By now we have all heard of the tragedy at Chardon High School where a student went into the school cafeteria and began firing a handgun at his fellow students? What causes a student to kill fellow students? This question has been asked of school shooters since before Columbine. Could this shooting be a result of the shooter being bullied? As the investigation continues I am sure we will know for sure but preliminary statements from students at the school believe the shooting was in response to being bullied.
Statements made by some students who witnessed the shooting said it was unclear whether the gunman had specific targets in mind when he began shooting but others told the AP that he believed the gunman was looking for certain students. He said he saw one student dive under a cafeteria table to unsuccessfully hide. The shooter has been described as an outcast who had apparently been bullied by others. Officials would not discuss the motive.
Is bullying being taken seriously by school officials? Is enough being done to prepare our schools, faculty, and students to effectively deal with the issues of bullying? A recent national survey by the School Safety Advocacy Council of almost 1000 school officials and law enforcement officials might surprise you. To view the survey visit www.schoolsafety911.org or click on this link http://www.schoolsafety911.org/PDF/2012SSACBullyingSurvey.pdf. For more information on bullying or training please contact Sean Burke, President SSAC at sburke57@comcast.net .
The news reports from fellow students is sure paiting a picture of some bullying issues but also family problems as well.
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No, and despite all the media I did today I never used bullying as an excuse for the violent behavior. Naturally there will be conflicting reports and in many cases the early reports were simply relying on what students were saying. Well we know in a violent incident that many of those reports are simply not factual. All that said, one does have to look at the bullying victimization, a possible dysfucntional family, uestionable postings on social media sites and begin to build a picture. While we are not looking to build an excuse for the behavior, but if in fact there were missed signs to hopefully prevent a similar tragedy in the future.
Bullying event in school does not necessarily mean that the bullied child has a dysfunctional family… really look at it… US kids are so unruly and no discipline they learned it from their own family how to bully others and the school acts blind
Bullied victim reports it to school authority and they become victims again… instead of correcting those bullies.. they get protection… from the school!
In light of the recent shooting, I think we are beginning to see that bullying is only one of the problems. I think if we take it further back, one of the main issues is the breakdown of the family unit. How can we correct that?