“You Promised”…
Presents theories and forces behind school shootings and how they affected generation “lockdown”
Jaclyn Angela E.A. Rodriguez
Currently, I am a college senior living in America at a time when mass shootings occur on average every 16 hours, or about 1.5 times a day (Cornett 2023). So, if I die in a school shooting, here is what you need to know. I keep my apartment keys and ID card in the front pocket of my backpack. This should make it easy for you to find out who I am and where I live. Please tell my dad first as my mom will probably faint. My computer password is my dog’s name. After you log in, please check my emails, maybe email some of my professors. Open my phone up and please let my best friends know what happened. They probably already know from the News. I have some money in my bank account. Please give it to my mom, as she’ll know what to put it toward in order to help my family. It would be appreciated if you donated my clothes to charities or second-hand thrift stores so that they don’t add to the piles that end up in landfills every year. I was working towards a degree in Anthropology and I already did my work towards a degree in History. I wanted to really help people, I wanted to stop violence and I truly wanted a world at peace, as I am Christian. I also got into 5 graduate schools. Since that won’t happen, feel free to give all my notes, test prep resources, answer keys, past assignments, etc. to anyone in those fields. They as well might be useful to someone else. We go on a yearly trip to Maryland or Delaware, please enjoy yourself at the beach and maybe get a bench named for me, maybe it could be the exact bench we ate thrasher’s french fries when I was a kid. If not, maybe cremate me and leave part of me there so I can still be on our family vacation. Don’t tell younger family members, as it will only haunt them. Just let them think I died peacefully. Maybe consider letting them be homeschooled as our schools are not safe. My birthday is in November. If it’s coming up, make sure to return my gifts. I hate money being frivolously spent or time going to waste, so please cancel any celebration. Think about the fact that I will have died before graduating college. If that doesn’t disturb you, think about the fact that 2 out of the 3 deadliest school shootings were not at colleges; they were at elementary schools. Those children didn’t graduate fifth grade. Don’t call me a daughter, or sister, or friend; call me a victim of the NRA and the people who would rather protect their right to own an assault rifle than the lives of their fellow human beings. Likewise, do not send thoughts and prayers – they won’t bring us back to life. (Cornett 2023)
(The piece above from Cornett was edited and paraphrased to fit my life and story, but is heavily based on Cornett’s own piece)
Thesis- School Shootings and the collective forces around them are perpetuated shootings as well as fear of shootings with US society(culture) today especially within “Generation Lockdown” (Millennials)
On April 20, 1999, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, students of Columbine High School walked into their school and began to execute their teachers, classmates and others in sight with guns. Within 30 minutes thirteen people would lose their lives, a tragedy at the extent of deaths never seen before in the United States (Schaefer 2009). They would then be shot and killed in this attack on the school. Since then, no less than 175 young people have died in their schools in shootings. Columbine had not been the first, but became the first to garner the publicity that would usher in a developing era of social change many school shootings followed in suite. The first school shooting in recorded United States History was be at the University of Texas (1966) (Kiely). This was followed by the National Guard assault at Kent State in Ohio and spotted other attacks perpetuated by young people in schools that would reestablish the societal standards of school violence expectations. The tragedy of Columbine was widely shared through the media outlets and the developing widespread internet to bring attention and infamy. As Claudia Strauss retells us, “[t]hese school shootings became the focus of movies (Elephant, Zero Day, Bowling for Columbine), novels (Shooter, Vernon God Little, Nineteen Minutes), an Eminem song (“I’m Back”), a Marilyn Manson album (“Holy Wood [In the Shadow of the Valley of Death]”), Christian martyrdom tales (e.g., Rachel’s Tears), academic analyses (e.g., Lieberman 2006; Newman et al. 2004; Watson 2002), social activism, and government policy making.”(Strauss 2007). The media created around Columbine stirred a theory called the “Columbine Effect,” theorizing that school shooters copied and idolized Klebold and Harris for their crime. These copy cats would use Columbine as their guide, taking interest in the event, touring to see Columbine (particularly the library where the shooting took place) and sought greater fame to the Columbine shooters. Klebold and Harris had become infamous, gaining notoriety in the final minutes of their lives as they executed their teachers and peers. The news networks covered the crime as it unfolded and discovery developed into release. Overtime, media has shifted and expanded platforms to include things like TikTok, YouTube and other public access outlets where people can share their experiences directly. This, along with news channels and media outlets spreading fear of school shootings, helps to glorify school shooters like Harris and Klebold. Media outlets began to omit the names of school shooters and attackers in the reports to deny fame and glory to perpetrators and perceived copy cats.
As someone who cannot recall a time without constant threats in our schools, I always questioned the safety of myself and others. Families are mandated to send their children to schools, yet the government that enforces this requirement does not guarantee safety or survival in the school environment and threatens parents who withhold their children from this environment. We continue to see our fellow students across the United States murdered in their classrooms and before they grow, the fear is growing within this generation and the next as we are forced to observe our mortality in daily life. This fear has changed the way current and future generations will live their lives and make decisions. After all, we are fighting for our lives, safety and futures, not just trying to get an education to fight the next battle in what may be called a perpetual “hunger game.” The life of none in this society will never be the same due to the fears and threats to which we have been exposed. Mental health services have fallen short of the call, demand and availability to match the violence that is continuous in our society for survivors and victims, attackers and social witnesses alike.
Literature Review
My research explored how school shootings have affected the nation of the US, both in direct exposure and experience and indirectly throughout communities. I investigated how the media perpetuates narratives of fear around school shootings and community risks for ratings and otherwise. Foucault (Discipline and Punish) argues that we are always being watched by those in power (Panopticon). I argue that we are not always being fully watched and the monitoring we do receive is less than enough, as monitoring does not imply intervention with services like mental health counseling. If monitoring was sufficient and linked with services, school shootings would not be as prevalent as they have become. But, today we are constantly persuaded by the media to fear or consider our surroundings and options, the media is like the guard in the Panopticon. It is always there flooding us with ideas. Media stimulates fear with people who are spectators to the media constantly given a stream of highlights, and rarely the full stories or multiple perspectives, these highlights usually hype up the worst-case scenarios and catastrophic outcomes. The fear can be likened to the fear of the guard in the Panopticon, where behavior changes are expected to prevent problems.
