Denver Law Review Volume 77 Issue 4 Symposium - Law and Policy on Youth Article 12 Violence January 2021 Vol. 77, no. 4: Full Issue Denver University Law Review Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/dlr Recommended Citation 77 Denv. U. L. Rev. (2000). This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Denver Sturm College of Law at Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Denver Law Review by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. DENVER UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW VOLUME 77 1999-2000 Published by the University of Denver DENVER College of Law UNIVERSITY LAW 2000 Volume 77 Issue 4 REVIEW CONTENTS ARTICLES When The Unthinkable Becomes Routine ........................ Diana DeGette 615 Causes and Prevention of Youth Violence ..................... Jeffrey M. Jenson and Matthew 0. Howard 629 Making Youth Violence Visible: The News Media and the Summer of Violence .................................. Paul Colomy and Laura Ross Greiner 661 P.C. Youth Violence: "What's the Internet or Video Gaming Got to do with it?". .............................................. Anna Everett 689 Student Expression: The Legacy of Tinker in the Wake of Columbine ......................................... Edward T Ramey 699 Basketball Diaries, Natural Born Killers and School Shootings: Should There Be Limits on Speech which Triggers Copycat Violence? ............ .. ... .. Juliet Dee 713 Free Speech and Public Schools in a Post- Columbine World: Check Your Speech Rights at the Schoolhouse Metal Detector ....................... Clay Calvert 739 A New Case for Direct Congressional Regulation of Guns in School Zones ................... Michael A. Lawrence 769 More Than Zero: The Cost of Zero Tolerance and the Case for Restorative Justice in Schools .............................................................. William Haft 795 Denver University Law Review (ISSN 0883-9409) Summer 2000 The Denver University Law Review is published quarterly by the University of Denver College of Law through the Denver University Law Review Associa- tion. Denver University Law Review 7039 East 18th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80220 (303) 871-6172 dulr@ student.law.du.edu www.du.edulaw/lawreview Cite as: 77 DENV. U. L. REv. _ (2000). Subscriptions: Subscriptions to the Law Review are $30.00 per volume (add $5.00 for foreign mailing). All subscriptions will be renewed automatically unless the subscriber provides timely notice of cancellation. Single and Back Issues: Single issues of the current volume are available from the Association at $15.00 per issue. All previous volumes and issues of the Law Review are available exclusively from William S. Hein & Co., Inc., 1285 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14209 (800) 828-7571. Copyright: All articles copyright © 2000 by the Denver University Law Re- view, University of Denver (Colorado Seminary) College of Law. For all articles for which it holds the copyright, the Law Review permits copies to be made for classroom use, provided that (1) the user notifies the Law Review of the use, (2) the author and the Denver University Law Review are identified, and (3) the proper notice of copyright is affixed to each copy. For all other articles, contact the Law Review to request reprint permission. ) Form: The Law Review generally conforms to The Bluebook: A Uniform Sys- tem for Citation (16th ed. 1996) and to The Chicago Manual of Style (14th ed. 1993). It is the general policy of the Law Review not to keep unpublished sources used in articles, notes, or comments beyond their use for verification of citations. Inquiries as to the location of an unpublished source should be directed to the author of the article, note, or comment in which it is cited. Manuscripts: The Law Review welcomes submissions from members of the bench, bar, and academy. Please address manuscripts to the Articles Editor, Denver University Law Review, 7039 East 18th Avenue, Denver, Colorado 80220. Manuscripts should be double-spaced and cannot be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, postage-paid envelope. Previous nomenclature: Published as the Denver Bar Association Record from 1923 to 1928, Dicta from 1928 to 1965, and Denver Law Journal from 1966 to 1984. Postmaster: Please send all address changes to Denver University Law Re- view, 7039 East 18th Avenue, Denver, Colorado 80220. EDITOR'S NOTE On April 19, 1999 in a suburb of Denver, Colorado, a most fright- ening kind of violence took place. Two teenage boys, Dylan Kleebold and Eric Harris, killed eleven of their high school classmates, a teacher at the school, and themselves. They committed these murders with intent, with calm execution, with guns designed for warfare. Theirs was not a random act of violence. The violence they unleashed that day was a thor- oughly planned act