Post by lace on Oct 10, 2006 22:52:28 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]School Shooters Target Girls, Point to Larger Problem of Violence Against Women [/glow] 
By Kim Gandy, NOW President
October 10, 2006
On Oct. 2, Charles Carl Roberts IV, a 32-year-old milk truck driver, entered an Amish school in Pennsylvania and shot 10 girls—killing five and gravely wounding five others (at least one of the injured girls may not survive). Roberts ended the rampage by killing himself as police attempted to enter the school.
News reports revealed that Roberts said in suicide notes and in calls to his wife that day that he had molested two young girls in his family 20 years prior, and was thinking of molesting again. Evidence found on the scene suggests that Roberts intended to sexually assault the girls at the school that day.
As horrific as this event was, it was not unique. In fact it may have been triggered by a similar assault just five days earlier, when 53-year-old Duane Morrison walked into a Colorado high school and took six girls hostage. Isolated in a classroom, he sexually assaulted the girls before killing 16-year-old Emily Keyes and himself.
Mass shootings at schools understandably cause alarm in the community and the nation as a whole as people try to understand how anyone could commit such terrible acts. These appalling crimes are sad and disturbing all on their own, but they also bring to light larger issues that deserve our attention.
In reaction to the events in Pennsylvania and Colorado, the media, government leaders and many others have attempted to examine the problem of violence in our society. The media typically devote significant coverage to school shootings—some of it responsible and thoughtful, some of it sensational and exploitative. Discussion often focuses on gun laws, violence in pop culture and mental health issues.
For the most part, reporting on these two recent killings has glossed over the fact that girls were the chosen victims. Had students from a specific racial or religious group been targeted for murder, it seems likely that the killings would have been deemed hate crimes immediately and vigorously. Not so when gender is the target.
So, it is up to NOW and feminists everywhere to ask: Why is violence against women still so prevalent in the United States? Why do men and boys commit so many acts of murder, rape, molestation and other forms of violence against women and girls?
The problem is so widespread that it can't be explained away with the "few bad apples" theory; we cannot write off all perpetrators of sexual harassment, battering, rape and sexual assault against girls and women as psychotic or evil. Violence against women is far too common an occurrence not to look at it as a societal issue that needs a serious and broad-based response.
In numerous school shootings, females have been targeted, and not just by adult men. Teenage boys and younger have sought out and killed ex-girlfriends and girls they believe rejected them or laughed at them. In 1998 in Jonesboro, Ark., Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden, just 13 and 11 years old, killed four girls and a female teacher, injuring nine other girls (one male teacher was also wounded). In 2000, a six-year-old Michigan boy shot and killed a girl with whom he had been fighting. And there are many, many more
Even beyond school shootings, the facts about violence against women are troubling. Women are ten times more likely than men to be killed by an intimate—a spouse, ex-spouse, steady date or domestic partner. The National Crime Victimization Survey reports more than 200,000 rapes and sexual assaults against females in 2004.
Look around and you will see the news stories every day. From rape and sexual harassment of military women by their fellow soldiers (and at military academies and recruitment offices) to pregnant women killed by their supposedly loving husbands, to men surfing the internet looking for young girls to molest.
Since most women and girls are targeted by someone they know, or are selected as a victim simply because they are female, it seems fair to ask again: Why?
Educator and author Jackson Katz explains: "The issue is not just violence in the media but the construction of violent masculinity as a cultural norm. From rock and rap music and videos, Hollywood action films, professional and college sports, the culture produces a stream of images of violent, abusive men and promotes characteristics such as dominance, power, and control as means of establishing or maintaining manhood."
The continued stigma against being "feminine" or sharing any traits with women works hand-in-hand with the aggressive image of manhood in our culture. The message to boys who are told by the coach "You throw like a girl" or "Don't be a sissy" is that girls and women are weak, inadequate, and definitely not equal.
Because women are frequently perceived as inferior to men, a perceived insult from, rejection by or upstaging from a woman can damaging a fragile ego. In that case, a boy or man looking to reassert his authority may well look to threats or acts of violence as his next course of action.
It's hard to ignore societal messages that violence and intimidation are acceptable tactics for getting what you want—particularly at a time when war and torture get the stamp of approval from our country's highest office.
What happened to the young girls at the Amish school as well as in Colorado was horrendous, yet terrible violent acts are committed against women every day. Even when it is not the main headline, or fails to make the news at all, violence against women festers in every corner of our country.
What can we do to prevent and eventually stop rape and violence against women? Education is clearly needed, and zero tolerance from male leaders in every organization and field, including sports, military, religion, entertainment, schools, law enforcement and government.
NOW has long fought to include gender (as well as other unprotected and targeted groups) in federal hate crimes legislation, but no such legislation has passed Congress as yet. Indeed, gender-based hate crimes are not even part of the hate crime statistics collected by the FBI. After the November elections, we will begin our work again, hopefully with a more supportive Congress.
If the United States is to have any moral authority about how women are treated around the globe, we must get our priorities straight here at home.
At this moment another woman or girl is being harassed, abused, raped or killed. The fear of sexual predators, abusers and murderers is causing girls and women to walk in fear to school, work, the grocery store, even through their own front doors. When will we say enough is enough?