By persuasion and common expectations, many people look to media sources to see news, to understand what is happening in the world around them and to have a voice with media stirring interest to drive engagement. Take the app Citizen for example where users are giving hyper-local updates about events such as crime, protests, subway closures by fellow citizens. This app, and others similar, have been widely downloaded and I have seen and experienced instances where people have changed plans due to notifications (a tactic to stimulate response hormones and user engagement) such as taking a different route to their location, canceling or changing plans to avoid situations that may not be confirmed (such as false gunshots). People do this with other media, such as the case where Facebook groups surrounding neighborhood safety, Twitter/X posts that insight justice movements people are using social media more and more get messages across to others and drive both connection and interest.
Michel Foucault, a French philosopher, developed many influential theories in Anthropology, especially those surrounding power and surveillance. Famously in his work Discipline and Punish (Foucault 1975), Foucault describes the Panopticon, but more importantly he describes the feeling of being watched by the Panopticon. That prisoners feel they are monitored all the time, hence they always behave. Eventually it becomes that you end up observing yourself and do not even need a guard.
The Panopticon is a type of prison technology where the prisoners can all see a guard tower but not the guard or fellow prisoners. A light in the tower blinds you from seeing who is in the tower or if there is anyone in the tower. This gives the illusion of being watched 24/7, but are we truly always being watched? People believe in today’s high technology society we are being watched and monitored more than we think, following this theory, should there be as many mass shootings? Is lack of surveillance the problem or is the lack of proper surveillance and proper protocols and laws that could protect our students? Or is it the lack of recognition or concern to being watched? We are constantly being bombarded with media in our modern world. The media keeps us in so-called chains where we fear the world around us especially when so much violence being highlighted.
John Devine, an anthropologist, refutes Foucault’s theory. In his book Maximum Security (Devine 1996), talks about violence in schools. In chapter 3 titled, “Foucault, Security Guards and Indocile Bodies” Devine gives us a feel for what it is that he is studying, as he is in a public school in New York City, searching for why violence happens in schools. He finds statistics showing that the school itself has seventeen school safety officers (SSOs) and the city has poured $38 million into school safety but, as he puts it, the street still finds its way into the school buildings. Students are afraid of commuting to and from schools and carry weapons with them and bring these weapons into school buildings. As Devine talks with these students, most aged fourteen he is shocked to hear that they have been involved in such drug problems and have had to defend themselves.
Devine continues his chapter to show also how security is not functioning in these schools. He shows how guards are too friendly and sometimes even exploit minor students, guards are not truly watching who they scan into the buildings so people could be using fake IDs. Teachers are told to break up fights but cannot physically intervene because if they get hurt they risk their job and insurance. Devine highlights that despite 38 million dollars in SSOs, it is not the prison where the guards are not seen and prisoners have the effect that the guards are watching twenty-four/seven. The anti-panopticon theory suggests that in schools, students know the guards aren’t watching and this leads to the continually violence. Devine shows how the collective forces around the schools such as drug dealers, high crime and fear of violence are bringing weapons and potential violence into the school.
While Devine is studying at an urban school and most (not all) massive school shootings happen in suburban schools, the research links the story of Meadow Pollack daughter of author Andrew Pollack (Why Meadow Died). Pollack, age 18 was murdered in her Marjory Stoneman Douglas class on Valentine’s Day of 2018. Her father, much like Devine, says despite the security, the laws, the policies and even the mental health in place someone like Nikolas Cruz was bound to fall through the cracks (like how students are not treated properly by guards in Devine case), based on Pollack’s research Cruz’s care was very transactional where it was just done to meet required standards and despite the school knowing Cruz needed more care than what was provided, they failed to do so leading to the shooting at Parkland. Cruz was not a victim of poor economic status as he had a lofty trust fund in his name, but he was a victim of being Under the Radar (Rampage, Katherine S Newman) . The radar being the way cases of mental crisis are handled in this country where despite multiple encounters from one individual, professionals seem to let it slide as it is not part of their paperwork and they feel that they have met the policies set in place. If surveillance is only a policy meeting level and the policies are yet to be at a standard to meet the needs of those in crisis then the system will continue to fail and more and more problems will occur. (example changing when a student is required or urged to need mental health care) and (example two- mental health care over suspension). Cruz was adopted at a young age and services failed to follow and support him after his adoptive father passed, leaving his struggling, single mother alone with a high needs child who felt unloved and unrecognized. His siblings remained in foster care and also lead troubled lives.
Much like Devine, Graham Jones looks at the individual in saying we have an age of secrecy and that secrecy involves being an insider rather than an outsider. “Secrets produce value through both the exclusion of outsiders and the inclusion of insiders. Thus contradictory centrifugal and centripetal forces push and pull on secrets. Possessing secrets can make people intensely aware of the fragility of knowledge and the precariousness of their custodial position” (Jones 2014). In his piece called “Secrecy” (2014) Jones talks about how surveillance can be viewed as a secret and an insider thing. This piece is interesting due to the thought of the lack of secrecy in a society where we are constantly tracked. Whether it be our ID cards, CCTV, surveillance cameras or our computers and now smartphones, we leave a trace. Yet our identity and the spaces in which we can and cannot move are determined by what groups we are in.
Much like how our identity determines where we can and cannot go, our identity determines if we are surveilled more or less. In the case of anthropologist Katherine Verdery (Verdery 2012), who went under intense scrutiny in Romania and questioned why she was the target and what made her a threat. Her being American and an anthropologist was viewed like she was a spy, much like how we are viewing people with mental illness in the country. People are more easily (at least in New York City) to criminalize people experiencing mental health crises and people would rather see those individuals locked up than to see more mental health resources used to help those in need.
Tying this back to Foucault and his book Ethics (1997). He discusses governmentality and how some people’s behaviors become more and more involved in sovereignties. Meaning some people have more control whereas others do not. Realizing this leads me to believe this links perfectly to both Devine and Verdery as Devine’s interlocutors are students in a high crime neighborhood who are powerless to those in charge, such as drug cartels and neighborhood gangs. Verdery was under the observation of a government in which she had no control of what was seen and how she was viewed. In the case of Columbine and other high profile shootings, the shooters had the power of media to be involved in the sovereignty or the country. They knew many times that their actions would be recorded and shared widely and they could influence power over the general population, especially since many of the shooters felt powerless if their lives and could gain their power quickly during the rapid unfolding of these tragic events.
