Failures of the media

By Mark Costello
Collegian Editor
October 11, 2006

We are at an interesting point in the history of American schooling. It seems that it is becoming more and more dangerous for students in America to enter their schools. There are a million mundane examples of things we have to deal with that our parents did not (e.g., the higher incidence of gang activity in schools, drug traffic, high-tech bullying and the preteen psychological disorders that are resultant). While my writers this week and I do not endeavor to discount the importance of these elements, when we refer to the dangers of American schooling, we mean it in a very literal sense: in the past few weeks, students have been dying on their campuses.

On Aug. 24, a man opened fire in an elementary school in Essex, Vt., hoping to kill his ex-girlfriend, but shot two teachers instead, one fatally. On Sept. 13, in Montreal, a man opened fire at Dawson College, injuring many students and some faculty, killing one student. Further, on Sept. 26, in Colorado, a man held a group of students hostage in Platte Canyon High School, shooting and killing a 16-year-old girl and then himself. On Sept. 29, in Cazenovia, Wis., a freshman brought a gun into his high school, Weston School, and killed the principal. Recently, on Oct. 3, in Paradise, Pa., Carl Roberts shot 10 Amish school girls and then himself. Five girls died, as did Roberts.

Indeed, it is disconcerting to see such frequent incidences of violence, especially in usually more peaceful areas, like Montreal and Lancaster County. Each situation is tragic in and of itself, each deserving of deep and penetrating media attention. Where is it, then? Where has the media’s eye been cast these past weeks, during which we have averaged a fatal school shooting per week? When the Columbine slayings occurred out in Colorado, the entire nation stopped and looked. We stepped back, took stock of ourselves, reacted, installed metal detectors in schools, gave lectures, and reaffirmed our love for our little siblings, cousins and school students in general. Christian groups rallied around the girl who preferred dying for Christ over living without having affirmed her Christianity. Where are the hero stories from these weekly slayings, though? Who has been affected outside the communities they occurred in?

The one notable exception to this generalization is the incident in Paradise, but even that lacks that certain kind of media reaction I’m looking for. The media parks itself along the interstate and gawks at the Amish as if they’re aliens, performing elaborate and strange funeral rituals. We heard tell of one girl asking to be shot first as to buy time for the younger ones, and her younger sister asking to be shot second—but where is the coalescence around this strikingly heroic tale, not dissimilar to the Little Rock martyr? We’re more obsessed, in this case, with the troubled psychology of Carl Roberts than we are with the victims; the Amish are too quaint for our taste. If anything, we’re dissatisfied with their claims that they now understand how we felt on 9/11. Indeed, some use this as an excuse to disparage the Pennsylvania Dutch in this, their time of tragedy.

Thus, I am left in the quagmire I started in. Why is the media so inert in this time of nationwide trouble? Our students are attending school under increasingly dangerous situations, with slayings occurring in institutions of all levels of education. The media have given the vast majority of these incidents a passing glance, using them as shock stories that are quickly replaced with more sensational shock stories as they make themselves known. It’s time to react as we did after Columbine: reflect, reassess and move towards taking care of our kids.

costellom4@lasalle.edu