Could Ohio shootings have been prevented?

• Position: Bullying - Brief article

The individual who opened fire at Chardon (Ohio) High School, killing three classmates and wounding two others, has been described by fellow students as "an outcast who had been bullied" The incident appears to be the latest in a string of school shootings committed by bullied students.

Douglas Abrams, associate professor of law at the University of Missouri. Columbia, believes that public schools need to implement more effective antibullying prevention programs. "Prevention programs have been successful. The most important reason for them is to spare millions of bullied schoolchildren the emotional and physical pain that impedes learning; we also cannot ignore evidence of random, deadly violence by bullied students who strike back."

Abrams says that, showy after the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School, the Secret Service and the Department of Education studied Columbine and 36 other school shootings since 1974. The two agencies found that nearly all of the shooters had "experienced bullying and harassment that was long-standing and severe" and...