Dylan Klebold Influence On School Shootings

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a school shooting spree in Littleton, Colorado. Their catch phrase became, “Do you believe in God?” (Johnson, 2012). Multiple students were asked this simple question and killed if they answered yes. Harris and Klebold changed education from coast to coast in the United States with the massacre they carried out that morning in April of 1999. Reporters and journalists showed more respect for schools when the idea of school shootings were still very shocking.
School shootings have been covered in the news for the past two decades, and they aren’t slowing down anytime soon. The Columbine Massacre is much different than other shootings because it set a path for other school shooters. They saw inspiration in

No one was sure how to react; I mean, school shootings were still pretty rare, let alone a shooting with 12 students killed on scene (CNN Library, 2015). Media coverage hasn’t stopped after the Columbine shootings, though. It seems as though every week there is a story about a school shooting on national news channels. Since 2013, 158 school shootings have taken place in the United States (158 School Shootings In America Since 2013, 2015). When I did this math, that number averages out to about one school shooting per week in the U.S. In my opinion, I feel as though this number could be reduced if the number of shootings reported in the news was significantly lower. One of the more recent school shootings at the Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, was reported by the media on ABC News just 12 short hours after the police showed up to the scene. The Columbine shooting was also reported within a day of it happening. But since the attacks in Littleton were still a shock to most of the nation, the reports by news anchors seemed more considerate and personal. By the time that the UCC shooting occurred this year, I don’t think any American was shocked over hearing about yet another attack at a school campus. A native of Oregon reported to me that he ‘felt as though the reports on UCC were impersonal to the victims and citizens of Oregon, and that the reports were made public so fast that they

I don’t ever remember a time where there weren’t security cameras in school hallways, but apparently before massive school shootings it wasn’t unheard of to be in a school with zero security cameras. Our school has never experienced a shooting, but we are prepared for one just the same as a school that has had one in the past. Many schools go even further than we do here at OHS in their security acts. Two years ago when our school went into lockdown, I was in Geometry class. None of my classmates or myself knew what was going on at the time; we just continued to follow the lesson that Mr. Koepplin was teaching on the board. Our school was somewhat prepared for an event like this to happen. We had black shutters to pull over the window on the doors and emergency bags with supplies in them in each room. Although we probably shouldn’t have continued on with our lesson since we were making noise and we didn’t know where the threatening man was located at in the school building, I didn’t feel that threatened by the whole situation. Our teacher knew how to keep us calm which is what they should be educated on how to do. The man who was a threat to our school was in the elementary portion of our school the entire time, but no one knew this during the lockdown. He had a hit list in mind and it was mostly made up of school staff. Although no one was at all injured in this