Echoes of Columbine

Two of the youngest mass shooters and the only two living school shooters who are not incarcerated... Last updated: March 25, 2018 Date:   March 24 Year: 1998 School:  Westside Middle School Location:  Jonesboro State: Arkansas Wounded:  5 Fatalities: 10 Shots Fired:  27 Time lapsed:  4 minutes Police response time:  Unknown. Approx. 4 minutes. After police arrived shooters ran.  How ended: Taken without issue. Civilians involved:  None known Perpetrators:  Mitchell Johnson (13) and Andrew Golden (11) cousins Age: 13 & 11 Family history:  The two students were cousins. It was reported that Golden came from a normal, happy American family. No home troubles were noted in family history. Johnson came from a broken family, and lived with his mother and stepfather. His mother was a prison guard and married a man she met in prison for weapons charges. Police report Johnson often disappear...

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...

According to the Secret Service study, 71% of school shooters reported feeling "persecuted, bullied, threatened, attacked or injured by others," with some of the bullying classified as "long-standing and severe." Many of those who committed school shootings also targeted females to a large degree. Some were girls that did not return their affections, many whom they described as snotty and stuck-up. Columbine shooters journal entries specifically called some of these girls "Christian snobs." Real or not, it seems they felt rejected by these girls for one reason or another - socially, romantically, and even religiously. The Columbine school shooters planned what they considered their revenge for two years. They had started with desired "kill lists" but most of the people on the list had graduated the year before. It's clear that these boys did not "just snap." Their rage did not weaken or dissipate, and they continued with the...