American Academy of Political and Social ScienceViolence i

American Academy of Political and Social Science
Violence in Schools: Rage against a Broken World
Author(s): J. Scott Staples
Source: Annals of the American Academy of Political and
Social Science, Vol. 567, School
Violence (Jan., 2000), pp. 30-41
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ANNALS, AAPSS, 567, January 2000
Violence in Schools:
Rage Against a Broken World
By J. SCOTT STAPLES
ABSTRACT: Violence in schools is a grave issue that is often
ana-
lyzed in terms of individuals' tendencies toward destructive
behav-

ior. While this path of analysis is important, in this article, the
author
contextualizes violence within a cultural milieu that alienates
stu-
dents from their fundamental yearning for significance. It is
argued
that violence is a failed epiphany, that is, a heightened moment
of
awareness emerging out of the everyday flow of experience that
seeks
to overcome alienation. Violence fails because it cannot create a
world
of sustainable meaning. The nature of productive epiphanies and
the
worlds of sustainable meaning that they evoke are discussed in
terms
of their implication for education and overcoming violence in
schools.
J. Scott Staples, a psychologist, has taught at Duquesne
University, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, and Mount Aloysius College, Cresson,
Pennsylvania, where he was
chair of the Social Science Department. He has written on
punishment and cruelty.
30
VIOLENCE IN SCHOOLS 31
T HE specter of violence in our
schools raises grave issues for
our nation, our communities, and the

meaning of our lives. Random acts of
violence in schools provoke us,
threaten us, and challenge us to
come to grips with what amounts to
an insidious and growing form of
destructiveness. The tendency to
analyze violence in terms of the par-
ticulars of the perpetrator's psycho-
logical, familial, and social abnor-
malities has a legitimate place in the
discussion of school violence. Cer-
tainly, interpersonal violence is, for
the most part, forceful action taken
by individuals that harms others,
either intentionally or as a means to
an end. Yet, such assessment leaves
us with a sense that the monstrous-
ness of violence is simply a matter of
individual aberrations that may be
due to unconscious conflicts and
learned behaviors; it leaves us with
the conviction that violence is some-
thing that festers in the being of cer-
tain individuals waiting to explode,
from time to time, within our midst.
In such an analysis, violence is an
alien intruder in an otherwise coher-
ent, creative, and peaceful world. We
may grieve for the victims of vio-
lence. We may even grieve for the
perpetrators, seeing them as twisted
by their situations into violators of
an otherwise healthy and well-
functioning world. But what if vio-
lence is more than this? What if vio-

lence is a sign, an indicator that
something at root is wrong? That vio-
lence, then, is a call to look anew at
school, at society, at the very every-
day structures that are basic to the
lives of our young.
In this article, I will argue that
violence in our schools exists in
increasing proportions because the
fundamental yearning for signifi-
cance has been thwarted or per-
verted by the cultural milieu in
which we live. The need for meaning
in life is not addressed thematically
in our culture or in our schools. The
world in which our young live-
indeed, in which we live-is essen-
tially broken. We live fragmented
lives in which work, for most people,
provides little emotional, social, or
spiritual sustenance beyond the nec-
essary fulfillment of basic needs and
in which leisure becomes, for the
most part, distraction. An educa-
tional system that addresses the
need for meaning both in life and in
preparation for work is sorely lack-
ing. No amount of technical prepara-
tion for the job market, however
important, will ever speak to this
deeper yearning for significance.
Until we find a way to address this
issue, violence will continue
unabated because it is a response to
the distortion of our fundamental

yearning for meaning. As this article
will indicate, it is from an analysis of
violence itself that the possibility for
overcoming violence emerges.
CULTURAL BACKGROUND
OF VIOLENCE
Schools mirror the culture in
which they are situated. As such,
schools reveal the problems created
by cultural values, especially when
these values conflict with primordial
human issues. The essential conflict
between a materialist culture that
32 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY
advocates consumption of goods and
services as the primary road to per-
sonal fulfillment, and the fundamen-
tal yearnings of individuals for a
sense of significance, which cannot
find completion in such consump-
tion, is an essential element in the
foundation of our broken world.
Consumerism promises more than
it delivers. Like the fundamental
yearning for significance, consumer-
ism begins in a lack basic to our hu-
man condition. A consumerist cul-
ture attempts to fulfill this lack by
the acquisition of objects whose value

diminishes upon purchase. The re-
sult is greed-psychologically, the
need to acquire more and more in or-
der to assuage the encroaching sense
that the lack still remains. Indeed, as
Baudrillard (1983a, 1983b; Poster
1988) argues, the postmodern con-
sumer society is a society in which
meaningful social relationships, con-
tent, and substance have been ex-
punged. He says that the communi-
cations technology and the media
serve the ideology of corporatism
through selling images of objects as
moments in a series of images rather
than selling the products for their
actual use value. Commenting on
Baudrillard, Henry (1991) observes
that in such a culture
consumers do not simply buy chocolate or
perfume, but sensation, a drug experi-
ence: "Sweet dreams you can't resist"
(Nestle's ad). ... Consumption of a prod-
uct is consumption of the image to receive
its illusion, irrespective of the material
function as in perfume for sex appeal,
toothpaste for self-confidence, cars for
eroticism, soft drinks for friendship and
popularity ... Social life in America... is
a simulation, only real by reference to the
hyperreal. As a result, any possibility of
real social relations and meaning
constructed to symbolize them is re-
moved. (76)

When an object is consumed, it is
the symbolic meaning that gets
transferred to the consumer, but that
meaning is tantalizing, transient,
and elusive-a mirage. Over a hun-
dred years ago, Emile Durkheim dis-
cussed this in his analysis of suicide.
He described the pursuit of individ-
ual rather than social goals as the
context for the fragmentation of the
collective morality. This condition he
called "anomie," wherein the society
is unable to regulate the unrestricted
appetites and desires of its members.
Indeed, he said that arousing their
greed opens up an insatiable "thirst
for novelties, unfamiliar pleasures
and nameless sensations, all of
which lose their savor once known"
(Durkheim [1897] 1951, 256).
As will be seen later, the funda-
mental yearning for significance,
absent in a postmodern consumer
society, fulfills itself only in mean-
ingful relationships within a world
that can sustain such relationships.
For consumerism, on the other hand,
relationships are secondary; acquisi-
tion is primary. In such a world, indi-
viduals become little more than func-
tionaries to fulfill each other's
symbolic needs and not persons of
worth and value.

Along with greed, boredom and
distraction are also central psycho-
logical elements in the creation of the
broken world. Boredom and distrac-
tion are intimately related. Boredom,
a mood of listlessness in which
nothing seems to hold interest and
from which one must, nonetheless,
escape, is often the motivating force
that leads one to distract oneself.
Distraction provides relief from bore-
dom, and, interestingly enough,
greed often becomes a great distrac-
tion, for in greed, one can lose oneself
completely in the pursuit of that
which one does not have.
Greed, boredom, and distraction
as elements of a broken world lead
the individual to seek escape from
the immediacy of the fundamental
yearning for significance in a crazed
dialectic that never resolves itself.
Greed sated leads to boredom, which
seeks to escape through distraction
or a return to greed. In this process,
the fundamental desire for fulfill-
ment by engagement in a meaningful
world gets passed over.
The broken world is a world lost to

its deepest callings: the fundamental
yearning for significance through
engagement in the processes of
reflection, creativity, compassion,
and the gift of self to others. In a cul-
ture in which distraction has become
an art form, in which the essential
issues of meaning are, for the most
part, covered over, it should not sur-
prise us that our children have
become infected by apathy, aliena-
tion, and violence, for these are
unconscious recognitions that the
fundamental yearning has been
thwarted.
ALIENATION IN SCHOOLS
Toward what is violence in school
directed? In the main, this question
is easily answered. Violence is
directed toward the victims of vio-
lence, or at least, toward the mean-
ing that its victims have for the per-
petrators. But this meaning is in part
derived from and must be contextu-
alized within a world in which vio-
lence has become an almost ordinary
possibility. My daughter graduated
from high school 12 years ago. Her
inner-city school was racially mixed,
culturally diverse, and populated by
an energetic, dynamic student body
guided by a caring, dedicated, if over-
worked, faculty. Her educational and

