(Photo: Illustration by Manasa Gudavilli for Washington Square News)
by Srishti Bungle
This story was originally published on New York University’s Washington Square News.
A 15-year-old sophomore school shooter was charged with a senseless act of violence at Oxford High School on Tuesday, Nov. 30. Eleven people were shot, three students died from their injuries and the rest were critically injured. A fourth student died the next day. The shooting at Oxford was the 27th mass murder of 2021 in the United States.
In the past, mass shootings in schools inspired debates about what potentially motivated attackers to open fire on classmates and teachers. Bullying seemed like the clear and easy answer. In 2004, the United States government released its Safe School Initiative report, claiming that 71% of attackers were motivated by social distress — the report’s seventh key finding read, “Many attackers felt bullied, persecuted, or injured by others prior to the attack.”
For years, the narrative that shooters were victims of bullying has persisted. Now, with the findings of the Oxford case, we need to stop excusing the actions undertaken by school shooters.
Read the rest of the story at Washington Square News.