By Brielle Ballantine
Editor-In-Chief

Seung-Hui Cho, Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold and Adam Lanza are few of the notorious school shooters that have made headlines throughout the nation by committing one horrible act, murder.

When travesties like these occur, the shooter is usually the first person who is revealed in the news cast, talk shows or any other media reporting the case; but the people who are rarely recognized are the actual victims of these horrific crimes.

The widespread media attention that shooters get after these acts is exactly what they seek out, they want to be remembered in some way, shape or form and getting their last “15 minutes of fame” is exactly what they want.

“It brings a lot of attention that they don’t deserve,” senior Joseph Ziegler said. “It causes them to be infamous .”

School shootings date back to the 18 century and every time, the situation is handled in the same exact way. According to ”Citypulse.com”, Anthony Kolenic, an MSU anthropology professor specializing in peace and justice said.

“If we look at the history of school shootings (in the U.S.), the earliest one that I can find a record of was in 1795,” Kolenic said. “These have been going on for well over 200 years and they’ve really changed since the 1970’s and the alignment of violence as a way to get media attention.”

Not many news station cover how to deal with school shooting situations, or what to do when it happens. How can people expect change when information is rarely given out?

The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on Dec. 14 grabbed the nation’s attention after Adam Lanza killed 20 students and six teachers. This is not the only case of elementary school shootings. 30 years ago, in 1979, a 16-year-old girl named Brenda Spencer is said to be the beginning of the “modern day shooter.”

“When asked why she did it, she said she wanted ‘to do something big to get on TV.’” Kolenic said.

Videos were recovered where Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the Columbine shooters, they were talking about who would play them in a movie after their impending fame. Seung-Hui Cho, The Virginia Tech shooter also made a video where he gave a shot out to Harris and Klebold. And according to cbslocal.com, he even took the extra step to send the video to NBC studios just before the shooting.

People like this are in need for attention, and they are willing to do anything to get it instead of dying alone and not being remembered by anyone. In their minds, being an infamous killer is better than being a no one.

“I believe they do it because of a childhood problem,” senior Samantha Hampton said. “Being an outcast or having family issues can lead to neglect and make people do stupid things for attention.”

The news should be reporting on the victims, grieving families and ways to prevent these situations from happening again; instead they use these stories to their advantages and use the monsters to raise their ratings. The only thing that will happen if the shooters names are never revealed are that the victims are the only ones who can be thought about; not the horrible people who have ended lives to be famous.

The parents should be on the news, the students should be on the news, teachers, friends; anyone else besides the killers picture on the screen. If we continue to give these monsters what they want, the violence will only spread.