social experience there opened
worlds of meaning and significance
for her. She was challenged to think
and develop, to enter the clamor and
clash of ideas. She tasted the joy of
learning. It was no heaven; there
were many problems. Nonetheless,
real learning took place for her and
her classmates.
Today, when one enters her
school, one is greeted by metal detec-
tors and uniformed guards. One has
the impression of danger. A forebod-
ing atmosphere plagues the institu-
tion. Clearly, the security measures
may be necessary insofar as some
students have become dangerous to
each other and their teachers. Yet, it
is clear that such an atmosphere
makes genuine education difficult.
Schools transformed by the possi-
bility of violence manifest the broken
world-a world of fragmentation
where the sheltering and care of the
young, basic to any meaningful edu-
cational process, have been displaced
by fear. The educational environ-
ment is compromised in a number of
ways. First, the primary concern of
most educators is maintaining

discipline in the classroom, for dis-
ruptions are regular events in many
schools.
In addition, the value of education
as a path to an enriched encounter
with the world, an adventure in
thought, gives way to an obsession
with calculation and the mere prepa-
ration for college or career. Students
are, for the most part, turned off by
an educational system that does not
speak to their need for purpose.
Their alienation is a natural result of
this lack of felt meaningfulness.
Central to the students' alienation
is the externalization of learning. As
more emphasis is placed on technical
knowledge, there is less concern for
the development of the individual.
The acquisition of skills becomes the
primary concern. While mastery of
particular areas of technique does
provide the student with a sense of
competence in a specific area, it does
not speak to the issues of creativity,
relatedness, and responsibility that
invite the student into a world of
significance.
In other words, much of what
passes for schoolwork is essentially
alienating in that it does not speak to
the deeper needs of personhood.

Rarely are students invited into the
actual conversation regarding mean-
ing. They are not asked regularly to
consider what the good life is or what
truth and beauty are and how these
ideas affect one's existence. By
merely preparing students for work
or college and by emphasizing the
external perspective through our
grading and ranking processes, we
fail to invite students to discover the
internal transformation possible in
education.
Beyond the alienation brought on
by a functionally dominated curricu-
lum is the intensification of this
alienation by the encounter with a
future that is essentially meaning-
less. Often, when the young look to
the future-that is, when they look
at the lives of those on whom they are
asked to model themselves-they are
faced with a world that fails to
inspire, a leveled-down world with-
out hope for insight or rapture. Ram-
pant alcoholism, drug use, and mass
media that titillate and horrify lead
to the conviction that life is a sordid
affair. Even those who are successful
seem to achieve their power and
status by using others. The optimism
of the young is dealt a savage blow by
such insight.
VIOLENCE AS A FAILED EPIPHANY

The alienation of our young in
schools grows out of the dialectic of
greed and boredom, the emphasis
upon calculation, and the sense that
the young live facing a dead future.
Violence is often merely a response to
the emptiness in which they find
themselves. Addiction, mental ill-
ness, and a pervasive sense of pur-
poselessness are also responses to
this condition. The alienation of
many of our young in the face of
materialism stands as the uncon-
scious realization of their broken
world-a world that offers diversion
and consumerism but no longer
speaks to their deeper yearnings.
The consumerist world is all glitter
and shine, but it offers no enduring
significance.
What is the meaning of violence in
school in the context of alienation,
greed, and boredom? As psycho-
therapist Amory Clarke conveyed to
me in 1998, all violence is a reaction
to feelings of powerlessness, to a kind
of psychic impotence. Within the
school system, violence provides an
outlet for the inarticulate yearnings

not given voice in the educational
system, and it does so in destructive
ways. As such, violence breaks
through the crust of despair, momen-
tarily, only to fall back upon the
ground of hopelessness out of which
it emerged.
Consider the following example,
taken from my clinical practice, to
illuminate the nature of violence. A
client of mine, Bob, described a situa-
tion that took place when he was in
college. He and a friend, John, had
been invited to a party. John was a
small, stocky man who had been a
lightweight wrestling champion in
high school. The two of them went to
the party, and, after mingling with
the people there, most of whom they
did not know, they settled into con-
versation with each other. Although
welcomed by their host, Bob and
John felt a distinct chill from many of
the other guests.
The chilly atmosphere was con-
firmed when Bob and John were
rudely confronted by two large men
informing them that because this
party was a gathering for a specific
social club, of which Bob and John
were not members, they were not
welcome. Bob, shamed and embar-
rassed by this public declaration,
prepared to leave when, looking up,

to his astonishment saw that John,
small though he was, had seized the
man who had confronted him, grab-
bing him by the throat and the belt,
and hoisted him over a freezer. Then,
according to Bob, "John looked over
at me as if to say, 'Well, I've taken
care of my bully; what are you going
to do?' " Instantaneously, Bob felt his
shame and embarrassment lift.
Energized by his friend's act, Bob,
who was holding a beer bottle in his
hand, as was the man confronting
him, broke his bottle over a counter
and, holding the sharp and deadly
weapon before his tormentor's face,
said, "Break your bottle." His oppo-
nent began to quake and mumble.
Bob noted, "It was as if this giant,
who had humiliated me, had now
become a dwarf. I felt vindicated for
all the times I had failed to stand up
for myself and had endured shame
and humiliation at the hands of men
like him. When he refused to break
his bottle because he saw my inten-
sity, I did not feel relief; I felt disap-
pointment. I wanted him to make a
move, so that I could hurt him."
In the immediate aftermath of this
incident, Bob and John left the party.
Stepping out into the wintry cold,
Bob noticed steam coming off his

friend from the exertion and exhila-
ration of their confrontation. John,
turning toward Bob, grabbed him
by the shirt and said, "Wasn't that
beautiful?"
As this example reveals, violence
evokes a vivid world. Violence
momentarily breaks through the lived
structures of shame, doubt, boredom,
or apathy to reveal the world in vital
encounter. In violence one is fully
engaged, alive in the moment-
present and unencumbered. The
problem of violence is that it achieves
this moment of vivid encounter with
the power of human agency through
a negative action that causes harm to
others and, in so doing, returns the
perpetrator to an awareness of his
destructiveness. For those with a
conscience, an act of violence can
often serve to awaken them to their
ability to do evil, as was the case with
Bob. He recognized that his desire to
hurt the man who had confronted
him, while invigorating, posed a
great danger. Many who lack Bob's
reflective ability simply get caught in
a cycle of violence--caught by the
momentary liberation from a de-

meaned self through the experience
of explosive power essential to
violence.
So it is with institutionalized
schooling. In America, this has
become a routinized process, lacking
sustained meaningfulness. It is expe-
rienced by many students as a bor-
ing, fearful series of daily rituals that
have to be endured as a means to
some future end, one not even
decided by the students themselves.
This can be frustrating. It can
remind students of their powerless-
ness. It can invoke anger. That gen-
eralized anger can be aroused
through the accumulation of pockets
of indignities that some students
load onto others, creating a concrete,
visible target for their angst. Vio-
lence seems, momentarily, to be the
solution.
Violence, then, is a response to a
broken world. As a symptom, vio-
lence is explosive and dangerous. As
a call, violence points to the need to
heal the broken world by cultivating
the possibilities of vivid encounter.
The key to the issue is engagement in
a constructive process of renewal
that points beyond violence by giving
voice to the fundamental yearning
for meaning suppressed in moder-

nity by its overemphasis on func-
tional relations. Violence itself pro-
vides a hint in this regard.
To summarize, the act of violence
is an attempt to escape from a sense
of meaninglessness. In this attempt,
violence momentarily achieves a
breakthrough into a world of felt
meaningfulness. The sense of power
and agency experienced in violence
provides an epiphany that relieves
the actor of the existential weight
that he or she has been under. Expe-
rientially, violence, for all its danger,
is immediately felt to be a liberation
from a condition of psychospiritual
oppression. It is precisely this sense
of liberation, which may be only
momentarily encountered by the
subject and may not even rise to the
level of concrete awareness, that
makes violence a powerful force for
so many young people and, as such,
intensely addictive.
To achieve a renewal of human
possibility that transcends violence,
we must come to grips with the prom-
ise of liberation momentarily experi-
enced in the act of violence. Violence
as a fallen quest for liberation from a
felt sense of oppression or meaning-
lessness reveals itself as concordant
with the deepest yearnings for mean-
ing. Yet in its negative form, this lib-

eration through violence cannot sus-
tain its promise. It remains merely a
glimpse at possibility, a glimpse that
risks destroying the very human
agency that created it. Violence is a
failed epiphany, that is, a momen-
tary opening upon a world of po-
tential significance that fails because
it cannot sustain a meaningful world
and thus collapses back into mean-
inglessness. Nonetheless, violence
provides a guide into the nature of
the epiphany as a quest for meaning-
fulness toward a sustainable world of
significance. The structure of the
epiphany and the creation of a sus-
tainable world of significance provide
the antidote to violence.
EPIPHANY AND THE SUSTAINABLE
WORLD OF MEANING
An epiphany is any experience
that awakens the individual to an
enriched sense of meaning. The
epiphany breaks us out of the flow of
the everyday, and especially out of
indifference, and propels us toward a
sense of fullness. Epiphanies arise
out of the everyday flow of experience
as intensifications of meaning that

