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Columbine Shootings: Schools
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The Virginia Tech massacre this month and the Columbine shootings in 1999 are two tragedies which have sparked many schools to review their safety and security policies and procedures. Improved warning systems will get the word out quickly and surveillance cameras will allow closer monitoring of the campus. "Unfortunately, lockdowns are increasingly more common in today's schools from preschool on up," says Mina Arnao, President of More Prepared. Whether the threat is an armed burglar on the loose in the area, a bomb threat or a chemical leak from a nearby plant, a school's primary concern is the safety of its students. During a lockdown, students cannot leave the classroom and entrance to the campus is restricted. -Source: http://www.prnewswire.com
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The decision by Miramax officials to shelve the film is difficult to justify even in the immediate context of the Columbine shootings since violence in "O" is neither gratuitous nor sensational. This is not to deny that it is haunting and particularly relevant.... The final shots of the film appropriate quite powerfully the stock imagery and symbolism of an increasingly familiar American scene: the realist, but highly performative "aftermath coverage" of countless high school shootings both before and after Columbine. In the chaotic whirl of sirens and flashing camera bulbs, grim-faced police officers and faceless EMT personnel move quickly in and out of each frame, directing the movements and actions of the other major characters: the seemingly indifferent juvenile offender who is escorted slowly to the back seat of a patrol car; the numerous television reporters and camera people who struggle to "make sense" of an "unspeakable" or "unthinkable" catastrophe; the grieving parents who wail and cry over the bodies of their dead children; and, most iconographically, the groups of huddled students weeping in each other's arms. Nelson acknowledged the influence of such news coverage on this particular sequence of shots, admitting that "it was these [high school] shootings that interested me in making this film" (2002).
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While the boy roamed the halls of the school, the school went into lockdown and police were summoned, following nationwide procedures devised after the Columbine shootings. They stormed the building, and subdued the boy before anyone was hurt. Things could well have turned out differently: The boy and and several friends had been planning a violent takeover of the school, with the aim of hurting or even killing those who had been mean to them. But at the last minute, the boy's principal accomplice backed out and he was left to terrorize the school alone. The accomplice has since been charged with conspiracy to possess firearms on school property. The boy himself has been charged with possession of a firearm by a minor, use of a firearm in commission of a felony, conspiracy to commit abduction for money and conspiracy to commit murder.
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Carla Hochhalter was instantly dubbed "the 14th victim" of the Columbine shootings, but there are hundreds, if not thousands, of victims, and they continue to suffer--from wounds, from grief, from depression and from each other's jealousy and wrath. Fearful of another massacre, school administrators and police have imposed a policy of "zero tolerance" for threatening remarks. Some angry parents are suing, or threatening to sue, the authorities, and others are seeking religious meaning in the tragedy. Few have found peace, judging from the events of last week.
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A week after the Columbine shootings, one of her teachers heard a rumour that she had written a story about gun violence and organised a search of her backpack and school locker. No weapons showed up, but that did not stop the school authorities from confiscating her notebooks and school work, including stories she had been working on. One of these stories concerned a shooting on a school bus; within 24 hours, Brandi was suspended for the rest of the academic year.
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The Columbine Task Force, a group of community leaders, parents and school officials, proposed Orwellian-like security measures in July to be implemented in local schools in light of the Columbine shooting. A final decision on the measures will be made on August 9th, and formal action taken by the school board on August 19th. Some of the measures include, "Requiring students and visitors to wear IDs at all times", "Studying whether adding another armed guard at each high school would be effective", "Having one armed resource officer at each of the district's middle schools", "Studying whether cameras recently installed at Columbine are effective for districtwide use."
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