras, zero tolerance policies, and other equipment and personnel, while increasingly relying on suspension and other punishments. Unfortunately, we have implemented these practices based on assumptions that they will be effective at maintaining safety and helping youth, not based on evidence. The Real School Safety Problem addresses this problem in two ways. One, it provides a clear discussion of what we know and what we don’t yet know about the school security and punishment practices and their effects on students and schools. Two, it offers original research that extends what we know in important ways, showing how school security and punishment affects students, their families, their schools and their communities years into the future. Schools are indeed in crisis. But the real school safety problem is not that students are either out of control or in danger. Rather, the real school safety problem is that our efforts to maintain school safety have gone too far and in the wrong directions. As a result, we over-police and punish students in a way that hurts students, their families and their communities in broad and long-lasting ways.

Asian American Dropouts: A Case Study of Vietnamese and Chinese High School Students in a New England Urban School District

2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phitsamay Uy
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
High School Students ◽  
New England ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Dropout Rates ◽  
School Students ◽  
Study Support ◽  
Asian American Student ◽  
K 12

In the world of K–12 education, the growing numbers of dropouts are a major concern. This article examines the dropout rates of Chinese and Vietnamese high school students. Using logistic regression analysis, this article examines the influence of ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status (SES) on dropout rates. The distinct contribution of this analysis lies within the intraethnic comparisons within the Asian American student population and its use of longitudinal data. The results of the study support existing research that gender and SES are related to dropout rates. Moreover, an interesting interaction between ethnicity and SES exists.

The Effects of Teaching Reflection Diaries on In-Service High School Teachers in Japan

Relay Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 80-99
Author(s):  
Naoya Shibata
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
High School Teachers ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Teaching Beliefs ◽  
Experienced Teacher ◽  
Female Teachers ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Illustrative Case Study

Although teaching reflection diaries (TRDs) are prevalent tools for teacher training, TRDs are rarely used in Japanese secondary educational settings. In order to delve into the effects of TRDs on teaching development, this illustrative case study was conducted with two female teachers (one novice, and one experienced) at a Japanese private senior high school. The research findings demonstrated that both in-service teachers perceived TRDs as beneficial tools for understanding their strengths and weaknesses. TRDs and class observations illustrated that the novice teacher raised their self-confidence in teaching and gradually changed their teaching activities. On the other hand, the experienced teacher held firm teaching beliefs based on their successful teaching experiences and were sometimes less willing to experiment with different approaches. However, they changed their teaching approaches when they lost balance between their class preparation and other duties. Accordingly, although teachers’ firm beliefs and successful experiences may sometimes become possible hindrances from using TRDs effectively, TRDs can be useful tools to train and help teachers realise their strengths and weaknesses.

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