either invite entry to a world of
greater significance or simply return
us to the everyday flow of experience.
Epiphanies vary as to their existen-
tial force. For instance, there are
epiphanies that only momentarily
pull us out of the flow of our everyday
concerns as when, for instance, in the
midst of one's busy schedule, an old
friend that one has not seen in a long
time briefly crosses one's path, and a
few warm words of care are shared,
or when, rushing to catch the trans-
port home from work, one is con-
fronted by a woman holding an
infant and begging and, touched with
compassion, gives her money. These
encounters rupture our everyday
flow of experience, but they do not
necessarily transform us or invite us
to a deeper confrontation.
Epiphanies of great force often
propel individuals into confrontations
with self and world that create trans-
formations of importance. For
instance, a client told me about the
death of his best friend from a drug
overdose. That loss so moved him
that he committed to changing his
own self-destructive behavior. In this
case, the epiphany invited a complete
reassessment of his life, awakening
him to new possibilities in the face of
his friend's death and his own mean-

derings in life.
As these examples indicate, there
is a relationship between the flow of
everyday experience and the sponta-
neous arising of epiphanies. In the
flow of everyday life, one is, for the
most part, given over to one's concern
in a functional manner. One is busy
with projects and seeks to get them
done. This engagement with the
things of the world is primarily utili-
tarian; one utilizes the objects at
hand purposefully within the context
of accomplishing a task. For exam-
ple, one is awakened by the alarm
clock, gets dressed, and fixes break-
fast in a habitual routine. One simply
does what one has, for the most part,
always done. A glance at the clock
indicates that one is late for school or
work, and one anxiously rushes out
the door. At school or work, the pat-
tern of the everyday flow continues,
as it did at home. Tasks need to be
completed and the business of life,
managed.
Into the routine of the everyday
flow, the epiphany emerges as a kind
of break. The flow of the everyday

yields to being captivated, momen-
tarily, by that which has irrupted
into the flow. In the onset of the
epiphany, one is struck by something
beautiful or captured by an idea or
horrified and saddened by the beggar
or the death of a friend or outraged by
an injustice inflicted.
One is called out of the everyday
flow of experience by the urgency of
the epiphany, and the focus of one's
awareness transforms from the rou-
tinized project orientation basic to
the everyday flow to an immediate
encounter that presses forward. The
epiphany reveals itself as an intensi-
fication of experience in which
awareness is recalled from its habit-
ual flow and given a new center that
is immediately encountered. In the
epiphany, the here and now presents
as a power not experienced in the
flow of the everyday. Thus there is a
fullness and demand given in the
epiphany that is missing in the flow
of everyday experiences.
An example may clarify this point.
In my work as a college professor, I
am expected to help students fill out
their schedules each semester. Often
students come in confused about
which courses to take, which elec-

tives fulfill which requirements, and
what they might or might not be
interested in taking. It is a necessary
and often tedious process that
requires phoning the registrar to find
out if certain sections are open or
pleading with colleagues to allow
students into closed sections. During
the last registration period at my col-
lege, a student came in to sign up for
her courses. Her schedule was espe-
cially difficult to complete because,
due to work and other obligations,
she had only limited time that she
could be on campus and, being a sen-
ior, she had specific requirements to
fulfill that semester in order to
graduate. This involved sending her
to financial aid and the registrar and
calling the dean to see if certain
requirements could be waived due to
her unusual circumstances. In
essence, a long, drawn-out process
ensued that caused both of us
unwanted frustration. At our final
meeting, I looked over at her and saw
a deep sadness. When I asked her
what the matter was, she began to
weep quietly and described the diffi-
culties that she was having with a
drunken husband, lack of money,
and problems with her children.
School had always provided her with
a haven away from the desperation of
her everyday life, but now it, too,

seemed to be just another weight to
add to her difficulties. She talked
about fearing that she might not be
able to graduate on time and how this
would affect her future.
I listened in stunned silence. The
low-level resentment that I had felt
toward her for not being able to fill
out her own schedule evaporated in
the face of the concrete reality of her
despair at her situation and the pos-
sibility of the death of her dream-to
finish college and support her chil-
dren. Being with her at that moment
was an epiphany for me because it
wrenched me out of the mere func-
tionality of my role as adviser and
brought me face-to-face with her in
her suffering, her nobility, and her
endangered hope. I do not remember
what I said to her. I know that I was
supportive and assured her that
everything would be done to get her
the schedule that she needed and,
more important, that I needed her to
stay in the struggle and make a go of
it in this arduous time.
Essentially, the epiphany sponta-
neously and urgently interrupts the

flow of our everyday task orientation.
The experience demands that we
turn toward an encounter in the
immediacy of the here and now. The
epiphany emerges from within the
doing of our everyday flow into a
highlighted being-with in which our
presence to the object of our concern
is consuming. Thus the epiphany is
an entry into a world of enriched
significance.
As violence and the examples pre-
viously given indicate, the epiphany
breaks us out of the everyday flow
and opens new worlds of possibility.
As noted earlier, most epiphanies are
simply highlighted moments that
emerge from our everyday concern
and from which we return fairly soon
to the …
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words are noted as illegible or are tran-
scribed with a question mark following to indicate a lack of

certainty. The parenthetical phrases
are Eric’s; words in brackets are mine. Note that Eric dated his
entries at the end, whereas
Dylan dated them at the beginning. The numbers in the left
column refer to the pages in the
Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO) Columbine
documents. JCSO has blacked out names
other than Eric and Dylan; these are indicated thus: .
I hate the fucking world, too much god damn fuckers in it. Too
many thoughts and different
societies all wrapped up together in this fucking place called
AMERICA. Everyone has their
own god damn opinions on every god damn thing and you may
be saying “well what makes
you so different?” because I have something only me and V1
have, SELF AWARENESS. Call
it existentialism or whatever the fuck you want. We know what
we are to this world and
what everyone else is. We learn more than what caused the civil
war and how to simplify
quadratics in school. We have been watching you people. We
know what you think and how
you act. All talk and no actions. People who are said to be brave
or courageous are usually
just STUPID. Then they say later that they did it on purpose
cause they are brave when they
did [it] on fucking accident. GOD everything is so corrupt and
so filled with opinions and
points of view and people’s own little agendas and schedules.
This isn’t a world anymore.
It’s HOE2 and no one knows it. Self awareness is a
wonderful thing. I know I will die soon, so will you and
everyone else. Maybe we will be
lucky and a comet will smash us back to day 1. people say it is

immoral to follow others, they
say be a leader. Well here is a fuckin news flash for you stupid
shits, everyone is a follower!
Everyone who says they aren’t followers and then dresses
different or acts different . . . they
got that from something they saw on TV or in film or in life. No
originality. How many Jo
MAMMA jokes3 are there and how many do you think are
original and not copied. KEINE
[German: none]. It’s a fucking filthy place we live in. All these
standards and laws and great
expectations [?] are making people into robots even though they
might “think” they aren’t
and try to deny it. No matter how hard I try to NOT copy
someone I still AM! Except for this
fucking piece of paper right here, and BTW [by the way]
spelling is stupid unless I say, I say
spell it how it sounds, it’s the fuckin easiest way! Hey try this
sometime, when someone
tells you something, ask “why?” eventually they will be
stumped and can’t answer any more.
That’s because they only know what they need to know in
society and school. Not real life
science. They will end up saying words = to this “because! Just
shut up!” People that only
know stupid facts that aren’t important should be shot, what
fucking use are they. NATURAL
SELECTION. Kill all retards, people with brain fuck ups, drug
addicts, people who can’t
1 V is short for Vodka (often written VoDkA), which was
Dylan’s nickname.
2 HOE is the abbreviation for Hell on Earth. Besides its generic
meaning, Hell on Earth is also a phrase
from Doom, which was Eric’s favorite video game.