In Zuboff’s book Age of Surveillance in Capitalism (Zuboff 2019), she debates that we are under surveillance primarily by businesses in today’s economy. Google and Amazon benefit off of surveilling us to better answer what we want and how to sell to us, and these tracking lists are sold over and over. Not only are private businesses interested, the governments, both local and federal, watch our online history. If foreign governments are not directly watching, they can buy click patterns and tracking cookie logs.
In his piece, An Anthropology of Governmentality and Globalization: Some Signs of Our Time. Mahmudal H. Sumon expresses that society is “multiple networks of actors, organizations, and entities involved in exercising authority over the conduct of individuals and populations.”(Sumon). Meaning there are many complex webs that make up our everyday lives as well as that contribute to these tragedies such things are referred to as social forces and push us in directions. This web today is our social media platform, where we could be connected to someone instantly who is half way across the world. We have the power to voice what we want and how we want it (it can be as filmed and unfiltered as we want). There also the power to use social media against someone, such as cyberbullying (and many shooters say they feel the way they do since they believe there is no one on their side, they are alone) or in the cases of the shootings, asserting the plan aloud shortly before taking place, and people only beginning to realize after the shooting that they missed warnings and that they were in a web with the shooter and possible interactions with them could have been a make or break moment. Such as Victoria Gonzales, who sat in class with the shooter Nikolas Cruz, describes she prayed for him that things would work out and wanted to see him do well. Cruz later on would kill Gonzales’ boyfriend Joaquin Oliver.
Rabinow’s writing Foucault Reader (1984), explains some of Foucault’s theory into the crucial aspect being the thought of “precisely determined norms” (Rabinow 1984) which make us act a certain way and if we stray from that we are seen as a threat and abnormal. There are social norms to dictate how to act in society, such as who to marry and what to wear. This demonstrates a social force that is used against shooters, the Columbine Shooters tended to dress differently with trench coats and dark clothing, now it is seen that someone dress similar to them could be a potential shooter. I would extend the norms to mental health care screenings, where mental health intake forms are insufficient, as well as the fact that wait times for receiving mental healthcare can be long and difficult to access. The norm being that mental health is categorized and restricted by insurance, cost and location when there needs to be more flexibility and access.
Rabinow also takes time to mention how power is manifested by those who exercise it. I question if school shooters actually exercise a power of fear over those who they threaten or if the media is the one with power that shooters are looking for. In another book called Michel Foucault beyond structuralism and hermeneutics. Hubert L. Dreyfus and Paul Rabinow mention how power is like a class domination allowing those who are in power to dominate over all that are not in power. Being a shooter with a gun killing people randomly creates a new class in the situation where innocent people risk being killed. Somehow power and control over others have become ideals over freedom in what we refer to as a free nation.
Finally, in Gluck and Low’s work a socio spatial framework for the anthropology of security (2017). It says security is both produced and productive at once. Security is produced in institutions but it also changes institutions. Control is a balance of internal and external forces. I link lack of surveillance as a collective force towards the greater cause of what is happening. Surveillance simply, when a person is deemed to need care and possibly deemed to need more care as a precaution to themselves and others as both Pollack and Newman explain. The shooters do not just wake up one day feeling homicidal it is after months, maybe even years of warnings.
I want to explore if school shooters get lost in surveillance and what causes these tragedies. I theorize the Panopticon would allow a view to the mentality of some but not all prisoners because assumption leads some still will act out, as with school shooters acting without fear or consequence, and perhaps for fame. I would also add that Rabinow says that power is exercised by those who manifest it and that shooters have power over society as a whole. Verdery also shows that our identity is what shapes us to be a threat or not and when someone is identified as a potential school shooter the threat they hold is a type of power over our society.
Johanna Sumiala in her piece Imagining globalized fears: school shooting videos and circulation of violence on YouTube talks about how media has been globalizing fear, and has been used not only by those who go on to commit school shootings but also used by others to create a fear of the unknown. The Columbine shooters were some of the first recorded and did not have widespread media but still produced media through means of their journals. ‘The Columbine killers had also produced media material; journals, diaries and home videos in which they boasted about killing, proclaimed their aggression towards the world around them and documented their gun arsenal. Part of this material is available on YouTube not uploaded by the killers themselves, as YouTube did not exist at the time, but by other actors who had later picked the material up and uploaded it. The videos received large public interest in December 1999, eight months after the massacre” (Sumiala). As their journals were uploaded and others glorified them in the media, some came to use them as a model. More and more people were idolizing the “trenchcoat mafia boys” and copying their moves as a way to exercize power and authority. The profile of a shooter based on the Secret Service changes but, based on many accounts, they are most likely to be white males, former or current students, who exhibit an obsession for weapons and have mentally illness. Many of them, such as Nikolas Cruz, left an online trial showing their obsessions and sometimes even sharing their threats. “He voiced his political and ideological opinions in YouTube’s Eric Harris & Dylan Klebold community named after the shooters in the Columbine school massacre and produced various videos into YouTube. Right before setting out to the school on 7 November 2007 the shooter downloaded a video titled Jokela High School Massacre into YouTube and included a link to a package containing extra material. He also posted the message Today history is made in IRC-Gallery (a Finnish social networking site). After sending these messages he switched his computer off and set out to the school to begin his shooting rampage.” (Sumiala).
