Apr

17

The Columbine phenomenon

April 17, 2007 | 2 Comments

CONTRARY to current reports, yesterday’s shootings at Virginia Polytechnic Institute shootings did not cause a record number of fatalities in the history of US school massacres. Thirty-three people died at Virginia Tech, but in 1927 the Bath School disaster saw 45 deaths. The difference is that the Bath perpetrator was not a student; and bombs were used instead of guns.

kehoe.jpgIt was school board member Andrew Kehoe, upset by a property tax for a new school building which caused the foreclosure of his farm, who set up a series of explosions in the Bath elementary school, Michigan. Earlier, he had murdered his wife and set one of his farm buildings alight. Firefighters were at his farm when the bombs tore through the north wing — and on the street outside where people had gathered. Kehoe drove up to the crowd and blew himself up inside his shrapnel-filled vehicle. More dynamite was later found in the basement of the south wing of the school.

But in terms of school shootings (across the board at elementary, high school and university level), sadly VT did yield the greatest number of dead (32, wounded, suicide of the shooter), followed by the massacres at University of Texas (reports vary from 15 – 17 killed, 31 wounded) and Columbine high school (13 killed, 24 wounded, besides the suicides of the two shooters). In both instances, students were responsible and at Columbine both bombs (which did not fully detonate) and guns were used.

What’s the trigger?

Whitman.jpgCharles Joseph Whitman, aka the Texas Tower Sniper responsible for the University of Texas killings in 1966, was found by a state report to have had a homicidal breakdown as a result of lifelong abuse by his father. Although he was prescribed medication and sent for counselling when he manifested symptoms of depression, he attended only a single session with the campus psychiatrist Maurice Dean Heatly. The drugs prescribed to him were Valium (by the university doctor) and later Dexedrine — a powerful stimulant. After Whitman’s suicide, an autopsy also revealed he had a cancerous glioblastoma tumor in the hypothalamus region of his brain. In his suicide note, Whitman had requested an autopsy, citing an increase in irrational thoughts and headaches. Although the hypothalamus is linked to the control of emotions, evidence that his tumour was the cause of Whitman’s actions has been regarded as inconclusive.

Monday blues

brenda.jpgThe first junior school killing spree by a student was recorded in 1979 when Brenda Ann Spencer opened fire at Cleveland Elementary School, California wounding eight children and one police officer and killing two adults. She used a .22 rifle she received as a Christmas gift. The tragedy was later immortalised by the Dublin band, the Boomtown Rats, in the song I Don’t Like Mondays: when Brenda was questioned about her motive for the killings, she reportedly said,

I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.

Columbine

harris.jpgSince the 1999 Columbine shootings, controversy about the lack of action taken in response to warning signs leading up to Eric Harris (right) and Dylan Klebold’s attacks has been well-publicised. As early as 1996 there is evidence that Harris was severely disturbed. He had created a private website on AOL and a blog which, by early the following year, revealed his growing anger and frustration at society. By late 1997 Harris was posting death threats against his former friend, Brooks Brown and Brown’s parents became aware of this. Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office investigator Michael Guerra was notified of the site. Guerra discovered the website also contained violent threats directed at the students and teachers of Columbine High School.

As Harris had admitted to having explosives, Guerra decided to write a draft affidavit for a search warrant of the Harris household, but it was never filed. The existence of the affidavit was concealed by Jefferson County and not revealed to the public until September 2001, as the direct result of an investigation by the television show 60 Minutes. After the release of the affidavit, a series of grand jury investigations were launched into the cover-up activities of the Jefferson County officials.

– wikipedia

klebold.jpgIn 1998 both Harris and Klebold (left) had been referred for psychiatric help and sent to attend a support group and Harris was prescribed anti-depressants. When the drug Zoloft had adverse side-effects (including suicidal and homicidal thoughts as reported to his doctor), Harris was not taken off anti-depressants, but given the similar drug, Luvox, instead. Harris and Klebold were released from the support program early, having convinced the doctors of their improvement. Harris boasted about faking regret in his blog. Other journal entries revealed that the pair had an elaborate plan for a major bombing rivaling that of Oklahoma City.

Various commentators have theorised that bullying, isolation, violent video games, and certain types of music may have contributed to or even caused the Columbine rampage.

Update: Antidepressant Risk For Kids May Be Lower

Cho Seung Hui

cho.jpgInitial reports about the Korean student who was responsible for the VT shootings speculated that his actions were related to an unhappy end to a relationship with Emily Hilscher, who was the shooter’s first victim. These reports have been contested. As more information has come to light, it appears that Cho Seung Hui had been flagged as a disturbed teen who was a loner, had difficulty communicating and who attended a mental health facility and reputedly stalked some female students.

Update: Cho also reportedly never received court-ordered treatment.

Much has been made of the subject matter of his writing, (plays — including Richard McBeef and Mr Brownstone as well as poetry) which has been described as dark and angry as well as

morbid and grotesque

and

“very adolescent” and “silly”, with attempts at “slapstick comedy” and “elements of violence.”

– wikipedia

Ian MacFarlane, a former classmate, stated, “When we read Cho’s plays, it was like something out of a nightmare. The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn’t have even thought of.” MacFarlane and his colleagues “were talking to each other with serious worry about whether he could be a school shooter.”

(It is not clear how the various commentators regard literary genres like gothic fiction — such as that written by Horace Walpole and Edgar Allen Poe — or more mainstream modern-day authors Stephen King, Poppy Z Brite, Thomas Harris and their like.)

