The Spread Of School Violence In Columbine By Dave Cullen

It’s no debate that gun violence in schools is a serious issue in the United States that affects students, teachers and communities. In Columbine by Dave Cullen, readers learn about the 1999 Columbine High School school shooting, as well as some of the largest myths about school violence that originated from one of the nation’s first school shootings. Through exploring both Columbine and various other resources, it becomes clear that the misinformation spread through the media immediately following school shootings simply exacerbates the real issue and causes more pain to the victims and their families. Within the book Columbine by Dave Cullen alone, we can see the beginning of both what we consider modern school shootings, as well as interference

Most of those elements existed at Columbine—which is what gave them such currency. They just had nothing to do with the murders. The lesser myths are equally unsupported: no connection to Marilyn Manson, Hitler’s birthday, minorities, or Christians.” (Cullen) Consequently, we can prove that all of this “breaking news” presented by the media following the attack was entirely untrue, leading ultimately to heavy misinformation being spread, causing even more harm to the investigation of the shooting and the victims and their families. Another example we can see of misinformation surrounding school shootings in a broader sense is within an article from The Littleton Independent, a news source from Littleton, Colorado, where the Columbine school shooting took place. In relation to the effects of misinformation and dramatization in the media, Professor Elizabeth Skewes of the University of Colorado Boulder states: “...people have become desensitized to news of mass shootings, and survivors and those impacted indirectly have been retraumatized.” (Skewes

In conclusion, throughout examining multiple sources and through the lens of the Columbine school shooting, it becomes heavily apparent that the spread of misinformation in the media, which commonly occurs following a mass shooting, simply thwarts investigational efforts and leaves a wound on victims’ healing processes, especially when they are targeted by such conspiracy theories and misleading “information.” Knowing this, we must remind ourselves of the true importance of finding credible sources to learn information from on current events, as well as giving an investigation a few days to smooth out in comparison to digging for