In another piece by Benjamin Frymer called The Media Spectacle of Columbine: Alienated Youth as an Object of Fear. We encounter the idea that people are now viewing some youth as potential school shooters. As someone who went to school amid this crisis, I could remember jokes about certain students who seemed “weird” or “withdrawn” bringing a gun to school. Fellow classmates would joke about who would be shot first and who was on their hit list. At times it seemed like just stupid comments and teens having some jokes but now I realize it comes out of a fear the media has perpetuated about school shootings. “Although youth violence and “delinquency” have frequently generated fear of alienated youth in American life, especially since the 1950s, the media coverage of the Columbine shootings reconstructed youth alienation in novel ways, generating a new fear and reality of “alien” youth. Analysis of both print and television media shows that following Columbine, school shooters have come to stand for an entire constellation of threats and troubles now ostensibly emanating from the very lifeworlds of formerly harmless White suburban youth’ (Frymer 2009).This began the fear of the white male who is mentally ill, making many fear and in a personal note I have seen this fear destroy students chances at good education.
I would also add how Frymer believes we are also captivated by the media and hot news stories are replayed on repeat for days, news reporters send senses of urgency into the crowd and we are all left wondering about the full picture.
Methodology/My Research-
For my research I used TikTok as a main fieldsite as well as classmates, friends, family members and the college community I am in. I also used interviews, surveys and have looked at available content of trials of school shooters. TikTok is a free social media app where users can both view short (one to three minute) videos and post their videos. Tik Tok is best accessed on touch screen devices as you scroll from video to video. To conduct research I used the TikTok account I already had. TikTok, like many other social media sites, has an algorithm designed to “best” fit each user. Your algorithm is formed by the content you have previously liked, people you follow, as well as possible searches you’ve conducted. For example, if you like dog videos, your algorithm will understand that and push more dog videos. TikTok has a set of guidelines which control their app such as what is acceptable and not acceptable in their community such as the term shooting.
I have also used Participant Observation. Participant Observation is a method that describes a researcher both participating while observing their topic in their social context. As Malinowski states, “the ethnographer needs to put aside the notebook, camera and pencil and join himself/herself in what is going on” (Malinowski). I have been using Participant Observation TikTok and Twitter/X as I viewed posts and comments that I found in searches on these platforms. I was able to participate by leaving comments as well as private messaging people who posted relevant content. I also posted my own content to find people to work with for my project. Following Malinowski, I found myself putting away the pencils and just watching the content and reading comments and then shortly after writing some field notes about what I saw. It was easier to do the field notes right after then while I was looking at the platforms. When Ghodsee talks about putting ourselves in the data I agree because if we start to see what our research means to us on a personal level we are able to share the experience with those we are studying. For me, I was able to see myself in the data as a student, being someone whose school was evacuated during a school shooting incident.
When I began fieldwork my algorithm consisted of animal videos, content from college related videos like dorm room tours and college student meal hacks. I had to do searches on my TikTok to bring the material I was looking for forward. My searches were terms and words such as “Columbine” “Parkland” “Uvalde” and “School Sho@tings”, the last term has to be edited as such because of the rules of TikTok which ban the term school shooting. I was able to see videos filmed inside of schools as well as comments on the videos. On TikTok using searches such as “Parkland”, “Uvalde” and additional links that followed such as “Salvador Ramos Casket” , “Elementary School Tragedy”, “School Sho@ting”
I not only reviewed videos (short content 1-3 minute videos) , I also looked into comments and looked at trends in different comment sections, I also found two potential people to reach out to due to how powerful their videos were! One Tiktoker claimed to have been at Parkland and to be leading activist rallies and inviting others to join him. I left a message in his comment and plan to privately message him at a different time! A second tiktoker (@kaysimone9,2023) seems to have done a survey with educators and is asking them about what they have as plans in their classrooms. The consensus is that many of them have purchased and hid items such as escape ladders and bats for their use in such emergencies. “School Shootings” as a search term is banned within TikTok guidelines and has to be tweaked with to be able to get through searches. My searches were interesting because the fact the term is considered disturbing but the actual act of a mass school shooting continues to happen. I also found some interesting videos where it seemed young kids were behind making them and commenting on them, which got me interested in if these kids had experienced this violent crime in their life or if they just feel compelled to make these videos in honor of fallen students and teachers. A tiktoker claims Makenna Elrod (a victim of Uvalde) is her “bestie” and they “heard them being killed” comments after that follow asking “for real?!” and giving her words of sympathy. This TikToker seems like a minor and if she was in fact present at the school shooting of Robb Elementary in 2022 she would only be about a year older than her age at the time of the shooting. I decided to pass this Tiktoker by because of their assume age. Lastly, besides the sympathy in the comments there was a lot of angry and furious comments such as “America the Free , yea right”.
During another round of watching tiktoks which was right after a shooting on Morgan University Campus I found (Background- Morgan State is a historically black college). Students were in the process of homecoming week which has a lot of events that students go to. Tuesday night was coronation night, the coronation was just let out and students and families were going from the space used to the coronation to an after party space when shots were fired. The shooter is believed to have shot down onto people from one of the dorm room windows. There is also a rumor it started from an argument between students and shots were fired by multiple people and those shots were not the intended targets (near the Murphy Fine Arts Building) while another video claims “this ‘motherfucker’ just walked on campus, and they started shooting.”
I decided to search this term the day after as information and stories are probably fresh and new. One thing I found interesting was how students were treated at the university during this time. A video of a student being told to walk slowly past the officers as the officers searched him. This student seemed to have been relaxing in the dorm and probably had nothing to do with the shooting. It definitely felt like cops profiled innocent students who were bystanders. The next video I found interesting was a clip of a news interview where a person is asked “are you a student here?” “Why are you here?” and the subject seems to not want to disclose his info on his reason being here. Which made me think, is the campus secure? The comments joke that “his girl probably doesn’t know he is there.” Another video a student is asking people “Y’all here we have a shooter on campus, how do you feel?”- one student says “as long as he doesnt shoot me I don’t care” another student says “Man fuck this school!!” Another student is seen eating and acting regularly with no care. The next video that sparked my interest was about shootings on this campus in the past and that homecoming weeks seems to be a free for all and people come and go without IDs or student connections.
