Frontliners from Sugarland, Texas, hold 13 crosses before the thousands of teens and adults who attended the Gettin' Free Youth Concert June 12 in Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park, sponsored by the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists. The crosses, built by Greg Zanis of Aurora, Ill., commemorate the lives of the Columbine High School teens and a teacher killed by fellow students in Littleton, Colo. Zanis brought the crosses to Atlanta from Littleton.

On Oct. 1, 1997, Luke Woodham, 16, entered a high school in Pearl, Miss., and opened fire on his classmates, killing two and wounding seven more. Twenty-two days later, another high school - this time in Norwalk, Calif. - experienced the second of a two-year-long string of 19 school shootings, which climaxed on April 20, 1999. During a shooting rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 of their classmates, one teacher and then themselves. These two young men and several others have left Americans asking one question. Why? 

Some will say our schools are out of control. Others will blame the break-down of the family, rock music, drugs, violence on television and movies or illicit video games. Some have concluded that America needs more gun legislation while others argue for less legislation and more policemen who will carry out the already existing laws. Ultimately, no one really knows why some pre-teens, teen-agers and young adults experience such violent tendencies. 

In Kids Who Kill, a book co-authored by Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and Dr. George Grant, the authors argue that school shootings are the result of the demoralization of America. “Violence, infidelity, mayhem, perversity, gore, betrayal, lust and disrespect have all been sanctified in music, television, movies and video games as necessary complements of a culture of self-fulfillment, self-absorption and self-realization,” the authors say. “As we refuse to stand for morality, we easily fall into serving immorality.” 

To support their claims, the authors cite several statistics. Pornography, a multibillion-dollar-a-year industry in the U.S. and Canada, enjoys higher sales than McDonald’s. (Jerry Kirk, The Mind Polluters). Promiscuity continues to rise as only 31 percent of American women and 20 percent of American men wait until marriage to have sexual relations; 43 percent of teens under the age of 17 have initiated sexual activity; and more than half of American marriages end in divorce after seven years or less. (New York Newsday, Feb. 2, 1988).

So why? Why would Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, mow down four of their fellow students and one teacher on March 24, 1998? Why has a culture of violence spilled over into our classrooms? What caused this epidemic of school violence?

The sun sets over Atlanta as the crosses serve to remind passersby of the Columbine tragedy.

Mary Ann Poe, assistant professor of sociology and social work and social work program director, says there is not one main cause of school violence. “Historically, the United States was rooted in a Judeo-Christian ethic that recognizes God as creator, maker of all and sustainer. And with that comes a sense of authority that there is some objective truth. It's a reality that's true and right,” she says. “But in the last few decades, that grounding has shifted. Now we live in a world that is more individualized. ‘If it feels good for me, then it's alright.’ There's just not the same sense of responsibility that upholds what is good for everybody. There's not a sense of right and wrong.” 

Poe says part of the cause of school violence is the media: television, movies, the Internet and video games. “It's the repetition of images and thoughts,” she says. But the professor does not limit violence to just murdering others. Name-calling and bullying are also violent acts, she says. 
Iris Shackleford, an eighth grade teacher at Jackson Middle School who is doing graduate work at Union, agrees with Poe and explains that middle school students must have their parents sign a form before they are allowed to use the Internet. She assures that Internet use is monitored very closely because “the Internet is wide open. There's all kinds of things they can pull up.” Shackleford does note that many students have the Internet in their homes. 

In Kids Who Kill, the authors say television is “America's drug of choice” with more than 98 percent of all households owning at least one television. With so much violence on television, children have grown accustomed to seeing it. This has caused children to believe that violence is the correct response when they are angry. But now the public questions why kids are so angry. 

Poe says kids are angry because they have been reared in a highly individualistic society where a sense of commitment for what is good for the community has been lost. She says young people think 'Anything not good for me makes me angry' and that sometimes leads to outward displays of violence. Mass shootings by children are partly a result of bullying, the 'In' group vs. the 'Out' group. “Social outcasts are fighting back,” she says. “Cultural differences create stress when trying to get along.”

Shackleford says school violence comes down to the family. “I associate most everything with the home. Everything begins at home,” she says. “The break down of the family could mean there's no one there to give support for that child. If there's no one there to do that, they don't feel home is a safe haven. That's when they turn to other groups or other people.”

The eighth grade teacher also notes a “total lack of parenting.” Shackleford says she and her two brothers were raised by their mother in a one-parent home, but she says there was no break down of the family in their home. “The rules were set, home was the safe haven. We felt we had someone who was leading us,” she says. “And every child needs a leader.

Craig Scott, 16 holds a cross in memory of his sister, Rachel Scott, who was killed during the shootings at Columbine High School. Craig witnessed the murder of two other friends in the school library and later helped two wounded teens escape after the April 1999 tragedy.

“Many people blame it [school violence] on the one-parent family, but I don't think that's necessarily true,” she explains. “We have many students who have one parent who has good control of their children and who can give them the kind of home life they need. It's just a matter of whoever their leader is - sometimes it's a grandmother, sometimes it's an aunt, it may even be a foster family. It just depends on the leadership there and the types of rules you have at home and the love that's shown.”

A solution to school violence has yet to be identified. Some believe these children who are killing children should be punished as adults in a court of law. Others say they suffer from mental dysfunctions and they are unable to help themselves. Still others believe there is no solution.

Shackleford continues to promote the family. She says there is no right or wrong and no consequences for people. “We're on a plateau of 'I'm OK, you're OK.' We accept just about everything.” Shackleford does not believe Americans can legislate morality, but laws can keep things in order. 

“For a discerning Christian that has some wisdom, their day-by-day lives are going to be an example of who they are, what they are,” she says. “The Bible's our guide and anything we say, we should be able to back up with Scripture.” 

As opposed to a defensive posture, such as putting more police in schools and building protective walls around schools, Poe would take a more constructive approach to solving school violence. She says she would divert resources toward giving kids what they need such as building strong communities and funding schools. “Teachers can't do everything,” she says.

And Shackleford agrees. “Too much is put on us as teachers in schools to provide the morals and the directions for their lives. We're educators,” she emphasizes. “I can't leave school with them and guide them. You've got to have somebody who is guiding that child from the time they're small all the  through. I'm just another instrument in their lives. I can't be their moral guide. I can't teach them the right way to live. I can give as much input as I possibly can, but my goal is to educate, and the home needs to be doing the other part. We certainly should add to it, but to me that's where it begins and that's where it ends - at the home.”