3 Eric and Dylan liked to make up their own “Jo Mamma”
jokes.
p. 26,003
p. 26,004
Eric Harris’s Journal
Transcribed and annotated by Peter Langman, Ph.D.
figure out how to use a fucking lighter. Geeeawd! People spend
millions of dollars on sav-
ing the lives of retards, and why. I don’t buy that shit like “oh,
he’s my son, though!” so the
fuck what, he ain’t normal, kill him. Put him out of his misery.
He is only a waste of time
and money, then people say “but he is worth the time, he is
human too.” No he isn’t, if he
was then he would swallow a bullet cause he would realize what
a fucking [illegible] he was.
4/10/98
As I said before, self-awareness is a wonderful thing. I know
what all you fuckers are think-
ing and what to do to piss you off and make you feel bad. I
always try to be different, but I
always end up copying someone else. I try to be a mixture of
different things and styles, but
when I step out of myself I end up looking like others or others

THINK I am copying. One
big fucking problem is people telling me what to fuckin do,
think, say, act, and everything
else. I’ll do what you say IF I feel like it. But people (ie,
parents, cops, God, teachers) telling
me what to [arrow to “do, think, say, act”] makes me not want
to fucking do it! That’s why
my fucking name is REB!!! No one is worthy of shit unless I
say they are. I feel like God and
I wish I was, having everyone being OFFICIALLY lower than
me. I already know that I am
higher than most anyone in the fucking welt [German: world] in
terms of universal Intel-
ligence. And where we stand in the universe compared to the
rest of the UNIVERSE. and if
you think I don’t know what I’m talking about then you can just
“BUCK DICH” [German:
bend over]4 and saugen mein hund [German: suck my dog]!
Isn’t America supposed to be the
land of the free? How come, If I’m free, I can’t deprive a stupid
fucking dumbshit from his
possessions if he leaves them sitting in the front seat of his
fucking van out in plain sight
and in the middle of fucking nowhere on a Frifuckingday
night.5 NATURAL SELECTION.
Fucker should be shot. Same thing with all those rich snotty
toadies at my school. Fuckers
think they are higher than me and everyone else with all their $
just because they were born
into it? Ich denk NEIN [German: I think not]. BTW [by the
way], “sorry” is just a word. It
doesn’t mean SHIT to me. Everyone should be put to a
test, an ULTIMATE DOOM test, see who can survive in an
environment using only ‘smarts’
and military skills. Put them in a Doom world, no authority, no

refuge, no BS copout excuses.
If you can’t figure out the area of a triangle or what “cation”
means, you die! If you can’t
take down a demon with a chainsaw or kill a hell prince with a
shotgun, you die! Fucking
snotty rich fuckheads [apparently a name] who rely on others
or on sympathy or $ to
get them through life should be put to this challenge. Plus it
would get rid of all the fat,
retarded, crippled, stupid, dumb, ignorant, worthless people of
this world. No one is worthy
of this planet, only me and who ever I choose, there is just no
respect for anything higher
than your fucking boss or parent. Everyone should be shot out
into space and only those
people I say should be left behind.
4/12/98
Ever wonder why we go to school? Besides getting a so-called
education. It’s not too obvious
to most of you stupid fucks but for those who think a little more
and deeper you should
realize it. Its society’s way of turning all the young people into
good little robots and factory
4 “Buck Dich” is a song by Rammstein.
5 This passage refers to January 30, 1998, when Eric and Dylan
broke into a van and stole equipment.
They were arrested and sent to a diversion program to keep first
time offenders out of the legal
system.
p. 26,005

p. 26,006
workers. That’s why we sit in desks in rows and go by bell
schedules, to get prepared for the
real world cause “that’s what its like.” Well god damn i t no it
isn’t! one thing that separates
us from other animals is the fact that we can carry actual
thoughts. So why don’t we? People
go on day by day routine shit. Why can’t we learn in school how
we want to, why can’t we sit
on desks and on shelves and put our feet up and relax while we
learn? Cause that’s not what
the “real world is like.” Well hey fuckheads, there is no such
thing as an actual “real world.”
Its just another word like justice, sorry, pity, religion, faith,
luck and so on. We are humans,
if we don’t like something we have the fucking ability to
change! But we don’t, at least you
don’t, I would. You just whine/bitch throughout life but never
do a goddamn thing to change
anything. “man can eat, drink, fuck, and hunt and anything else
he does is madness” — Based
on Lem’s quote.6 Boy oh fuckin boy is that true. When I go
NBK7 and people say things like,
“oh, it was so tragic,” or “oh he is crazy!” or “It was so
bloody.” I think, so the fuck what you
think that’s a bad thing? Just because your mumsy and dadsy
told you blood and violence is
bad, you think it’s a fucking law of nature? Wrong. Only
science and math are true, everything,

and I mean everyfuckingthing else is Man made. My doctor
wants to put me on medication8
to stop thinking about so many things and to stop getting angry.
Well, I think that anyone
who doesn’t think like me is just bullshitting themselves. Try it
sometime if you think you
are worthy, which you probably will you little shits, drop all
your beliefs and views and ideas
that have been burned into your head and try to think about why
your here. But I bet most of
you fuckers can’t even think that deep, so that is why you must
die. How dare you think that
I and you are part of the same species when we are sooooooo
different.9 You aren’t human.
You are a robot. You don’t take advantage of your capabilities
given to you at birth. You just
drop them and hop onto the boat and head down the stream of
life with all the other fuckers
of your time. Well god damn it I won’t be part of it! I have
thought too much, realized too
much, found out too much, and I am too self aware to just stop
what I am thinking and go
back to society because what I do and think isn’t “right” or
“morally accepted.” NO, NO, NO.
God fucking damn it NO! I will sooner die than betray my own
thoughts. But before I leave
this worthless place, I will kill who ever I deem unfit for
anything at all. Especially life. And
if you pissed me off in the past, you will die if I see you.
Because you might be able to piss
off others and have it eventually blow over, but not me. I don’t
forget people who wronged
me, like . He will never get a chance to read this because he
will be dead by me before
this is discovered.

4/21/98
The human race sucks. Human nature is smothered out by
society, job, and work and school.
Instincts are deleted by laws. I see people say things that
contradict themselves, or people that
don’t take any advantage to the gift of human life. They waste
their minds on memorizing
the stats of every college basketball player or how many words
should be in a report when
6 A reference to Stanislaw Lem, a science fiction writer. Eric
read and wrote a book report on Lem’s
novel “Return from the Stars” (see pp. 26,752, and 26,636-42)
7 NBK is an abbreviation for the film Natural Born Killers.
NBK was the code name for the attack on
the school.
8 This refers to Luvox, a medication that Eric began taking
shortly after this was written, and which
he continued to take until his death. It was sometimes reported
in the media that Eric had been
diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). There is
no evidence that Eric had OCD or
had ever been diagnosed with it. The error likely was a result of
the fact that Luvox is often used to
treat OCD. Thus, reports that he had been prescribed Luvox, a
medication often used to treat OCD,
apparently became distorted into statements that Eric had OCD.
Prior to taking Luvox, Eric had been
on Zoloft, an antidepressant medication, for a brief period
following his arrest.
9 This passage is likely an echo of similar statements from the
film Natural Born Killers.

p. 26,007
they should be using their brain on
more important things. The human race isn’t worth fighting for
anymore. WWII was the
last war worth fighting and was the last time human life and
human brains did any good
and made us proud. Now, with the government having scandals
and conspiracies all over
the fucking place and lying to everyone all the time and with
worthless, pointless, mind-
less, disgraceful TV shows on and with everyone ob-fucking-
sessed with Hollywood and
beauty and fame and glamour and politics and anything famous,
people just aren’t worth
saving. Society may not realize what is happening but I have;
you go to school, to get used
to studying and learning how your “supposed to” so that drains
or filters out a little bit of
human nature. But that’s after your parents taught you what’s
right and wrong even though
you may think differently, you still must follow the rules. After
school you are expected to
get a job or go to college. To have more of your human nature
blown out your ass. Society
tries to make everyone act the same by burying all human nature
and instincts. That’s what
schools, laws, jobs, and parents do. If they realize it or not. And
them, the few who stick to

their natural instincts are casted out as psychos or lunatics or
strangers or just plain differ-
ent. crazy, strange, weird, wild, these words are not bad or
degrading. If humans were let to
live how we would naturally, it would be chaos and anarchy and
the human race wouldn’t
probably last that long, but hey guess what, that’s how it’s
supposed to be!!!!! Societies and
government are only created to have order and calmness, which
is exactly the opposite of
pure human nature. Take away all your laws and morals and just
see what you can do if the
governments in our own little so called self-created “civilized
world” and get rid of all those
damn [or Darwin?] instincts everyone has!! Bullshit. I’m too
tired to write anymore tonight,
so until next time, fuck you all.
5/6/98
It has been confirmed, after getting my yearbook10 and
watching people like and
the human race isn’t worth fighting for, only worth killing. Give
the Earth back to the ani-
mals, they deserve it infinitely more than we do. Nothing means
anything anymore, most
quotes are worthless, especially the rearranged ones like “don’t
fight your enemies, make
your enemies fight.” You know, quotes that use the same phrase
just rearranged, Dumb
fuck shit [illegible] it’s funny, people say “you shouldn’t be so
different” to me, and 1st I say
fuck you don’t tell me what I should and shouldn’t be and 2nd
mother fuckers different is
good, I don’t want to be like you or anyone which is almost
impossible this day with all the

