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I came across this headline today:  “Dawson College shooting game invites players to ‘kill students‘, cops”, so I just had to read it. I was absolutely appalled by what I read! There is a controversial online video game out now that is based on the Dawson College shooting in Montreal. The online game invites players to “take the role or Kimveer Gill and storm Dawson College using your favourite rifle! Kill those students and any cops you can!” The game is called Dawson College Massacre and was authored by Virtuaman. He apparently wanted to add some fun to this massacre. I don’t know what Virtuaman was thinking! Killing someone is never funny and should never be taken as such. Developing a game, online or otherwise, such as this with the idea of adding fun to the event is absolutely insensitive to those students who lived through this ordeal. I wonder if Virtuaman looked into how the students from Dawson College were making out since this shooting. A recently released report says that many Dawson College students suffered psychological problems after the school shooting, including post traumatic stress disorder. I believe that part of the problems in today’s society stem from our insensitivity to violence. We see so much of it in games and TV programs that it has become a normal part of living, something that needs to be made more fun and entertaining. To me this just does not seem right.

In looking at the statistics for school violence it would appear that school violence is not as prevalent as it seems. The stories in the media make it seem as though violence in schools is happening more regularly that it actually is.

The Stats

• During the school year of 2007 to 2008 it has been reported that there were 43 violent deaths associated with schools out of the 55.6 million students which were enrolled in kindergarten to high school during that time.
• In 2007 there were 1.5 million students, aged 12 to 18, who were the victims of non-fatal crimes in school. These crimes included things like theft, fighting, etc.  Just for the sake of comparison; there were 1.1 million students of that same age range who were victims of non-fatal crimes outside of school.
• During the 2007 school year there were 4 percent of students who had reported being victimized in school. The students were between 12 and 18 years of age.
• In 2007, 10 percent of male high school students and 5 percent of female high school students had reported being threatened with a weapon on school property.
• In 2007 the reported cases of bullying amongst students aged 12 to 18 was 32 percent. The bullying consisted of things ranging from being made fun of, being excluded from activities, being threatened with injury.

Although these statistics seem to show that there is not as much violence in schools as the media portrays, we should still be appalled by online games or other games designed to add fun or entertainment to these violent acts! By adding more fun to these school shootings are we not becoming more and more insensitive to what the students (victims) of these shootings have gone through and may still be going through? What are your thoughts? Should we be adding more fun to killing and violence?

Sources:

http://www.canada.com/news/national/Dawson+College+shooting+game+invites+players+kill+students+cops/3528625/story.html

http://www.nssc1.org/important-school-violence-statistics.html