Chapter 1

Rico, Geriza Joy R. ABMA 123
“School shooting a social problem because of mental problem”

Chapter 1 

Introduction 

A. Background of the study.


     Shootings have happened all around the United States. One kind of shooting that became a public outcry is school-related shootings or school shootings. Despite the raising incident of school incidents, school is still considered as the safest place for kids compared to their home and neighborhood. But whether school is a better place or not, school shootings have happened, is happening and will happen not until we find a way to prevent it.

     School shootings have killed a lot of innocent people and left a lot of hopeless families. Although it catches the public’s attention, it is still aren’t enough to wake their sleeping thoughts about how dangerous this thing can be. According to Mr. Glenn W. Muschert, “At the turn of the millennium, school shootings were an ascendant social problem, often because the events garnered public interest, which contributed to the perception that school shootings were a new form of violence occurring with increased frequency and intensity.”

     Most school shooters have mental illness and almost all of those shooters are under medication. One part of that medication includes psychotropic medications or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Mr. Gregory Patin stated in his article in examiner.com entitled: Mental illness, medications and school shootings: Preventing another Sandy Hook that “According to statistics on gun violence, these drugs may be even more dangerous than the firearms.” The website also provides a list of school shooting incidents that involves the shooter’s intake of SSRIs medicine such as Prozac, Xanax, Paxil, Ritalin, Luvox, etc.

     Here are some examples of school shooters that have mental illness: Steve Kazmierczak, age 27, he had been on Prozac, Xanax and Ambien. Jeff Weise, age 16, had been prescribed 60 mg/day of Prozac. Off course the most recent shooting incident and considered as the second of the most dangerous school shooting incident in the United States of America is Adam Lanza, age 20, Fanapt, a controversial anti-psychotic medicine.



     These mental illnesses are caused by bad relationship; almost all of the school shooters have a bad relationship with their loved ones. Like Adam Lanza, “he had a troubled relationship with her mother, with children, and, most importantly, with himself.” (An article from examiner.com entitled: Why Adam Lanza killed innocent children?)


     Instead of blaming our society about this problem, this paper aims to show you the relationship we have can cause mental illness to some people. This paper also aims to show what kind of relationship can make a mentally challenged person into a school shooter.

B. Statement of the problem.

     What kind of relationship can cause mental illness?



C. Significance of the Study.



To the parents with mentally challenged kids.
     This paper can help you love and care for your kids more, develop tighter relationship with them and show them that you really care for them. This paper can also remind you that you need to stay strong for your kids.



To the readers.
     Facts and information about school shooting may get your attention and may intrigue you. This paper can show you the risks of having a bad relationship with a mentally ill person.



To the future readers.

     This paper aims to wake our sleeping insights about school shooting and to help each other on how to prevent this from happening. This paper can provide you a lot of information regarding those things.



D. Scope and Delimitation

     This paper focuses on the consideration of us having a better relationship with a mentally ill person. Those persons are considered as fragile so we must always take care of them or else if they suddenly burst can harm us and our society.









E. Methodology.



Descriptive method will be much seen in this paper because I aim to describe and discuss what kind of relationship can cause mental illness.



F. Definition of Terms.



School shooting – an incident in which gun violence occurs at an educational institution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shooting)



Mental illness – any disease of the mind; any various disorders in which a person’s thoughts, emotions, or behavior are so abnormal as to cause suffering to himself, herself, or other people (Collins English Dictionary)



SSRIs medicine – selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor; used to treat depression and other psychiatric disorders (Medical Dictionary)

What kind of School shooter is Adam Lanza?

     Categories in topics, things and etc., makes it more easier to the user to understand what the writer or the owner wants to convey. While in school shooting, its categories makes it more easier for us to classify the perpetrator.

     As I was researching for my paper, I came across to a website named Holology this website was made by Freydis. I find his website very helpful for my research because he's been researching about school shooting for 14 years so my source is really an expert in this topic.
    
    There are two categories of school shootings : Class A - This kind of shootings are perpetrated by the school's very own or I mean to say that the student is the one perpetrating his own school. Most school shootings that have happened are perpetrated by Class A shooters.
Class B - This kind of shootings are perpetrated by the outsiders meaning the shooters has not anything to do with the school.


     Adam Lanza belongs to the Class B which is very rare for a school shooter because most of the school shooters belongs to the Class A.

The Mother's Negligence.

     Knowing that Adam Lanza has a history of autism, did his mom took good care of him? Since his parents was divorced on 2009, and his brother went on a university for four years, Adam and Nancy stayed on their £350,000 house. Being a single parent, Mrs. Lanza needed to work for her sons, that's why she have not a lot of time for Adam.

     We all know that there is a special kind of parenting when it comes to a mentally challenged person, but did Nancy Lanza fulfilled this in her son's case? I read an article in Autism Support Network entitled The 10 commandments of parenting a child with autism by Tyneise Seaborough, some of the commandment are:  You shall seek out therapists. Even though Mrs. Lanza tried to seek a therapist, it was too late for his sons' medication. You Shall establish at least two appropriate toys to play with. In Mrs. Lanza's case, she chose a gun to be his sons toy which so inappropriate for a mentally challenged person.

Guns at Home a threat or help?

     My dad is a soldier, he is a firearm proficient and a sniper. Off course, we have our guns at home for survival, being his only daughter I also know how to shoot, in my case it is a help. In Nancy Lanza's case who owned five weapons in her house and have a mentally challenged son, she thought that it is a help but it turned out a threat not only on her family but also to the society. Nancy Lanza, who was a firearm proficient since her childhood, thought that she should let his mentally challenged son use her guns not knowing that her own child would actually kill her.

     I was curious why did Nancy Lanza let his mentally challenged son handle her guns, it was answered by an article from The Blaze about Report: Nancy Lanza Let Adam Use Her Guns to ‘Teach Him Responsibility’ written by Madeleine Morgenstern.This article showed what kind of relationship with his family has been, first with his father, " It is unclear why Mr. Lanza refused to speak with his father, who made repeated attempts to contact him, this person said, but the breakdown in their relationship came as Peter Lanza started to get serious with his girlfriend, whom he married last year." How about his relationship with his mother? She stated that the mother and child relationship of Adam and Nancy was not good, "With a “deteriorating” relationship with her son, Nancy Lanza “was clearly worried about him” and tried to bond with Adam at the shooting range. She had told friends she was preparing to move to Washington state so Adam could attend a school that would be a better fit."

     Guns are made for protecting ourselves, it was made for help not a threat. Guns are not the appropriate thing on how to teach responsibility to a mentally challenged person. If a normal person has the ability of using it as a threat how much more a mentally challenged man? In the home of a normal family, guns are really a great help but in the home of a family with mentally challenged person, it is also a help but most of the time it becomes a threat.
    

Introduction : Mental Problem a Social Problem?

     Why do you think newborn screening is important? Newborn Screening is a great help for the mothers to determine if their child have some fatal disorders, that if left untreated will lead to mental illness or even death.  A procedure like this has been a great contribution to us, to determine as early as possible if the child have some mental illness, to treat them properly. Still, we can't choose our child's destiny, whether he/she is normal it is still a gift to us that we must cherish.

  

    Most mentally challenged kids are loved by their parents, but still some parents can't accept the truth that their child have mental illness and they're afraid to have their kids treated by the professionals.

     Not all newborn screened kids that was diagnosed with mental illness can be a social problem, most of mentally challenged persons has acquired this in their life. Bear with me while I research for more information about how much possibility there is that mental problem can be a social problem.