little shits trying to be “original copycats”, I expect shits like
you to criticize anyone who isn’t
one your social words, “normal” or “civilized” — see: Tempest
and Caliban. All you degrading
worthless shits all caught up and brainwashed into the 90’s
society. “what? You AREN’T
going to college, are you crazy!” holy SHIT that is one fucking
BIG quote that just proves
my point. Step back and look at yourself fuckers, I dare you,
maybe I’ll get lucky and you’ll
step back to far like Nick in E1M311 with the same
consequence.
5/9/98
Wooh, different pen. HA! All right you pathetic fools listen up;
I have figured it out. The hu-
man race strives for excellence in life and community always
wanting to bring more =good=
into the community. And nullify “bad” things. Anyone who
thinks differently than the majority
10 This tells us approximately when he got his yearbook, which
helps pinpoint when he and Dylan
wrote their inscriptions to each other.
11 E1M3 is a reference to a level in the video game Doom.
p. 26,008
p. 26,009

or the leaders is deemed “unusual” or weird or crazy. People
want to be a part of something,
a family, a service, a club, a union, a community, whatever.
That’s what humans want. Who
cares what you as an individual thinks, you must do what you
are told, whether it is jump off
a bridge or drive on the right side of the road. Protesters in the
past protested because the
human race that was dominant (Ghandhi and the Brits or the
king or the Americans) wasn’t
working out = they had fault = they failed = their ideas didn’t
work. Humans don’t change
that much, they only get better technology to do their work
quicker/easier. People always say
we shouldn’t be racist. Why not? Blacks ARE different. Like it
or not they are. They started
out on the bottom so why not keep em there. It took them
centuries to convince us that they
are equal but they still use their color as an excuse or they just
discriminate us because we
are white. Fuck you, we should ship yer black asses back to
Afrifuckingca were you came
from. We brought you here and we will take you back. America
= white. Gays. . . . well all
gays, ALL gays, should be killed. Mit keine fragen [German:
without questions]. Lesbians are
fun to watch if they are hot but still, its not human. It’s a
fucking disease. You don’t see
bulls or roosters trying
to fuck, do you? No, I didn’t think so. Women, you will always
be under men. It’s been seen
throughout nature, males are almost always doing the dangerous
shit while the women
stay back. It’s your animal instincts, deal with it or commit

suicide, just do it quick. That’s
all for now.
5/20/98
If you recall your history the Nazis came up with a “final
solution” to the Jewish problem. Kill
them all. Well, in case you haven’t figured it out yet, I say
“KILL MANKIND” no one should
survive. We all live in lies [?]. People are always saying they
want to live in a perfect society,
well utopia doesn’t exist. It is human to have flaws. You know
what. Fuck it. Why should
I have to explain myself to you survivors when half of this shit
I say you shitheads won’t
understand and if you can then woopie fucking do. That just
means you have something
to say as my reason for killing. And the majority of the
audience won’t even understand my
motives either! They’ll say “ah, he’s crazy, he’s insane,
worthless! All you fuckers should die!
DIE! What the fuck is the point if only some people see what I
am saying, there will always
be ones who don’t, ones that are to dumb or naïve or ignorant or
just plain retarded. If I
can’t pound it into every single persons head then it is
pointless. Fuck money fuck justice
fuck morals fuck civilized fuck rules fuck laws . . . DIE
manmade words . . . people think
they apply to everything when they don’t/can’t. There’s no such
thing as True Good or True
evil, it’s all relative to the observer. It’s just all nature,
chemistry, and math. Deal with it. But
since dealing with it seems impossible for mankind, since we
have to slap warning labels
on nature, then . . . you die, burn, melt, evaporate, decay. Just

go the fuck away. YAAAAAA!!!
“When in doubt, confuse the hell out of the enemy.” Fly
9/2/9812
KEIN MITLEID [German: without mercy] wait, mercy doesn’t
exist. . . .
6/12/98
Here’s something to chew on . . . today I saw a program on the
discovery channel about
satellites and radar and aircraft and stuff, and at the end of the
show the narrator said some
things that made me think “damn, we are so advanced, we kick
ass, America is awesome,
12 Fly is a band. The significance of 9/2/98 is unknown,
especially because at the time of the entry,
the date was three months in the future. Eric may have simply
made a mistake with the date.
p. 26,010
p. 26,011
we have so many things in our military, we would kick anyone’s
ass.” For a minute I actually
had some pride in our nation . . . then I realized, “hey, this is
only the GOOD things that I
am seeing here. Only the pros, not the cons. Maybe that’s what

people see, only the pros,
and that’s why they are under control, but me, I see all . . . you
can only blind me for so long,
but alas, I have realized that Yes, the human race is still indeed
doomed. It just needs a few
kick starts, like me, and hell, maybe even . If I can wipe a few
cities off the map, and
even the fuckhead holding the map, then great. Hmm, just
thinking if I want all humans
dead or maybe just the quote-unquote “civilized, developed, and
known-of ” places on Earth,
maybe leave little tribes of natives in the rain forest or
something. Hmm, I’ll think about
that. Eh, done for tonight.
REB 6/13/98
As part of the human race, and having the great pleasure of
being blessed with a brain,
I can think. Humans can do whatever they want. There is no
laws of nature that prevent
humans from making choices. Maybe from actually DOING
some of those choices, but not
from making the choice. If a man chooses to speed while
driving home one day then it is
his fault for whatever happens. If he crashes into a school bus
full of kiddies and they all
burn to death, it’s his fault. It’s only a tragedy if you think it is,
and then it’s only a tragedy
in your own mind so you shouldn’t expect others to think that
way also. It could also be a
miracle for another person maybe that bus stopped the car from
plowing into a little old
lady walking on the sidewalk, one could think it was a
“miracle” that she wasn’t hit. You see,
anything and everything that happens in our world is just that, a

HAPPENING. Anything
else is relative to the observer, but yet we try to have a
“universal law” or “code” of what is
good and bad and that just isn’t fuckin correct. We shouldn’t be
allowed to do that. We aren’t
GODS, just because we are at the top of the food chain with our
technology doesn’t mean
we can be “judges”
of nature. Sure we can think what we want, but you can “think”
and “behave” you can judge
people and nature all you want, but you are still wrong! Why
should your morals apply to
everyone else. “Morals” is just another word, and that’s it. I
think we are all a waste of natural
resources and should be killed off, and since humans have the
ability to choose . . . and I’m
human . . . I think I will choose to kill and damage as much as
nature allows me to so take
that, fuck you, and eat napalm + lead! HA! Only nature can stop
me. I know I could get shot
by a cop after only killing a single person, but hey guess the
fuck WHAT! I chose to kill that
one person so get over it! It’s MY fault! Not my parents, not my
brothers, not my friends, not
my favorite bands, not computer games, not the media. IT is
MINE! Go shut the fuck up!
-REB- 7/29/98
Someone’s bound to say “what were they thinking?” when we
go NBK or when we were
planning it, so this is what I am thinking. “I have a goal to
destroy as much as possible so
I must not be sidetracked by my feelings of sympathy, mercy, or
any of that, so I will force

myself to believe that everyone is just another monster from
Doom like FH [Former Human,
mob in Doom] or FS [Former Sergeant] or demons, so it’s either
me or them. I have to turn
off my feelings.” Keep this in mind, I want to burn the world, I
want to kill everyone except
about 5 people, who I will name later, so if you are reading this
you are lucky you escaped
my rampage because I wanted to kill you. It will be very tricky
getting all of our supplies,
explosives, weaponry, ammo, and then hiding it all and then
actually planting it all so we
can achieve our goal. But if we get busted any time, we start
killing then and there, just like
Wilks from the ALIENS books [comic books], I ain’t going out
without a fight.
p. 26,012
Once I finally start my killing, keep this in mind, there are
probably about 100 people max
in the school alone who I don’t want to die, the rest, MUST
FUCKING DIE! If I didn’t like
you or if you pissed me off and lived through my attacks,
consider yourself one lucky god
damn NIGGER. Pity that a lot of the dead will be a waste i n
some ways, like dead hot chicks
who were still bitches, they could have been good fucks. Oh
well, too fucking bad. Life isn’t
fair. . . . not by a long fuckin shot when I’m at the wheel, too.
God I want to torch and level

