Shooting in School - Averted Tragedy in Waseca, Michigan

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The most important social psychology concept that comes into play regarding this news story deals with school shooters imitating other school shooters from the past. This is know as the “copycat” factor. There is evidence that suggests that youth’s try to “copy-cat” other school shooters (Sullivan and Guerett, 2003). T.J. Solomon went on a shooting rampage at Heritage High School in Georgia. He said, “I felt the next thing left to release anger would be through violence. I had gotten the idea from the shooting at Columbine High School on April 20 (Sullivan and Guerett, page 51). This evidence proves that school shooters are motivated by past school shooters. The reason why these school shooters choose to “copycat” past school shooters can be explained by examining normative influence. Normative influence deals with people seeking to get into a specific group (Meyers, 2010). There is evidence that John wanted to join this group of school shooters in the notebook that was recovered by authorities. In the notebook he referenced the shootings at Columbine, Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook. He also wrote about how he idolized the Columbine shooters (cbsnew.com, 2014). It can be assumed that because of what was written in his journal that normative influence played a role in John’s decision to seek to take out his hostile aggression in the manner in which he planned to do so.

The part of the story that dealt with John’s intentions to conduct a school shooting was very somber. If someone would have caught on to John’s behavior it wouldn’t have taken sheer luck to avoid this situation. Knowing when hostile aggression is present in someone is the first step in dealing with that person in reducing their hostile aggression. Rewarding non-aggressive behavior is the next step. Although it may be true that John didn’t display any signs of hostile aggression, it seems unlikely to me that there were no warning signs that John displayed that could have been red flags.

The part of the story that dealt with Chelsie alerting authorities of the situation had feel good vibes to it. I think it is important for people to understand the bystander effect so that they know how to act in a situation where the bystander effect could come into play. Too many people rely on others to help out in certain situations because they feel like they don’t need to help because someone else will probably do it. It is important to understand the importance of going out of your way to help someone, even if you are going to receive nothing in return for doing so. It may end up saving lives.

Resources

Ford, Dana and Ben Brumfield "Police: Minnesota Teen Planned School Massacre." CNN. Cable News Network, Web. 02 May 2014.

Garcia, Stephan M., Kim Weaver, Gordon B. Moskowitz, and John M. Darley. "Crowded Minds: The Implicit Bystander Effect." American Psychological Association (2002): n. pag. Web.

Haseleu, Julia. (April 2014). Social Psychology class lecture

Meyers, D.G. (2010) Social Psychology. (10th) New York, NY: McGraw-Hill

"Minn. Teen Allegedly Plotted to Bomb Schools, Kill His Family." Cbsnews.com. N.p., 2 May 2014. Web.

Sullivan, M. L., & Guerett, R. T. (2003). The copycat factor: Mental illness, guns, and the shooting incident at Heritage High School, Rockdale County, Georgia. In M. H. Moore, C. Petrie, A. Braga, & B. McLaughlin (Eds.), Deadly lessons: Understanding lethal school violence. Washing- ton, DC: NAP.

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