Another user (@songtheuniverse, 2023) came on speaking about how school shootings are traumatic and scary and how it’s not funny to make jokes about it. She also stresses we need to talk about these things and continued to explain it is not just an event on social media, it is real life. As my research continued on TikTok, I searched the term “effects of school shootings’ but received a message saying that term was against TikTok policies and decided to edit the term to “sho@tings. One of the first videos I saw was by (@_ghoulie_ , 2023) who was speaking about her experience of being part of a shooting at her college campus and her Trauma. A different video compared wearing masks in school and the trauma of school shootings. The person who made this video was trying to show that mask usage is not as traumatic as drills. I watched a video that showed a teacher talking to his class about an emergency bucket with supplies for them and that the bucket doubles as a bathroom, should students be annoyed about how America is today. A video I liked showed a high tech school with surveillance linked to the sheriff’s department with bullet proof, self-locking doors. Teachers also can intercom to the sheriff department from the classrooms and create an alarm sound, if needed. A subsequent video showed a person crying through a story regarding the police stepping over a student’s body to stop a school shooter. I also came across the account (ana_rodriguez_16, 2023) who is Maite Rodriguez’s mom, a victim of Robb Elementary, where she is crying and expressing stress from losing her daughter.
Tiktok gave me a profound view into a way my generation has found to give voice in such hard situations. We have used social media time and time again to vent our fears and frustrations over these tragedies. I know that it could also provoke fear, much like how one of my interviewees (Valarie) felt.
Besides TikTok, I also viewed the Parkland Shooter’s Trial (Cruz Vs the State of Florida). This trial was recorded and broadcasted on major news channels, the most influential portions of the trial was the impact statements, where victims, families and the community voiced their feelings towards Cruz. These statements were raw and unedited, giving viewers a glimpse into the community’s pain. Individuals cursed, cried, threatened and yelled at Cruz for the pain they experienced. Cruz is one of the only shooters who survived his crime. I found it fascinating to see the media hype around a surviving school shooter. By looking at TikTok, news clips and trial clips I gained an idea of the fear that is circulated to people throughout the country. Most of us have thankfully not been in shootings, but we have been controlled by the fear we are receiving through the media. This is creating a new form of terror in our country, a fear of someone coming into our places of education and hurting us and no where was safe. As fellow humans, we do feel the pain and have seen it as it has caused much conversation around gun control, school safety, and mental health. Unfortunately, most of the time this conversation is a little too late while remaining in stalemate.
My research relied heavily upon Semi-Structured interviews, thick description, and participant observation. The most common interviews I did were semi-structured interviews. Bernard’s description of semi-structured interviews fit my work. This type of interviewing is done by having some questions but also allowing for some informal conversation as well. “This works best for chances where you can’t interview someone more than once” (Bernard 212 ). I interviewed five people and I enjoyed setting some questions but letting them also share things as they felt appropriate. I have found that many people who did this type of interviewing were more easily able to probe those interviewed. For example, while interviewing Jennie, a student who experienced a school shooting at the University of Alabama that I met through TikTok, I asked her to tell me about her story of her experience of being in a school shooting, allowing Jennie to speak as much or as little as she wanted. I found that this method has let me learn more about Jennie especially. Because I did not know Jennie personally before and having some questions set up made it easier to connect but at the same time I was open to learning more about her story as well.
During one of my early interviews, I spoke with a medical professional who told me about her experience seeing gunshot victims. “Because what if you push it deeper into the skin by accident? Or what if you rupture the skin more? Or what if it ruptures, or worse, what if it breaks part of the bullet? And then you have those chemicals I was talking about going through your body,” (Milkyway EMT interviewed 9/27/23). The quote above stands out because she told about what we could do as victims in a situation to help those injurred. How we should not try and remove a bullet but should just keep a victim calm and call for help. As these types of events grow, all people should learn basic first aid in order to help those around them. Milkyway says after worrying about her father the day Sandy Hook happened she was drawn to be a first responder. Milkyway believes that in today’s world people are quicker to hit record on their phones than to help someone in need. She feels we need to stop living on social media as especially in times of trouble where someone’s health is in dare provide care can do much more than filming for social media
My next piece of data comes from an interview with a student who had witnessed a fellow student bringing a weapon into their school. I interviewed Capricorn (Interviewed October 2023), who is a longtime friend of mine and experienced a gun incident at his school. He says his school was not locked down when a student got into school with a weapon and was later apprehended by two school deans. Capricorn is a video gamer and expresses that he does not believe there is correlation between videogames and school shooting but that there may be a coincidence that a shooter has played shooter style games prior to the events but that it also correlates more with mental health of these individuals and their access to weapons. He wishes security was more tight within schools and hopes things will change going forward, especially in the case where even a basic lockdown was not called.
Valerie (Interviewed 10/6/23), a mother of four and close family friend says she believes video games are a major cause of school shootings. Valerie believes video games have led to some decline in youth, and that shooter games such as Call Of Duty glorify shootings and killings, which she says allows youth to have a false perception that shootings are okay. Had she known before what the game was she would not have let her son play it. She felt quite unhappy when she finally saw the game and felt her son had been exposed to violence. She says she wishes that she didn’t send her kids to school and in hindsight wishes that she homeschooled instead because she feels they are not safe in schools. Valarie’s children have not been hurt nor witnessed shootings in real life, but Valarie says her anxiety has been heightened due to the thoughts of losing her own children like other parents have. She sometimes questioned sending her kids to school, and questioned if potentially she would become a parent of deceased child loss to school shootings.
Jennie, (interviewed 10/16/23) a University of Alabama student who has experienced multiple shootings, including one at her campus housing. I met Jennie via TikTok messaging. On a Friday night, while hanging out in her apt painting rocks, she heard a commotion. She then watched two African American males in a fight, one of them shot the other in the chest 6 times before running to a brush area nearby and killing himself. The gunshot victim was rushed into a car and she was unsure about their condition and status. She remembers hiding and then sharing a statement with the cops, and that her apartment complex removed public knowledge there was a shooting on the property. Jennie takes the time to describe the men as she states she believes the case was “shitcanned” due to the victim’s race. Jennie feels that the South and the area around the campus is quite racist and that people of color are treated differently. Jennie expresses that she felt so unsafe in that apartment afterward and waited for her lease to end. She also expresses that she feels the situation was handled differently due to the fact the males were Black. She feels her campus was safe and only had some problems with Greek life affiliated students getting special privileges before, but never shootings. Jennie also experienced a shooting at her workplace. What I found interesting was how she mentioned that her and other apartment mates drank a lot that night which could be an effect of trying to handle what they saw. Many of my other interviewees do not mention the fact of problems developed but Jennie took the time to point out how her consumption of alcohol increased due to this problem. She also mentioned that the campus housing was shared with town people which meant she was in housing with strangers whereas most colleges are only for students, these two individuals to her knowledge where not students and at times non student residents had caused many problems.