everything in this whole fucking area but bombs of that size are
hard to make, and plus I
would need a fuckin fully loaded A-10 to get every store on
Wadsworth and all the buildings
downtown. Heh, imagine THAT you fuckers, picture half of
Denver on fire just from me
and Vodka. Napalm on sides of skyscrapers and car garages
blowing up from exploded gas
tanks. . . . oh man that would be beautiful.
10/23/98
You know what, I feel like telling about lies. I lie a lot. Almost
constant, and to everybody, just
to keep my own ass out of the water. And by the way (side note)
I don’t think I am doing this
for attention, as some people may think. Let’s see, what are
some big lies I have told; “yeah
I stopped smoking;” “for doing it not for getting caught,” “no I
haven’t been making more
bombs,” “no I wouldn’t do that,” and of course, countless of
other ones, and yeah I know
that I hate liars and I am one myself, oh fucking well. It’s ok if
I am a hypocrite, but no one
else, because I am higher than you people, no matter what you
say if you disagree I would
shoot you. And I am one racist mother fucker too, fuck the
niggers and spics and chinks,
unless they are cool, but sometimes they are so fucking retarded
they deserve to be ripped on.
Some people go through life begging to be shot, and white fucks
are just the same. If I could
nuke the world I would, because so far I hate you all. There are
probably around 10 people
I wouldn’t want to die, but hey, who ever said life is fair should
be shot like the others, too.

KKK [swastika drawing] SS [American flag drawing]
11/1/98
Heh heh heh. I sure had fun this weekend. Let’s see, what really
happened. Before going to
Rock-n-Bowl we stopped by King Soopers and me and picked
up some big ass stogies.
We then went to Rock-n-Bowl and I had a few cigarettes and
one of my brand new cigars.
We then went back to ’s house where her mom had previously
bought us all a fuck
load of liquor. Personally I had asked for Tequila and Irish
cream, Vodka got his Vodka, and
there was beer, whiskey, schnapps, puckers, scotch, and of
course, orange juice! So we had
some fun there playing cards and making drinks. We eventually
made it to bed at about 5
AM. Got up at 10, went to Safeway got some doughnuts and
then I took Vodka home. The
bottle of Tequila is almost full and is in my car right by my
spare tire and right by the bottle
of Irish Cream. Heh heh. I’ll have to find a spot for those. And
by the way, this Nazi report13
is boosting my love of killing even more. Like the early Nazi
government, my brain is like a
sponge, sucking up everything that sounds cool and leaving out
all that is worthless. That’s
how Nazism was formed, and that’s how I will be too!
11/8/98
13 Eric wrote a school paper on the Nazis during the fall of his
senior year. There are several drafts
among the Jefferson County Sheriff ’s Office documents. See

pp. 25,964-78 for one version.
p. 26,013
p. 26,014
Fuck you Brady!14 All I want is a couple of guns, and thanks to
your fucking bill I will
probably not get any! Come on, I’ll have a clean record and I
only want them for personal
protection. It’s not like I’m some psycho who would go on a
shooting spree. . . . fuckers. I’ll
probably end up nuking everything and fucking robbing some
gun collector’s house. Fuck,
that’ll be hard. Oh well, just as long as I kill a lot of fucking
people. Everyone is always
making fun of me because of how I look, how fucking weak I
am and shit, well I will get
you all back, ultimate …
Aggression and Violent Behavior 14 (2009) 162–169
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Aggression and Violent Behavior
School shootings: Making sense of the senseless
Traci L. Wike ⁎ , Mark W. Fraser
School of Social Work, University of North Carolina at Chapel

Hill, United States
⁎ Corresponding author. University of North Carolina atC
E-mail address: [email protected] (T.L. Wike).
1359-1789/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. Al
doi:10.1016/j.avb.2009.01.005
a b s t r a c t
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
School shootings have alter
Received 4 December 2007
Received in revised form 17 December 2008
Accepted 20 January 2009
Available online 24 January 2009
Keywords:
School violence
Violent crime
Homicide
Aggressive behavior
ed the patina of seclusion and safety that once characterized
public and higher
education. Callous and brutal, school shootings seem to make
no sense. However, case comparisons and
anecdotal reports are beginning to show patterns that provide
clues for understanding both the individual
factors motivating shooting events and the characteristics of
schools where shootings have occurred. We
describe these factors and characteristics as the bases for six
prevention strategies: (a) strengthening school
attachment, (b) reducing social aggression, (c) breaking down
codes of silence, (d) establishing screening

and intervention protocols for troubled and rejected students,
(e) bolstering human and physical security,
and (6) increasing communication within educational facilities
and between educational facilities and local
resources.
© 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
1.1. The prevalence of school shootings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
2. Following Columbine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
3. Factors associated with school shootings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
3.1. Access to weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
3.2. Leakage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
4. What is known about school shooters? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
4.1. Fascination with weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
4.2. Depression, anger, and suicidal ideation . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
4.3. Rejection by peers and failed relationships . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
4.4. Victimization by peers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
5. What is known about the schools? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

5.1. School bonding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
5.2. Codes of silence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
6. Prevention and intervention strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
6.1. Interventions to strengthen security. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
6.2. Interventions to strengthen the school climate. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
6.2.1. Second Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
6.2.2. Seattle Social Development Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
6.2.3. Responding in Peaceful and Positive Ways . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
7. Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
7.1. Six strategies to address malleable risk factors . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
7.1.1. Strengthening school attachment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
7.1.2. Reducing social aggression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
7.1.3. Breaking down codes of silence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
7.1.4. Establishing resources for troubled and rejected students.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
7.1.5. Increasing security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
7.1.6. Increasing communications within school and between the
school and agencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

hapel Hill,School of Social Work, 325 Pittsboro Street,
CB3550, ChapelHill, NC 27599-3550, UnitedStates. Tel.: +1919
962 6538.
l rights reserved.
mailto:[email protected]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2009.01.005
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/13591789
163T.L. Wike, M.W. Fraser / Aggression and Violent Behavior
14 (2009) 162–169
8. Making sense of what makes no sense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
1. Introduction
Shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, at
Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas, at an Amish
school in
Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, and at dozens of other elementary,
middle, and high schools across the country have shaken a
funda-
mental belief that children are safe in school. Coupled with
incidents
in 2007 at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
(here-
after Virginia Tech), where 32 students were killed, and in 2008
at
Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, Illinois, where five
students
died, shootings in educational settings have galvanized media
attention. Once thought to be profoundly safe places, schools
and

universities must now consider the unthinkable — that someone
might enter campus and attempt to harm students and faculty.
School shootings are not new phenomena. They date back to at
least 1974, when an 18-year-old honor student set off his
school's fire
alarm and then shot at the janitors and firefighters who
responded to
the alarm (Vossekuil, Fein, Reddy, Borum, & Modzeleski,
2002).
Although rates of school violence declined steadily in the
1990s,
several highly publicized school shootings, involving multiple
homi-
cides in both public and higher education settings, have raised
concerns that current procedures may be insufficient to ensure
the
safety of school and university environments.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of school
shootings, an extreme form of school violence. We place
emphasis on
public secondary education but, where possible, we draw
inferences
to shootings in higher education. We discuss the individual
char-
acteristics of perpetrators and the vulnerabilities of schools
where
shootings have occurred. The paper concludes by reviewing
plausible
prevention strategies.
1.1. The prevalence of school shootings
The School-Associated Violent Deaths Study (SAVD)
conducted

by the Centers for Disease Control reports that between 1992
and
2006, rates of school homicides involving a single victim
decreased,
while rates of school homicides involving more than one victim
(multiple-victim homicides) remained stable (Centers for
Disease
Control [CDC], 2008). Other studies report similar declines in
single-
victim incidents, but note that there was an increase in multiple-
victim incidents between 1992 and 1999 (Anderson et al., 2001;
Department of Health and Human Services [DHHS], 2001). The
SAVD study found that during the period from July 1999 to
June
2006, 116 students were killed in 109 school-associated events.
Of
these homicides, 65% included gunshot wounds, and eight
involved
more than one victim. Seventy-eight percent of these events
occurred on an elementary, middle, or high school campus
(CDC,
2008). SAVD did not include homicides occurring on college
and
university campuses. Although data suggest that shootings are
no
more prevalent today than 10 years ago, recent mass shooting
events resulting in many deaths have drawn attention to the
possibility of violence in school settings; and they have
heightened
public concern that students and teachers are especially
vulnerable
to violent acts (e.g., Kiefer, 2005).
On balance, school shootings are rare occurrences, and, because
they have a low prevalence, they are hard to study using the
survey