of terrorism. Terrorism from teenagers-teenagers who were from upper middle class families, good schools, and a good neighborhood-teenagers from a segment of society where "it wouldn't happen." Since the massacre took place at Columbine High School, everyone has sought answers. People have blamed the boys, society, video games, the boys' parents, the schools, the teachers at the schools, the police, music, jocks at the school, gun control laws, the principal . the list could go on and on-and regardless of who or what is blamed, it is im- possible to know what caused the two boys to do this terrible act. Grand fingers of blame point to society: the decline of the family unit. More pointed fingers of blame point to individuals: the boys, their parents, the police. At the end of the day, the finger of blame is useless. Certainly, it would easier to resolve this problem if we knew the source of the problem-which, optimistically, is why such blame is be- ing laid. If we knew that the source of the violence was a certain movie, we could simply ban the movie. If we had evidence that it was the bullies who pushed Kleebold and Harris to their horrible acts, we could simply institute a 12-step bully recovery program. These resolutions are ridicu- lous, not because they wouldn't work-they might-they are ridiculous because the problem of youth violence is bigger than any one cause. Thus, the problem of youth violence can only be resolved by more than one response. The act of violence at Columbine High School affected all of us in the Denver community, and students at the University of Denver College of Law have responded in many ways. In this issue, we at the Denver University Law Review are responding in a way uniquely possible for a law review to respond. Each year, we publish an interdisciplinary sym- posium on law and policy relating to a specific issue. In light of the tragic events in our community, we have dedicated this issue to an inter- disciplinary examination of the law and policy surrounding youth vio- lence. We invited politicians, community leaders, and academic scholars from various disciplines including law, social sciences, media, and com- munications to contribute. Broadly, the articles address what happened at Columbine, what factors contributed to it, what legal and societal issues are raised by it, and what to do now. Of course, the legal issues are highlighted, but so are the societal factors, the role of government, and the impact of the media. Our intent was to address the issues raised by Columbine in a way that challenges the reader to reconsider both why these things happen, and how to respond. Ultimately, our intent is to en- courage response. Because this is an interdisciplinary issue, many of the articles are not in standard Bluebook format. As much as possible, the articles have retained their original format and form of citation. The editors of the Denver University Law Review would like to thank each person who contributed to this Symposium, both the live symposium that was held in the Spring of 2000 and the articles herein provide a thought provoking and excellent examination of this sadly timely issue. More generally, the editors of the Denver University Law Review would like to thank anyone who responds. WHEN THE UNTHINKABLE BECOMES ROUTINE BY DIANA DEGETIT* INTRODUCTION' Firearm violence has become an everyday event, even expected in some cities. The escalation of this violence is not measured merely in terms of geography, race, or social class. Now, we are aware that many of our children have embraced this violence, and many more children are threatened by it.' One year ago, two students planned, initiated, and exe- cuted a complex, systematic attack on their classmates at Columbine High School. One year later, the shock of that event still reverberates around the country and around the world. We now know there are no safe zones. A year ago, some said that Columbine was an isolated incident, the result of a unique set of variables that would not be replicated elsewhere. They were wrong. Students and their families in other states have con- fronted their own tragedies when their schools become killing fields. Those of us who harbored the illusion that children were somehow ex- empt or protected from violence were blind. One study showed that one in four young people report that they have been victims of violence.' Another study found that children aged 12-17 are nearly three times more likely than adults to be victims of violent crime and to experience a crime-related injury.4 Of course, some would say that the use of guns in these violent as- saults is a new phenomenon, making the death of children front-page news. Approximately 14 children every day die in America from gunfire, about one child every two hours.' Gunfire kills approximately 5,000 * Member, United States House of Representatives.