Lastly I interviewed Mitchell (interviewed 10/23/23), a religious leader of a group I attend and former Virginia Tech student. I was intrigued how they said that while the 32 students were remembered on campus by events and memorials it did not change a lot of the normal college atmosphere. On a religious note, I found it interesting that Mitchell posed we should try and understand the position of the shooters and what leads them to this point to want to commit such crimes and that we should not stand in judgment because while death is horrible, it is terrible storylines that sometimes cause these events and lead people to commit mass violence and we should take into account of that. I also learned that this event brought the school together in some sort of way, which seems to be an effect of mass tragedies.
My conducting of a survey which surveyed mostly college students who would be in the same generation as myself and who grew up witnessing the terror. One survey answer said “They saw Columbine as a freak event. That freak event inspired many to do the same, creating terror for our entire generation”. This drove my question as to if the Columbine Effect is coming from those in or those out of the generation. Also, when they ask many answers that gun control is good in the United States and that is not the problem they feel. I found this interesting at it is easy to blame guns for the causes of the deaths of these students. My interviews gave me different feelings for what people think causes school shootings as well as what people think the results are. Capricorn says he feels fine and does not even think about the weapon problem. Whereas, Jennie began to drink after the event to help relieve her nerves. Mitchell says we should not feel hate for shooters and look for the bigger picture of what happened in their lives. Valerie feels the parents are still to blame largely for these problems.
From all my interviews and my literature reviews, I have learned that school shootings do affect society at large. People of my generation are more likely to have addiction problems, much like Jennie mentioned her drinking, there is a rise in school shootings depicted in media such as the scene in “13 Reasons Why”. I also learned that people have different reactions as well as theories to what causes school shootings. Such as Valerie linking school shootings to video games. I hope going forward to see if the effects are more long-term. Foucault’s theory of the Panopticon stresses that we internal regulate ourselves when I would fight and say that we are controlled by social forces as well that are external to us, such as our economic status, the area we live in and those we interact with.
Discussion
It is a sad reality to think that shootings at schools are becoming more and more prevalent. But it’s even sadder to think that people are committing these crimes to possibly gain notoriety, to feel heard or to have power. Social forces which are the push and pull of all of our lives and the networks and institutions that control us have continued to cause these tragedies. These social forces are both the cause and could be the effects of school shootings. Social forces could be divided into the following categories- such as Gun ownership and access, Education and Culture, Violence, The Columbine Effect and Devine Vs Foucault the Panopticon and the Anti Panopticon, as well as Media.
Columbine Effect
The Columbine Effect (Strauss) is a theory of why these shootings are happening, Klebold and Harris gain fame off committing these acts whereas before they were nobodies in their school and considered outcasts. It is thought through committing these crimes a shooter could gain power. In the FBI documentary Echoes of Columbine, officials of the FBI stress that Columbine was used like a blueprint, where 80 other shooters copied and in ways tried to stop the tragedy of Columbine. The shooter of Virginia Tech (2007) wrote essays containing praise and adoration for Klebold and Harris. It is viewed that Klebold and Harris started a Beta Evolution, where beta males are proving to those who are thought to be more alpha than them their power and strength, this especially is true in high school dynamics where teens tend to find themselves being forced into categories. In high school in America dynamics of clicks or groups of like minded students develop such as cheerleaders, goths, football players, academics. And these clicks have an unrecorded but very much felt level of status of who is better and who isn’t and American teens feel the pain of not being the best. Many times teens conform to fit in with clicks. Social pressure force teens to involve themselves in stuff that they should i.e. Bullying a fellow classmate.
The Newtown Effect which is lesser known then the Columbine Effect tries to take what happened in Newtown(Sandy Hook) and other schools and create positive change. Hence families of Newtown, CT home of Sandy Hook Elementary began the Sandy Hook Promise, an initiative to end school shootings, educate the public and change the policies and laws around this issue.
Profile of Shooters
According to the Secret Service (Secret Service on Protecting American Schools), there is a possibility anyone could be a shooter, but the common shooters is typically a white, young male, whom comes from family with issues (alcoholism, drug use, divorced or estranged parents, abuse), whom has a obsession with weapons ( may have written essays about weapons, may show a very alarming obsession with different weapons, may have posted videos on media of them firing off guns, playing with guns or posts that glorify guns). These individuals also exhibit mental illness and have more than likely before ran into behavioral problems at school (threatening a student or teacher, acting out in class, fights).
While these aren’t solid reasons or the solid profile of a school shooter they give us ideas into what could cause a shooting. Divine also brings up a theory in which students are bringing weapons with them to travel to and from schools, the students have threats outside of the school that end up carrying into the school building especially in urban cities. It would be simple to say we need to reduce the threats hence reduce the need for weapons, but this would be a long process. Instead we install security checkpoints and SSO officers, making the school into a prison which also negatively affects students. Mental health is a crisis in our country, while talking to a survey participant they mentioned how they felt money was being poured into things like cops and SSOs but not into mental health. The thought we could prevent problems instead of trying to guard them from happening could change the outcome of many of the cases.
Media
The effects of school shootings have really yet to be truly seen to a full extent. As more and more victims accumulate and their ages are young kids to teens many have yet to go into things like colleges, jobs, and having children of their own. But for now we can see other effects such as how it is portrayed in the media. One place I have seen it is through TikTok, where videos and comments truly speak to the pain, such as Kay Simone who was near tears pleading with people to take it seriously and that it is not funny and it is real life. Another place through the victim statements that have been aired on most major television networks such as Victoria Gonzales who was crying over the death of her boyfriend in Parkland (Joaquin Oliver) but she stops to tell the shooter that he is “a human being” (Gonzales) and she is “sad how much hate is in his body” (Gonzales). I also saw this through photos shared through the News, such as the famous picture featured in this article.