and observational methods that characterize much
developmental
science and criminology. Based largely on retrospective case
analyses,
and drawing more broadly on theories of aggressive behavior
and
delinquency, various perspectives on school violence have been
advanced to explain shootings. One perspective suggests that
violent
messages in popular songs, video games, television shows, and
movies
increase aggressive behavior, reduce normative constraints, and
promote violence (Anderson & Bushman, 2001; Newman, 2004;
Robinson, Wilde, Navracruz, Farish Haydel, & Varady, 2001).
Another
perspective focuses on the intersection of developmental risk
factors
for aggressive behavior and school environments where policies
and
practices create—often inadvertently—social dynamics that
reinforce
exclusion and hostility (Farmer, Farmer, Estell, & Hutchins,
2007;
Hyman & Perone, 1998; Thompson & Kyle, 2005). Still other
perspectives based on social learning and deviancy training
theories
argue that media coverage of high profile shooting incidents,
such as
Columbine and Virginia Tech, creates a contagion effect,
stimulating
those at risk of perpetrating a school shooting to imitate the
actions of
other school shooters (Newman, 2004; O'Toole, 2000). Thus,
because
shootings are low-frequency phenomena, understanding them is
often placed in the theoretical context of more prevalent forms

of
violence.
To be sure, violence in schools is usually defined more than
school
shootings. During the 2005–2006 academic year (AY), 78% of
public
schools experienced one or more violent incidents, with 17%
experiencing one or more serious violent incidents. Serious
violent
incidents include rape, sexual battery other than rape, physical
attack
or fight with a weapon, threat of physical attack with a weapon,
and
robbery with or without a weapon (U.S. Department of
Education,
2007). In a recent report, 6% percent of students ages 12 to 18
years
reported that they were afraid of either being attacked at s chool
or on
the way to and from school (CDC, 2005a). Fear is more
prevalent
among younger, urban, and minority students (Cully, Conkling,
Emshoff, Blakely, & Gorman, 2006). Often used as an indicator
of the
risk for school violence, the percentage of students who carry
any
weapon to school, including guns, increased from 17.1% to
18.5% in
2005 (CDC, 2005b); however, during the same year, students
who
carried a gun to school decreased from 6.1% to 5.4% (CDC,
2005a).
These data included students who carried weapons for self-
protec-
tion. Therefore, although carrying a weapon poses a greater risk

for
violence, it may not represent intent to victimize others.
Even though school violence is not rare, acts of serious violence
in
schools, such as shootings, are infrequent and the risk of violent
victimization appears to be decreasing (DeVoe, Peter, Noonan,
Snyder,
& Baum, 2005). In the AY 1999–2000, 20% of students reported
experiencing a serious violent incident (U.S. Department of
Education,
2005) compared to 17% in AY 2005–2006 (U.S. Department of
Education, 2007). The odds that a high-school student will be a
victim of homicide or commit suicide in school are no greater
than 1 in
1 million (Vossekuil et al., 2002), and school-related homicides
comprise only 1% of all homicides in the United States (CDC,
2006).
However, although shootings are statistically rare, polls report
that
more than 50% of parents with school-age children and 75% of
high-
school students believe that a school shooting could happen in
their
communities (e.g., Juvonen, 2001; Kiefer, 2005).
2. Following Columbine
Following the tragedy at Columbine High School in 1999, the
U.S.
Secret Service and U.S. Department of Education commissioned
the
Safe School Initiative, a collaborative study that examined 37
shootings occurring in U.S. schools between 1974 and 2000
(Vossekuil
et al., 2002). The Safe School final report examined behavioral

factors
involved in school shootings, and attempted to identify risk
factors for
164 T.L. Wike, M.W. Fraser / Aggression and Violent Behavior
14 (2009) 162–169
use in efforts toward preempting an attack and strengthening
prevention (Vossekuil et al., 2002). An additional report
released by
the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) focused on the
character-
istics of perpetrators and assessment of threat (O'Toole, 2000).
Both
efforts sought to dispel school shooting myths, especially
misinforma-
tion about the characteristics of school shooters.
These reports suggested that no single risk profile could be used
to
identify potential school shooters (Vossekuil et al., 2002).
Although
shooters have some shared characteristics, profiling, the reports
argued, would produce many errors. Many more students would
fit a
putative profile than those at true risk for perpetrating a school
shooting, and conversely, some shooters would likely not be
identified. For example, a 14-year-old female in Williamsport,
Pennsylvania, who shot a classmate during lunch in the
cafeteria,
would not have been identified as being at risk. Though she was
alienated from school, teased by peers, and on medications for
depression — all risk factors that elevate the potential for
violence —
she was not White and male, two risk factors in profiles based

on case
analyses of the characteristics of shooters.
3. Factors associated with school shootings
Although predicting violence on the basis of individual char -
acteristics is difficult, much has been learned from recent
studies of
school shootings. Understanding these factors holds the
potential to
inform the design of school-level prevention programs. At
perhaps
the simplest plane of analysis, school shootings can be
classified
by the type of offender. Some shootings, such as those at West-
side Middle School and Columbine High School, involve
students
who act against peers and faculty. However, other shootings
have
involved adults who used the school as a setting in which to
commit violent acts. This was seen in the Amish school
shooting in
Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, where a 32-year-old milk truck
driver
entered a one-room schoolhouse and held five girls hostage,
event-
ually executing them before killing himself. The gunman
indicated
that his actions were not directly related to the school or to the
Amish community, but were motivated instead by a painful
incident
in his childhood. When adults enter schools and violently
victimize
students and staff, risk factors differ from incidents that involve
student shooters. School and peer factors may influence a
student

perpetrator, but have little or no bearing on school shootings
committed by adults.
Even though shootings committed by students differ from those
committed by adults, two risk factors appear to characterize
both
kinds of events. The first, perpetrators often have had a
fascination
with weapons and they have all had access to guns. The second
is
disclosure of assault plans, referred to as leakage. The
perpetrators of
many shootings have provided clues about their plans.
3.1. Access to weapons
All perpetrators of shootings have had ready access to weapons.
Shootings could not happen without gun access. When the
perpe-
trator of the Williamsport shooting was asked if she thought
that not
having access to a gun would have prevented her attack, she
replied
that having a gun probably contributed (ABC News, 2001).
Although
limiting gun access would likely not stop those who are
committed to
an attack, limited access complicates the process and, in many
states,
brings to bear an added level of scrutiny that may deter a
potential
shooting.
Funded under the 1993 Brady Handgun Violence Prevention
Act,
the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS)

was
created in 1998. The database contains criminal records from all
states and mental health records from 22 states. By law, the
NICS is
to be checked whenever an attempt is made to purchase a
weapon
from a federal firearms licensee (Federal Bureau of
Investigation,
2007). For a potential shooter, the added time required by
background checks may promote recovery from a dysregulated
(i.e., impaired) mental state and may increase the chances for
intervention by peers, parents, or others. However, the NICS is
porous and, as in the case of the perpetrator of the Virginia
Tech
assault, a determined, emotionally regulated killer is likely to
find a
way to purchase weapons.
3.2. Leakage
School shootings are rarely impulsive. Most school shooters
plan
their assaults and provide clues or warning signs that they are
contemplating an attack (Vossekuil et al., 2002). The
perpetrators of
the Columbine shooting planned their attack for over a year,
during
which they gave many warning signs. For example, a story
written for
an English class by one of the perpetrators described a shooting
spree
by an assassin in a black trench coat (CBS News, 2001). At
Virginia
Tech, the violent writings and threatening behavior of the
student
who ultimately became the shooter prompted an English

professor to
have him removed from class. More recently, a teenager in
Finland
killed eight people in an attack on his high school (Cable News
Network [CNN], 2007a). Authorities reported that he had posted
notes
and videos on a public internet video site, referencing the
upcoming
attack. Leakage is a keystone risk factor for a school shooting,
and the
CDC (2006b) reports that almost 50% of attackers have given
some
kind of warning.
4. What is known about school shooters?
Besides access to weapons and leakage of plans, what else is
known about school shooters? At the individual level, shooters
appear to lack skill in solving social problems. They do not
actively
cope with adversity and seem to accumulate losses and social
failures (O'Toole, 2000). Over time, they develop negative
schemata
and scripts in which others are perceived as having hostile
intent.
Feeling rejected and persecuted, they tend to isolate themselves
from peers or to associate with other alienated peers (Verlinden,
Hersen, & Thomas, 2000). This is a potentially dangerous
pattern
when coupled with a fascination with weapons, anger at peers,
and
victimization by bullies or others.
4.1. Fascination with weapons
Among other factors that characterize the perpetrators of school

shootings is fascination with guns, bombs, and other explosives.
The perpetrators of the violence at Columbine High School
appear
to have been deeply involved with violent video games and
guns.
The duo hoarded bombs, explosives, and guns in their homes for
a year while they planned their attack. Writings found after the
attack contained references to death, violence, superiority, and
hate
(Meadows, 2006). More recently, acting on a tip from students,
police in Plymouth Meeting outside Philadelphia, arrested a 14-
year-
old dropout who, with his parents' assistance, had amassed
swords,
pistols, a 9 mm semiautomatic rifle, grenades, bomb-
instructional
manuals, black powder used in bomb making, and videos of the
Columbine attack. According to reports, his anger and
alienation
were conjoined with plans to attack his former school, and his
parents' angst over their son's school failures appear to have
pro-
duced poor decisions in trying to indulge his fantasies (though
his
parents did not know of his plans to attack his school; Chernoff
&
Vitagliano, 2007).
4.2. Depression, anger, and suicidal ideation
Research on school shooters has shown several commonalities
in
temperament, including poor control of anger, lack of empathy,
and a

