Essay on "School Shootings Case Analysis"

Essay 4 pages (1279 words) Sources: 4

[EXCERPT] . . . .

School Shootings Case Analysis

There was a common theme that the media was related to an increase in violence within younger teen populations of students. Either the intense level of reporting school shootings was influencing more, or the idea that media seems to highlight violence on TV and movies like never before. There is research that corroborates such ideas (Huesman, 2007). Both of these led most of the participants to agree with the notion that there was a connection between the media and the increase in violence and school shootings recently. This has been a major political issue for years, especially as video games and computer graphics on TV get more sophisticated, allowing for graver portrayals of violence to be seen. Some of the parents believed that overexposure to this increase in violence are more of the parents fault than the media. In this case, parents do not supervise their children well enough to filter out the violence. As such, violence should not be restricted on TV; parents just need to be more responsible in checking on what their children are watching.

Another common theme was the availability of guns. It was clear that some parents were quite alarmed by the easy availability of guns and how that is having a subsequent impact on how easily teens can get their hands on guns. Yet, other parents were clearly advocates of their Second Amendment Rights. One even claimed that the right to own guns is a purely American freedom, and that it should not be jeopardized by a few, random school shootings. This is a very political topic. Currently, the United States is in the midst of a major conflict about gun regulation (Cooper & Sussman, 2013). The topic of guns immediately turned the conversation away from the main topic -- school shootings -- and into a highly political debate.

Overall, reviewing the content illustrates how frustrated many Americans are with school violence. Using inductive and deductive reasoning, it is clear that the participants were aggravated with the increasing rate of school violence, but were unable to really pin down a single and absolute cause. In fact, discussing the issue often leads participants to get off track, bringing in their own personal biases and politics into a situation that is already extremely complicated. Reviewing this case illustrates the frustration of a nation. We want to protect our children, but no one is really sure how to do it best.

Critique the Facilitator

Based on the 3 missing parents and the need to cut the focus group short to only an hour, it was clear that the facilitator might have chosen a poor time for parents to participate. 9 pm is hard for parents with school-aged children at home. Choosing a more appropriate time would have helped increase the ability of other parents to participate. Or if no other time was available, the facilitator could have chosen a phone survey which would have been easier for parents to participate in without having to find accommodations for their children. Again, later the facilitator reminded the parents not to attack each other but to stay on focus. This helped the group get through such a controversial topic without major eruptions.

The facilitator did intervene at appropriate times on several occasions. For example, at the very beginning of the session, when tensions were rising, he stepped in to stop a potential argument. One parent asked what the children of another were doing while he was participating. This was a very appropriate time to step in, address the fact that the conversation was going off topic and intervene.

Additionally, the facilitator also made good use of leading questions, which helped steer the conversation towards the primary goal. The facilitator also interjected to make sure that all points of the participants were being addressed. This increased… READ MORE

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