I see that some other people have brought up some good points about the recent school shooting epidemic. I agree that it is a major problem. How can we even feel safe in our schools anymore. School shootings are happening everywhere and it seems to get worse every day. You could go to school and get caught in the crossfire.
One of the biggest issues that I see teens and young adults facing in America today is school shootings. Basically, it all started with the Columbine High School shooting. Following Columbine was the shooting at Virginia Tech University. More recently was the shooting at Northern Illinois University. Now, ever since the NIU tragedy, schools all over have been experiencing death threats.
Recently in a class of mine, we discussed the main elements of a feeling and an emotion. We drew our consensus from the reading what is an Emotion by Cheshire Calhoun and Robert C. Solomon. Our agreement was that a feeling is a mental state and that that mental state ignites the physical attributes that are commonly associated with the feeling.
In the past year, there have been quite a few school shootings, but none of them had registered as a threat to me until Febuary 14th 2008. As you all know this is the date of the NIU shooting. For me this is hitting way close to home. I was literally in shock, and I didn't know what to think. My aunt works there as a teacher, not to mention I know very many students there.
The world, I informed my husband last night, has run crazy. He smiled sympathetically and nodded before kissing me on the forehead and assuring me that things would settle down again soon. He knew, as did I, that I was simply fed up and needed to rant. He then listened attentively as I railed about the insanity that has been my week thus far.
Talk about misplaced priorities. A high school student in Belding, Michigan has been expelled and is facing a felony charge of “making a threat involving a harmful device.” According to two students, he made an offhand remark about wanting to “get guns with 500 rounds and shoot up the school.”
If you haven't already, I invite you to read the following News Article, loosely based around Steven Kazmierczak's mental state on Valentine's Day:
http://kai03.qwest.com/WindowsLive/Media/News/NewsDetail.aspx?cat=Health...
When I heard the news of yesterday's shooting at Northern Illinois University, I first did the sad math of the past few months. This is the fifth school shooting in a week. They follow two mall shootings in December. Then I wondered what could possibly be fueling the combination of aggression and despair that leads people to do this.