The picture is from December 2012, it was taken by Shannon Hicks a journalist from Sandy Hook CT. Hicks is also a volunteer fire member and arrived at the scene and began snapping pictures which would go worldwide within days. The picture depicts children ages 6-10 in a line holding onto the child’s shoulder before them. Most of the children have their eyes closed as an adult guides them away from their school which has just witnessed one of the worst school shootings in modern history. You cannot help but to look at the girl in the blue shirt in the middle who seems to be mid scream, it invokes feelings of helplessness as well as makes you wonder what she has just witnessed and heard, a scar she will carry her entire life. This picture would be on the front pages of newsstands around the country, just giving a taste of the horror that happened in Sandy Hook. I believe this picture truly expresses the gruesome details of what is happening in our nation, displaying kids are exposed to violence at an alarming rate.
An interesting fact about this picture is in a NPR article Hicks explains she did not know it circulated and felt bad that something so intimate like this picture would get leaked out and spread so quickly. She feels as though the children in this picture now are stuck with this legacy photo that will continue to circulate around. Hicks was not trying to gain fame, but found her picture would tell many different stories. Some viewed this as resilience, others as pain, others could instantly see it and say this is from Sandy Hook. Does constantly seeing images and even videos of the shootings (especially from Parkland) like this smacked in our face, cause us to have a fear, maybe even an irrational fear? I think back to my talk with Valarie, a mother whose kid never experienced a school shooting but she still had a fear and wanted to homeschool her kids.Valarie also pushes a theory which is back in the book Handbook for children and media, (Dorothy Singer and Jerome Singer) that children are learning violent in their video games, that kids today are absorbing so much media and sometimes end up copying cat the media in their real life or how Jennie credits her experience of shootings to her drinking increase.
Media has also been shaped by Gen Lockdown. Such as the Netflix special 13 Reasons Why by director Selena Gomez that chronicles the life of American teenagers. Clay, the main character starts screaming out, his most important statement “what are you preparing us for, the feeling of being hunted”. He slowly freaks out more and more but it shows the feeling of the generation as they feel about how it is to survive such horrendous crimes.
Devine Versus Foucault
Foucault argues that we are being watched, that there is a higher power such as a guard in a tower that we do not see, yet we know to behave as though we were. We are controlled into thinking our every move is watched but Devine can show that is not true. Devine also brings up a theory (Anti Panopticon) in which students are bringing weapons with them to travel to and from schools, the students have threats outside of the school that end up carrying into the school building especially in urban cities. It would be simple to say we need to reduce the threats with reducing the need for weapons, but this would be a long process. Instead, we install security checkpoints and SSO officers, making the school into a prison which also negatively affects students. If there was a higher power to be in fear of, wouldn’t violence be less but because students in this example know the guards are nothing to fear the violence continues?
Understanding Violence
In George Lundskow piece “Conspiracies and Restorative Violence in American Culture” . He shows how violences dates back in this country to white supremacy and colonial values. Violence is a use of power to control other person (example the violence of slavery in American History). In a piece by Zachary Blair, The Pulse Nightclub Shooting: Connecting Militarism, Neoliberalism, and Multiculturalism to Understand Violence we encounter two theories the one of ‘homegrown terrorism” (Blair as well as the theory of the webs that connect personal experience of those who commit mass shootings (in the case of his study the Pulse nightclub shooting) and the larger societal problems such as war and politics. Blair explains how the shooter at the nightclub comes from a Middle Eastern background and dealing with the United States involvement in the Middle East he finds himself conflicted about Americans which could explain why he attacked those in a American Nightclub, those victims mostly Puerto Ricans are citizens of the US but they are also victims of United States Involvement. Blair also brings up the term of ‘homegrown terroism’, which is when an attack is plotted by someone on the inside. (**I personally do not use the term terrorism/rist as I understand the troublesome history linked to the term and would rather use other less troublesome terms**) This frames a theory that school shootings are forms of terrorism, and terrorism does not always equal a large massive event that is plotted by outsiders of a country, it can be done but those within a country of any race, sexuality and beliefs. We tend to always worry about international threats and wars have caused innocent civilians to lose their life over the fear of a international threat, when in the case of school shootings the threat is usually a former student, someone who in theory the victims knew and I find this to be a very intimate type of violence just as how Gonzalez a victim of Parkland felt as she knew the shooter Nikolas Cruz. Valarie, one of my interlocutors, felt that her son was exposed to violence in video games, while there is no concrete proof that it is a valid feeling to associate those killing online characters could perceive to turn and kill in real life.
What is a more concrete form of violence prior to the shootings is animal related violences. Newman and Pollack mention how their respective shooters both had hurt, killed and mutilated animals (particularly cats) and were proud to share that information and gruesome pictures. Violence is a form of emotion and a strong form at that, I also think violence needs to have a personal link to where you need to have a personal feeling towards a group or a particular feeling to want to cause violence on them.
Gun Ownership/ Exposure
Roger Lancaster, an anthropologist, speaks about his life where he grew up exposed to guns and never really felt comfortable with them. Even when given a chance to fire a weapon he preferred not to. He then talks about the data behind guns, such as we double the rate of gun violence then Canada and eight times more than Switzerland (Lancaster 2017). Not to mention facts like 400 million guns currently are in our streets (AGF), not accounting for those that are unregistered and ghost guns, guns that are constructed by users out of material bought and these tend to be the most dangerous as ghost guns do not contain serial numbers or registrations and cannot be link back to any particular person. Guns also hold a weird position within the culture of the United States where Americans fear gun violence but also feel that guns are the only way to protect themselves from other violence. Lancaster also mentions how minorities are more likely to suffer gun violence then their counterparts yet most massive school shootings happen in suburban areas with white male shooters. It is interesting to think about the dynamics of owning a gun as a reason to prevent gun violence, yet it seems like a Domino Effect as no matter who has the gun it causes others to fear and possibly purchase their own firearms. With citizens arming themselves at alarming rates (400 million guns) we are only creating a bigger problem and bigger threat.
