Schools have become a death trap for whoever may enter. Innocent children are dying everyday by the hands of their careless peers. Thurston, Columbine, and Heath High Schools-just to name a few, have been battlegrounds for both students and teachers. Excuses and explanations have been made as to why students would commit such heartless acts. Courses of actions such as gun control, the attempt to admit prayer back into schools and blaming television networks .
School shootings have been the biggest nightmare that any school system could face. Just hours after he killed his parents, Kip Kinkel opened fire at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon. Two classmates were killed and 25 others injured. "Goddamn these voices inside my head," screamed Kinkel during his interrogation. Doctors called by Kinkel's de0fense team testified at his sentencing hearing that they found Kinkel to be a paranoid schizophrenic driven to kill by hallucinations. Psychologists say that some of his actions were influenced by violence seen on television and video games. "We need to do a better job as a society working with our children and maybe turn off the T.V. Where all they do is watch violence, see violence, and hear violence," said Ben Marlin, the Superintendent of schools. Joyce Niftier, a private investigator also testified that she found frequent cases of mental illness-including schizophrenia-in Kinkel's extended family. Kinkel pleaded g!.
uilty to four counts of murder and 26 counts of attempted murder. Now at the age of 18, he is serving a 112-year sentence at a state juvenile facility near Portland, Oregon. .
It was the bloodiest episode in the U. S. history. Students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado used the term "new normal" when discussing their state of mind in the hellish awakening the nation was shattered by on April 20, 2000. Twelve students and a teacher were killed that day and 23 other lives were wounded before their teenage assailants took their own lives.