Profile of a School Shooter: Ingredient 5 - Small Towns and Close-knit Communities
It wasn't until I began this project that I realized many of these shootings were committed in small towns or suburbs. They often describe the places school shootings happen as close-knit communities in news reports, but what does that phrase really mean? Violence at school has long been considered an city problem. Small town America always felt somehow immune from these problems but in the 1990's all of that changed. I looked around at my own small town and it was just unthinkable that such a tragic event could happen here, that a child could slip under the radar when we all seem to know what our neighbor had for breakfast last Sunday. It turns out that many sociologists believe that is actually a big part of the problem. In a small town people are more concerned with maintaining the status quo. We may see or hear of danger signs but we are less likely to act on it. Too many personal connections can be both a blessing and a curse. We not only know the child, but we k...