Lisa Bennett, Communications Director, and Gina Mittal, Communications Intern, contributed to this story.
www.now.org/issues/violence/101006school_shootings.html
By Kim Gandy, NOW President
October 10, 2006
On Oct. 2, Charles Carl Roberts IV, a 32-year-old milk truck driver, entered an Amish school in Pennsylvania and shot 10 girls—killing five and gravely wounding five others (at least one of the injured girls may not survive). Roberts ended the rampage by killing himself as police attempted to enter the school.
News reports revealed that Roberts said in suicide notes and in calls to his wife that day that he had molested two young girls in his family 20 years prior, and was thinking of molesting again. Evidence found on the scene suggests that Roberts intended to sexually assault the girls at the school that day.
As horrific as this event was, it was not unique. In fact it may have been triggered by a similar assault just five days earlier, when 53-year-old Duane Morrison walked into a Colorado high school and took six girls hostage. Isolated in a classroom, he sexually assaulted the girls before killing 16-year-old Emily Keyes and himself.
Mass shootings at schools understandably cause alarm in the community and the nation as a whole as people try to understand how anyone could commit such terrible acts. These appalling crimes are sad and disturbing all on their own, but they also bring to light larger issues that deserve our attention.
In reaction to the events in Pennsylvania and Colorado, the media, government leaders and many others have attempted to examine the problem of violence in our society. The media typically devote significant coverage to school shootings—some of it responsible and thoughtful, some of it sensational and exploitative. Discussion often focuses on gun laws, violence in pop culture and mental health issues.
For the most part, reporting on these two recent killings has glossed over the fact that girls were the chosen victims. Had students from a specific racial or religious group been targeted for murder, it seems likely that the killings would have been deemed hate crimes immediately and vigorously. Not so when gender is the target.
So, it is up to NOW and feminists everywhere to ask: Why is violence against women still so prevalent in the United States? Why do men and boys commit so many acts of murder, rape, molestation and other forms of violence against women and girls?
The problem is so widespread that it can't be explained away with the "few bad apples" theory; we cannot write off all perpetrators of sexual harassment, battering, rape and sexual assault against girls and women as psychotic or evil. Violence against women is far too common an occurrence not to look at it as a societal issue that needs a serious and broad-based response.
In numerous school shootings, females have been targeted, and not just by adult men. Teenage boys and younger have sought out and killed ex-girlfriends and girls they believe rejected them or laughed at them. In 1998 in Jonesboro, Ark., Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden, just 13 and 11 years old, killed four girls and a female teacher, injuring nine other girls (one male teacher was also wounded). In 2000, a six-year-old Michigan boy shot and killed a girl with whom he had been fighting. And there are many, many more
Even beyond school shootings, the facts about violence against women are troubling. Women are ten times more likely than men to be killed by an intimate—a spouse, ex-spouse, steady date or domestic partner. The National Crime Victimization Survey reports more than 200,000 rapes and sexual assaults against females in 2004.
Look around and you will see the news stories every day. From rape and sexual harassment of military women by their fellow soldiers (and at military academies and recruitment offices) to pregnant women killed by their supposedly loving husbands, to men surfing the internet looking for young girls to molest.
Since most women and girls are targeted by someone they know, or are selected as a victim simply because they are female, it seems fair to ask again: Why?
Educator and author Jackson Katz explains: "The issue is not just violence in the media but the construction of violent masculinity as a cultural norm. From rock and rap music and videos, Hollywood action films, professional and college sports, the culture produces a stream of images of violent, abusive men and promotes characteristics such as dominance, power, and control as means of establishing or maintaining manhood."
The continued stigma against being "feminine" or sharing any traits with women works hand-in-hand with the aggressive image of manhood in our culture. The message to boys who are told by the coach "You throw like a girl" or "Don't be a sissy" is that girls and women are weak, inadequate, and definitely not equal.
Because women are frequently perceived as inferior to men, a perceived insult from, rejection by or upstaging from a woman can damaging a fragile ego. In that case, a boy or man looking to reassert his authority may well look to threats or acts of violence as his next course of action.
It's hard to ignore societal messages that violence and intimidation are acceptable tactics for getting what you want—particularly at a time when war and torture get the stamp of approval from our country's highest office.
What happened to the young girls at the Amish school as well as in Colorado was horrendous, yet terrible violent acts are committed against women every day. Even when it is not the main headline, or fails to make the news at all, violence against women festers in every corner of our country.
What can we do to prevent and eventually stop rape and violence against women? Education is clearly needed, and zero tolerance from male leaders in every organization and field, including sports, military, religion, entertainment, schools, law enforcement and government.
NOW has long fought to include gender (as well as other unprotected and targeted groups) in federal hate crimes legislation, but no such legislation has passed Congress as yet. Indeed, gender-based hate crimes are not even part of the hate crime statistics collected by the FBI. After the November elections, we will begin our work again, hopefully with a more supportive Congress.
If the United States is to have any moral authority about how women are treated around the globe, we must get our priorities straight here at home.
At this moment another woman or girl is being harassed, abused, raped or killed. The fear of sexual predators, abusers and murderers is causing girls and women to walk in fear to school, work, the grocery store, even through their own front doors. When will we say enough is enough?
Lisa Bennett, Communications Director, and Gina Mittal, Communications Intern, contributed to this story.
www.now.org/issues/violence/101006school_shootings.html