165T.L. Wike, M.W. Fraser / Aggression and Violent Behavior
14 (2009) 162–169
combined sense of persecution, righteous indignation, and
super-
iority (O'Toole, 2000; Verlinden et al., 2000). Many school
shooters
have evidenced symptoms of depression and thoughts of
suicide.
Indeed, Vossekuil et al. (2002) reported that three-fourths of
attackers had indicated thoughts of suicide or attempts at
suicide
before the attack. In addition, in at least 12 shooting events
since
1996, shooters have ended attacks with suicide (Pearson
Education,
2006).
4.3. Rejection by peers and failed relationships
Rejection by peers may weakly predict violent behavior,
including
school shootings. Studies show that peer rejection is a
developmental
correlate of anxiety, depression, aggression, antisocial behavior,
and
other poor adolescent outcomes (Dodge et al., 2003; Nansel et
al.,
2001, Nansel et al., 2004). For example, Dodge et al. (2003)
found that
peer rejection in elementary school interacts with aggressive
behavior
to exacerbate antisocial behavior. In addition to rejection by
peers, the
dissolution of romantic relationships—a form of peer
rejection—is

correlated with depression and loneliness (La Greca & Harrison,
2005). Retrospective case analyses have identified failed peer
relationships and humiliation as precursors of many shooting
events
(O'Toole, 2000; Verlinden et al., 2000). Indeed, three-quarters
of
shooters studied in the Safe School Initiative experienced some
form
of peer rejection (Vossekuil et al., 2002), including romantic
break-
ups. Leary, Kowalski, Smith, and Phillips (2003) conducted
case
studies of 15 school shootings that occurred between 1995 and
2001.
In 46% of the cases, shooters experienced recent rejection in the
form
of a dissolved romantic relationship or unrequited love. In half
of these
cases, the victims of shootings were those who rejected the
perpetrator (Leary et al., 2003). To be sure, peer rejection and
failed
romances are common in adolescence. However, for some high-
risk
adolescents, experiencing acute rejection may exacerbate an
existing
problem or contribute to a threshold effect after which
normative
functioning is compromised.
4.4. Victimization by peers
Overall, student perpetrators tend to have lower social status
with
peers, and they are more likely to have been victimized by
peers. That
is, more than being passively rejected or ignored by peers, they

have
been teased, taunted, or bullied. The Safe School Initiative
found that
71% of attackers had experienced bullying and harassment
(Vossekuil
et al., 2002). In a media interview one month after she shot a
classmate, one teen perpetrator claimed she had been taunted
and
teased by classmates in a previous public school. After her
parents
removed her from that school, the teasing continued at her new
school and may have precipitated the shooting (ABC News,
2001).
Leary et al. (2003) found that in 12 out of 15 shooting
incidents,
perpetrators had been the victims of some form of teasing,
ostracism,
or rejection by peers. In a similar case study, Verlinden et al.
(2000)
found that across nine school shooting incidents, all
perpetrators had
experienced some form of teasing or felt isolated and
marginalized by
peers.
Although peer victimization is widely reported as a risk factor
for
many kinds of antisocial behavior, the relative importance of
peer
victimization in school shootings is unclear (Cully et al., 2006;
Dodge et al., 2003; Leary et al., 2003; Verlinden et al., 2000).
A
specific event could trigger a shooting. On the other hand,
because
peer victimization is widespread in schools (Nansel, Overpeck,
Haynie, Ruan, & Scheidt, 2003; Nansel et al., 2004), peer

victimiza-
tion is probably best thought of as significant contextual risk
that
elevates alienation and anger. It appears that adolescents who
lack
capacity to negotiate peer conflicts or to rebound from peer -
related
traumas may be at greater risk. Thus, if peer victimization
functions
to elevate risk, it marks high risk school social dynamics that
probably operate in combination with many other risk factors
(Farmer et al., 2007).
5. What is known about the schools?
School conditions also appear correlated with shootings.
Shootings
appear more likely in schools characterized by a high degree of
social
stratification, low bonding and attachment between teachers and
students, and few opportunities for involvement. High risk
school
cultures are unresponsive to the needs of students, provide
rewards
and recognition for only an elite few, and create social
dynamics that
promote disrespectful behavior, bullying, and peer harassment
(O'Toole, 2000).
5.1. School bonding
In nearly all school shootings, perpetrators appear to have felt
little
attachment to their schools, teachers, or peers. School
attachment and
bonding are often found to predict developmental outcomes. For

example, Catalano, Haggerty, Oesterle, Fleming, and Hawkins
(2004)
found that school bonding, defined as having close attachments
to
those at school and feeling invested in school, resulted in higher
academic achievement and lower incidence of substance use,
high risk
sexual behavior, and violence. Large and highly socially
stratified
schools, with hierarchies of students where prestige accrues
princi-
pally to an in-group, may be at greatest risk. School size can
also affect
level of connectedness or bonding. Schools that are larger in
size face
special challenges in engaging students and sustaining a climate
that
encourages attachment and bonding (Wilson, 2004).
5.2. Codes of silence
Changing a school's climate to promote school bonding may
help
to reduce codes of silence, a term that refers to an unspoken
agreement
among students that they should not share information about
each
other with teachers, administrators, or parents. Codes of silence
mark
environments where distrust prevails. In schools with codes of
silence,
students feel little sense of involvement with faculty, and they
have
little sense that they can affect policies or influence programs.
Breaking down codes of silence is imperative in opening lines
of

communication between students, teachers, and staff about
possible
threats to safety.
6. Prevention and intervention strategies
In response to recent shootings, government agencies,
researchers,
policy makers, and school administrators have implemented a
variety of
programs and policies aimed at reducing the threat of school
violence.
Graphic media coverage combined with the shocking nature of
shootings have created a climate of heightened awareness
among
parents, teachers, and students. Many prevention and
intervention
strategies—some controversial—have resulted from this wide-
spread
public concern. For example, one school district in Burleson,
Texas
implemented its own “counterattack” plan. The district adopted
a policy
of teaching students to fight back in the event of a shooting.
The school
district trained students to throw books, pencils, and chairs at
an armed
intruder (Von Fremd, 2003). After public concern about the
strategy, the
school district has since changed its policy and no longer
implements
the training (“Burleson Changes Stance,” 2006). In the same
vein,
however, a bill introduced by a Wisconsin legislator proposed
to allow
teachers to keep concealed weapons in the classroom (Lasee,

2006). The
proposal received only a lukewarm response. Though
controversial,
these responses illustrate the degree of alarm and the
willingness of
school districts to consider a broad range of prevention
strategies.
School shootings engender deep public concern. They violate
strongly held cross-cultural beliefs about the sanctity of
childhood and
166 T.L. Wike, M.W. Fraser / Aggression and Violent Behavior
14 (2009) 162–169
the obligation of society to protect children from harm. Though
shootings are so rare as to make testing alternative prevention
strategies very difficult, two main prevention and intervention
approaches are beginning to emerge from case studies and
discourse
among experts. The first aims to influence facility security,
create
changes in the vulnerability of facilities to intrusion, and to
increase
the capacity to respond at the moment of threat. The second
seeks to
transform the school climate and increase school attachment and
bonding (Cully et al., 2006).
6.1. Interventions to strengthen security
A disturbing feature of school shootings is that sometimes
heavily
armed students have succeeded in carrying into schools
undetected

guns, ammunition, and explosives. As a result, increasing
security and
limiting access are often identified as high priorities …

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