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)