Anthropology’s Response
Daniel Lende, an anthropologist, along with other anthropologists wrote a response to the Newtown Shooting. Lende discussed the fact of how an event like the shooting opened up new lines of communication for anthropologists through online platforms like social media which I found myself using as well. He also says this brings about an interesting line of sensitivity for anthropologists where we have to be careful where we step so as to not cause more harm. I found myself using his piece throughout my research to help remind myself of my outsider position despite my strong feelings towards this topic. I reminded myself to give space for victims but also to give space and not automatically assume theories about the shooters and their motives. It is important to step back and see the world in which they lived and worked, the connections and networks they were in before the shooting as well as the connections to the victims, the survivors and the larger world that has seen many of these same tragic events. This network is what connects me to this study. What also connects me is the fact I was the same age as many school shootings victims during the times of their death, that I am a fellow student, a pain that many students feel and a fear we share about untimely death. I also found that I had to take a position to understand the shooters rather than write them off as many had before.
Mental Health (and It’s Fallacy)
As much as I discussed that the mental health crisis of many of these shooters go unhelped or within the proper help Saira Mehmood discusses in her piece “The Fallacy of Equating Gun Violence with Mental Health” (2018). How black and brown people are not given the same view as white people, immediately when a white male commits a crime he is viewed as mentally ill whereas a brown or black person is given the harmful label of terrorist. While it could be true to be mental health problems, why aren’t they also considered terrorist when FEMA defines a terrorism as “the use of force or violence against persons or property in violation of the criminal laws of the United States for purposes of intimidation, coercion, or ransom’ . And those committing the crime of school shootings fit the definition. This links to Jennie’s thought of how the shooting victims she saw were handled differently because of their race. Mental health care is needed as many victims, communities and others say they just wish the shooter had more care because it could have changed everything. Unfortunately, shooters fall through the cracks of society only to appear late infamous for their tragic crimes.
So…Who’s to blame?
Of course, the question that looms in everyone’s mind is who to blame. While we may be wanting to blame one individual person, there is a network of people behind each and every shooting. People want to blame parents and gun owners who do not responsibly lock their firearm up and Mr. and Mrs. Crumbley parents of the Oxford shooter Ethan Crumbley are now facing jail time. Others blame mental help professionals who let the shooters fall through the cracks. Some blame society for making these shooters feel less than. Some even like Alex Jones believe that these shootings are a hoax as described in the book Sandy Hook by Elizabeth Williamson. Jones believes Sandy Hook was created in an effort to take away gun rights and believes that parents were actors in a larger picture. Unfortunately, there is no one person to blame but multiple factors could give us an inside look as to why these tragedies keep happening.
Conclusion-
Moving forward our country should invest more in mental health needs, pass more gun laws and help to protect our children. But I would like to make one thing clear. As much as these shooters did what they did, they were finally pushed by forces to this point and it is terrible to think of those forces. I could only dream that my research has got others thinking both about the victims and those who caused the shootings as well as our world at large. To be a shooter means that you may have felt at one point hopeless and in such an advanced and modern society with means to help anyone who feels this way, no one should feel alone. For the victims, those who now are a memory to their friends and family it is a sad truth that they were just going to school like many of us have and still do and they unfortunately lost their lives while doing so. For everyone else impacted by this our world has changed unfortunately due to these new and sadly recurring forms of violence, where our innocence of a safe school is gone. I know personally while thankfully I have never been shot. My life has been changed, I do not recall a time where gun violence was not prevalent in my community and in my country. I have heard the sounds of bullets firing and wondered if I was safe or if someone’s life had taken a drastic change. I have questioned the thought of bringing kids into a world where their lives are less valuable than the right to own a firearm. I have sat through vigils of fellow people who had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time, yet the place was their school. The social forces and networks we all share are real and powerful and have been involved greatly in school shootings.
May we never forget the hundreds killed, the thousands affected and the millions wondering about what’s next. It is time for us to take a stronger stance on gun laws, educate the public on why guns should not be a part of American Culture. We should look out the signs and act on them promptly. Make mental health care a vital and well funded part of our country. Students should be educated on cultural diversity, bullying and other issues that face them today and how to act and react in our world, especially on how to treat their fellow human beings. Because after all the 175 children lost weren’t just lost to their families and friends but to our society and they are our children and as long as our children are in danger we need to continue to fight for them.
Editors Note: Terror and violence are mainstream topics in the world of today. Fear is a tactic of distraction and it opposed respect. Once a threat is known, it must be respected to be addressed and avoided. The causes must be sorted out and blame should be avoided. There is personal and societal responsibility for all circumstances, a society must expect an individual to be held accountable for their actions while the society is equally responsible for creating the circumstances of both desire to harm and the ability to do so. No one is born wanting to harm another, unless it is an unusual and unexpected circumstance to create the desire. We all want to thrive. The system of corrections has no function or capacity to correct behavior as it once did and was always intended. The US uses jails and prisons to remove undesirable members from society, including the youth. Homes have been emptied as parents must work, and few remain together, and children are sent to schools and daycares. We tell them they are not responsible to make any decisions on their own, especially reproductive behaviors, and hold criminal people who make adult sexual decisions with children who can’t control their bodies but send other children to prison for life because they did not have adult capacity and made poor decisions. Where is the social breakdown? Do we need more restrictions or more education and more access? There must be a way to trust our neighbor or society is already lost. Perhaps the schools instill social skills following principles where we treat others as we want to be treated and lead by example. The answers are within reach. To solve the problem, we must address the cause. -PJ
Bibliography
References Anthropological
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References
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Interviews Cited
Capricorn “My school was not locked down.” By Jaclyn Rodriguez
Milkyway “EMS training on mass casualties” By Jaclyn Rodriguez
Mitchell “Virginia University shootings and religious thoughts” By Jaclyn Rodriguez
Jennie “UA shooting.” By Jaclyn Rodriguez
Valerie “A mother’s thoughts.” By Jaclyn Rodriguez
TikToks Cited
“Ana_rodriguez_16” 2023
“_ghoulie_” 2023
“Song The Universe” 2023
“Kaysimone9” 2023
Photo Cited
Hicks, Shannon Newtown Tragedy Photograph
TV Shows Cited
“Thursday”, 13 Reasons Why, Selena Gomez, Episode 8 Season 4
Court Cases Cited
Cruz Versus The State of Florida (2023)
