Transcript for Bullying is Russian Roulette Video

            Recently I uploaded the video presentation that goes with my book.  I presented this project for research class, and then went on to present it for the annual conference for the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences in 2014.

            Here is the link to the video: https://youtu.be/lZn-lJRb0OQ

            This is a transcript of everything I said in the video.

Slide 1

            Bullying is Russian Roulette with the Student Body.  In this video, I will be discussing five school shootings and the causal factors leading to these tragedies.  This originated as a research project in graduate school.

Slide 2

            As you can see in the top chart, the number of incidents has steeply increased over three decades, and the death toll rises even higher. 

            The second chart includes data for school massacres involving firearms or other weapons.  The United States still has the highest numbers even when compared to whole continents! 

Slide 3

            These were my initial research points.  The first involves the concept of agency.  Everyone is responsible for their own actions, whether it’s the killer, bully, or a lenient academician.

            I believe that school shootings are the result of a sociological chain reaction.  I will explain this in Slide 6.

            My third point is the project title itself.  The empty chambers in the revolver are the innocent students, and the loaded chamber is the potential killer.  Every time someone bullies, they risk bullying a potential school shooter.

Slide 4

            Here are the five incidents I examined.

Slide 5

            Over time I have made some observations and then developed hypotheses prior to research, from which I could later determine accuracy.

The first hypothesis is the notion that school shootings are the end link of a sociological chain of events.  Part B refers to the fifth link of the metaphorical chain.

            The second hypothesis is that people are abused prior to being interested in violent entertainment in pop culture.

            The third is that Lonnie Athens’s theory of Violentization applies to school massacres.  The steps are Victimization, Brutalization (That is an eye-for-an-eye mentality), Violence Performances, and then Virulency, which is enjoying a violent reputation.

Slide 6

            This is the Chain Reaction Model.  The links represent people or institutions that passively accept unhealthy societal norms.  Examples include socially accepted prejudices, derogatory jokes, fat shaming, bullying victims being wimps, etc.  Because these ideas are familiar in society, school faculty turns a blind eye, and allows students to bully.  Some bullying victims are prone to mental illness and may have familial problems as well.  The recipients of abuse can either reject the unhealthy norms or internalize them in Link 5.  Only a small percentage will execute a school shooting.  The victim then becomes the victimizer.

Slide 7

            The Rogue Bull’s Eye Model is the fifth link in the chain.  The morally gray outer ring represents the distal factors that influence everyone.  The red ring represents the immediate environment.  The people within directly affect the potential shooter in the middle, who looks like an egg with his mental health being the shell.  All the pressure from society and the immediate environment to accept the abuse weighs down on the targeted person.  Some shells are thicker than others, but once the shell is cracked, everyone in the red zone is in the line of fire.

Slide 8

            Under each precursor, I researched five school shootings to cross analyze them.  Some are self-explanatory, others not so.  Abusive faculty can be negligence, favoritism, or bully-teachers.  Bystander Maltreatment can be passive onlookers or hecklers who encourage the mistreatment.  Family issues can be child abuse, divorce, etc.  I’m usually against blaming pop culture, but I included it to be objective.

Slide 9

            After a thorough analysis, I determined the worst precursors to be mental illness and abusive faculty.  Bullying, Unhealthy Societal Norms, and Ostracism were not too far behind.  Teachers are responsible for disallowing mistreatment and promoting a healthy learning environment.  Moreover, once anyone commits mass murder, every forensic psychologist wants to examine the perpetrator’s head, hence the plethora of information on mental illness. 

Pop culture was the most internalized because it’s easier to relate to something that doesn’t harm you.  However, four of the shooters internalized and engaged in bullying.

Slide 10

            Most of the school shooters were bullied whether verbally or physically.  The most common reason for bullying was clothing.  Ostracism occurred the most in middle school, and there was a recurring theme of rejection by females.

Slide 11

            Under abusive faculty, the biggest problem was negligence.  The teachers were laissez faire.  Friend-teachers can be just as bad as bully-teachers, because the former wants to be popular.

            There was not much information on bystander maltreatment, because it is costly to interview everyone who witnessed bullying and ostracism.  It’s more cost effective to interview a few people close to the perpetrator.

            Under family issues, the recurring problem was that the killer had a negative relationship with his parents.  Only one had endured significant child abuse.

Slide 12

            The most common mental illness among the shooters was depression.  Two shooters consistently took psychiatric medications; Harris took Luvox, and Weise took Prozac.  Cho took Paxil for only a year in middle school, and one prescribed Ativan during college.

            Four shooters consciously repressed their emotions, and two were naturals at it due to their disorders.  Johnson had no anger management skills, and he expressed anger right away.

            In all their drawings, the one recurring theme was people being shot.  It doesn’t matter if someone draws skulls like Weise or hearts like Klebold, the act of shooting someone was already on the killer’s mind before the pencil touched the paper.

Slide 13

            The unhealthy norm that affected the shooters the most was infamy.  Notoriety is easier to attain than fame.  The media gives the perpetrators national attention, and they go down in history, while the victims just get a little memorial.  Everyone recognizes Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, but do you remember Jack Pinto, or which shooting he died in?

            Three out of five shootings were in environments that normalized bullying.             All the incident locations were public schools.  The perpetrators themselves attended public school.  Two were home schooled for a brief period, and Lanza went to parochial school for a year.

            School shootings could happen in any area regardless of socioeconomic status.

Slide 14

            There was no consistency in music tastes among the killers, but they tended to prefer drama movies.  The most common type of video game was first person shooter, however few people research non-violent games the perpetrators liked, giving a misleading impression.  Cho’s favorite childhood game was Sonic the Hedgehog.

            Contrary to stereotypes, six out of seven shooters were NOT goth!  Cho and Lanza were known to dress nerdy.  Eric and Dylan were not in the Trench Coat Mafia; they were only friends with a couple members. 

Slide 15

            These were the results of my hypotheses.

Slide 16

            At the end of this study, I noticed that shooters have five attributes in common.  They have no long term goals, and the massacre is their only dedication.  They tend to be misanthropes, and suicidal.  If you hate people in general, it’s easier to kill people you don’t know.  Also the perpetrator knows that getting away with the crime is impossible, so dying at one’s own hand and not by lethal injection is favorable.  Also, they are able to hide anger so people don’t suspect them.  The last point may seem obvious, but it is important to consider when assessing a potential killer.

            If you liked this video, you will probably like my book.  Feel free to click on the link.

[End of Transcript]

Here is the link to buy or consider buying my book.  
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015Z9FNFC?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

©2015 Caroline Friehs

Originally posted:  October 19, 2015