The final part of this issue is the individual himself.
Julia Villela
School shootings have become a thought to fear in this era. With the increasing amount of mental health issues comes the fear of harm, to self or community. School shootings are among the many detrimental effects of untreated mental health. There is a myriad of different reasons behind the individuals who commit school shootings. One of the reasons involves the individual’s surrounding environment, beginning from birth. Environment plays a crucial role in the development of personal characteristics and beliefs. Individuals who grow up in a subpar environment become a product of misfortune, potentially leading them to make bad decisions.
Individuals who grow up in a subpar environment come to develop intrapersonal conflicts that may lead to the development of psychological illness. The effect of psychological issues, especially those that are untreated, may lead to these bad decisions. Individuals, such as those with absent parental figures or unstable home life, are more likely to develop intrapersonal conflicts that stem from the lack of nurture necessary for an individual to become a productive member of society. Those with absent parental figures or unstable home life growing up believe that normalcy is just that. Nurture is forced, and love is missing. Primary emotions are absent. These individuals lack the necessary psychological stimulation for a healthy, productive life. Absent parental figures and unstable home life are only a part of the issue.
Although parental figures and home life play a crucial role in the development of psychologically and socially mature individuals, this comprises only a part of the issue. Another aspect of the problem stems from the educational environment. Individuals with psychological illness are often not only underacknowledged in their homes but also their educational background. Academic personnel often dismiss the warning signs these individuals display, which leads to an overall dismissiveness of self inside and outside the home. Outside the house, the educational environment is the second most essential for individual growth and developing a healthy, productive life. Individuals who lack a stable home rely on the educational environment for attention and acknowledgment. However, these individuals do not always receive this, further intensifying intrapersonal conflicts and psychological illness.
The final part of this issue is the individual himself. Although the home environment and educational environment play crucial roles in the development of psychologically and socially mature individuals, the individual himself is the final part of the increasing incidence of school shootings. With an unstable environment at home and school and with no clear direction in life, the individual feels as though he has been underacknowledged and feels as though he needs to be seen and heard. The only way the individual can predict achieving this is through a final decision that is made from desperation, a decision that will impact innocent lives.
Treatment begins with identifying a problem, which has proven difficult in this era. Individuals are so often dismissed because we as a community have failed to identify and acknowledge issues as they arise correctly. We, as a community, have been unable to help these individuals in need of help. These individuals go through life feeling underacknowledged and unimportant, along with living an unstable life because of the environments which raised them. This situation, in turn, plays a part in the bad decisions made because of the mental illness that is suffered due to lack of proper nurture and love. Parental figures need to recognize; educational personnel must remember that we as a community need to identify an issue when it presents itself. We need to hear these individuals, and we need to see these individuals. It is ignored if we do not recognize it and neglected if we do not do anything about it.
