9486 in the collection
Readin', Writin', and Killin': Book Review
The author of a new book about school shootings talks about America's pernicious cult of athletics, the dangers of small-town intimacy, and why it's impossible to identify a school shooter in advance.
In 1999, Congress, baffled by the wave of late '90s shootings, decided to investigate why they were happening in quiet, close-knit communities rather than cities. Newman was asked to contribute two case studies to the effort, and her new book, Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings, grew out of that research. Newman and a team of four Harvard graduate students conducted more than a hundred interviews with kids, parents, teachers and mental health workers in Heath, Ky., where in 1997, 14-year-old Michael Carneal opened fire on an early morning prayer group at his high school, killing three students and wounding five others, and in Westside, Ark., where in 1998 Andrew Golden, 11, and Mitchell Johnson, 13, fired 30 rounds of ammunition at teachers and students on a school playground, killing four and injuring 10. . . .
Newman and her colleagues concluded that we can't blame guns or Marilyn Manson for these unthinkable acts of violence. In fact, some of our all-American values may be the poison in the well. The closeness of small towns, she writes, often socializes its residents into silence because they don't want to risk offending their friends and neighbors by bringing up unsettling information. And, she argues, we need to be more understanding of kids that can't or won't be shiny, happy conformists. She reminds us that for teenagers, hell definitely is other people -- especially if you're a boy who isn't a jock. . . .
— Carlene Bauer
Salon.com
2004-02-25
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2004/02/25/rampage
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Pages: 380
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