Parallels have also been drawn to Whitman’s MO, said to be typical of spree killers: both Whitman and Cho Seung Hui perpetrated primary killings, left the scene to write notes and then returned for the second, more deadly wave of murders. In Cho’s note he railed against “rich kids,” “debauchery” and “deceitful charlatans” on campus — interesting in light of the observation made about the Columbine phenomenon by Scott A Sandage in his recently published book.

bornlosers.jpgIn a 2002 interview with Cabinet Magazine, Sandage, professor of history at Carnegie Mellon University, talked about the Columbine phenomenon with reference to the evolution in American society of how success and failure are perceived, which he explores in his book Born Losers: A History of Failure in America.

The last chapter of my book … raises a couple of issues. One is the Columbine phenomenon. I was asked to speak at several conventions of high-school principals after Columbine. I didn’t think my research would be operationally useful to people in those difficult situations, but they were very grateful for any larger framework that could give them an understanding of where the grammars of stigma come from. The most chilling thing I’ve read in maybe the last ten years was a quotation in the New York Times in the first days after the shootings where a young woman who was a survivor said, “Everybody knew those guys were losers. In this school, people wear Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle, or The Gap.”

The second most sickening thing I’ve read was in the wake of September 11 and prompted me to go back and add something to the conclusion of my book, and that was the discussion of how to divide payments to the families. The purportedly objective mathematical formula that uses age and “future earnings” potential and comes up with one person on the 93rd floor being eligible for $600,000 and another dead person on the 93rd floor being eligible for much less is an example of a society that not only has its priorities out of whack but a society that is really in thrall to a black-and-white notion of success and failure. There will be no situation that Americans will confront that they won’t hammer into that box of success and failure.

– Cabinet Magazine

Prevention or cure?

In the aftermath of the VT tragedy, the most recent event in a resurgence of the phenomenon over the last two years, questions are being raised once more on how best to address the trend. It is assumed that in coming weeks a number of copycat shooters will emerge, as has happened on the back of previous massacres. No doubt we will see renewed debate on whether violent media (movies, games and music) have played a part in provoking such behaviour. Bullying, racial tension and religious differences on campuses and school grounds will be brought back under the spotlight as will the correllation between certain types of anti-depressants prescribed to disturbed teens and their ensuing escalation in anger, frustration, morbid thoughts and irrational behaviour, including extreme violence. But what is to be done?

One approach advocates more rigid gun control; another favours early intervention: an examination of warning signs of instability amongst students, who can then be given support. This should include counselling to help identify problems so help is at hand before students feel they must to resort to violence. Unsubstantiated claims have been made that shootings have happened most at institutions where guns have been banned, implying that tighter regulation is the problem. There is little evidence to support this theory. It has been countered that the question of who may carry a weapon, and where, is the wrong focus. Instead emphasis should be placed on finding common factors amongst the shooters and behavioural analysis to determine how best to predict causes, triggers and preventative treatment (discussion hosted by NPR International on April 17, 2007).

Usss_logo.gifMany schools have implemented new security measures such as see-through backpacks, metal detectors, security guards, and in an effort to improve emergency response, school door numbering. There are those institutions where students are required to wear computer-generated IDs. But in its study of all US school shootings, the US Secret Service found that schools should be paying more attention to the pre-attack behaviors of students, rather than relying solely on security measures. But, the report warned, assessing and moderating student behaviour should be undertaken with due care: expelling students for minor infractions could merely add fuel to the fire, resulting in violent retaliatory behaviour. They also reported that no single profile fits all the school killers studied.

…Which begs the question

If there is apparently no accurate profile to predict which students will turn violent, security measures in schools aren’t enough, the nation can’t unlearn gun culture and zero tolerance for aggressive behaviour in lieu of support structures is likely to incite further aggressive behaviour, then how are the institutions going to get the balance right?

(Read commentary from a VT alum on guns on campus.)

Reading material

List of school massacres and Gun violence in the US.

See also

VT shootings: Truth and consequence
b snaps: Last post


Comments

2 Comments so far

  1. Jaime on April 17, 2007 7:52 pm

    I don’t think I’ve read anything as thoughtful and insightful as this. I totally agree with the summation too, definitions of success that is.

    You’re going into my favorites file for interesting reading.

  2. b on April 18, 2007 3:29 pm

    Hi Jaime

    Thanks for your comment. Sadly so much more needs to be examined with regard to increasing levels of frustration and violence in teens and while there are many different schools of thought on causes, I have often wondered whether a loss of family support structures hasn’t been a contributing factor. Let me clarify: by that I don’t necessarily mean conventional family units, but rather, the equivalent — whatever form that takes in the modern world. Perhaps a better description would be network mentoring.

    The world is changing so fast that reference points for one generation can be vastly different from those for the next, making understanding of their challenges extremely difficult. I think we also try to do too much at once on a daily basis, getting caught up in performance expectations, and that can leave us with too little energy, time and headspace to interpret what is happening around us, and to the people we love. It’s a balancing act we desperately need to get right.

    Add to that the fact that there are various forms of violence the world over, often perpetuated by those who are in positions which would make them role models and leaders. A breeding ground for mixed messages: when is it ok to decide who lives or dies? Who gets to be heard, and how? These are never going to be questions with straightforward answers — much less so when one is exploring one’s moral boundaries going into adulthood.

    Somehow each of us needs in some small way to offer a platform for frustrations to be expressed and heard. And acted upon. And it ain’t a cakewalk.

    Again, thanks for your comment – hope to see you back here :-)

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