School Shootings (Part 1)

When we hear the phrase, “school shooting”, our minds nearly always call up “Rampage” incidents such as Columbine etc. where one or more teenagers/children, armed with an assortment of firearms engage in a shooting spree, against fellow students and teachers. There are however other incidents of school shootings, where an individual, brings a firearm to school, with an individual, and specific target in mind i.e. a particular student or teacher. These two different types of school shooting tend to occur in very different social settings, and have very different motivators. This blog article is the first of two pieces looking at school shootings. In this piece I want to look at the different social conditions that surround these two very different types of violence, and next week I want to look at the pre-violence indicators (PVI’s), that can help us to predict such events.

There are big differences between “Rampage” shootings, and “Assassination” type shootings. Assassination style shootings target an individual, Rampage shootings target a group i.e. members of the school. Where an individual is targeted for assassination, the school is really just a common location, which the individuals involved (victim and aggressor) share and interact in. In Rampage shootings the school as an institution is important and significant – this is often true of workplace rampage shootings as well; the company as an institution is targeted, not just the individuals who belong to it.

Understanding that the school as an institution is targeted in Rampage shootings helps to explain why this type of violence tends to occur in rural and suburban communities, rather than in urban ones. In rural/suburban communities the school plays a very significant role in the community, and in some senses tends to define it e.g. the town/community supports the school football and sports team, as a local team, uses the schools facilities for social and community events etc. In urban, city settings there is more overlap between communities and various schools; there are more schools closer together, meaning that children and adults may interact across and between schools e.g. an after-school club/program may contain children from many different schools, not just the one, and children may belong to sports teams and engage in other activities that have little or nothing to do with a particular school. In Urban settings the school tends not to represent a child’s entire social landscape, and/or define their place and role within the community.

A rural community and school can be extremely “Claustrophobic” for certain teenagers and children. If a child/teenager is a star of the school football/sports team than they will be known and enjoy celebrity status throughout that community – everybody will know them. Conversely if a child is seen as a troublemaker or an outcast in a school setting, everybody in the community will know them and define them as this in every other setting. In urban settings, a child can enjoy and have many different roles. At school they may be seen as disruptive, whereas at their after school program they may be seen as productive and attentive; on their sports team they may also enjoy a different relationship with adults in positions of authority as well as their peers, to that which they experience in the school setting. In rural communities a child/teenager who is labelled, carries that label with them in every activity they engage in – the same is not so true in urban settings, where a child can have many labels as well as the opportunity to “reinvent” themselves in different activities/settings.

Another thing which tends to separate Rampage shootings from Assassination style shootings is the length of time spent planning the event. Assassination shootings tend to be more spontaneous in nature, with only a short period of time between making the decision to shoot someone and the actual attempt e.g. there is an argument with a teacher one day, and the next day the student brings in a gun to shoot them. With Rampage shootings, planning the event is an integral part of the process; a primary motivation of many rampage shootings is the shooters demonstrating they are significant and important individuals that the school/community never took the time/effort to recognize as such. In planning a Rampage shooting those involved, get to spend time “enjoying” the justice they are about to inflict, and the fact that nobody knows what they are up to. This is all part of the process of a Rampage shooting. It also marks out another significant difference between Rampage and Assassination type school shootings. Assassination shootings are normally committed by a lone individual, Rampage shootings, though not exclusively, are committed by two or more individuals. Talking about, justifying and planning the event is an extremely significant and important part of the act – this is also one of the things which can sometimes allow us to predict beforehand that a rampage shooting is about to take place; especially if those involved start to lay down heavy hints and disguised threats to their prospective victims.

In next week’s article, I will attempt to enlarge on such predictors (Pre-Violence Indicators), and talk about what the school, the community, the parents and the students should actively look out for and the actions and behaviors they should take seriously in order to help predict the possibility and likelihood of having these different types of violence occur in their schools.