February 14, 2018 marked the deadliest shooting at a high school in the United States at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, i8i Florida. Surpassing the Columbine shooting, the incident left seventeen students and teachers dead and seventeen more injured (Chuck). The shooter was nineteen year old Nikolas Cruz. Cruz, a former student at the school, opened fire with an AR-15 at around 2:21, just before dismissal at 2:40, and then proceeded to enter the school and shoot students and teachers (Burch & Mazzei). Undeniably, this is an act of evil; but whether this shooting was fueled purely from the situation or the shooter’s disposition is debatable.
According to popular media and fellow students, many seem to believe that Cruz is simply an evil person by disposition. Cruz’s behaviorism can most closely be related to Fromm’s nonsexual sadism which is described as “aiming at the infliction of physical pain up to the extreme of death, has as its object a powerless being” (Fromm 283). Accordingly, Cruz’s action of attacking a school of unarmed students with the objective of killing them, fits perfectly into this description of a nonsexual sadist. Cruz was reported to have attended the school before being “expelled for disciplinary reasons” and fellow students described him as an “outcast”, “loner”, who frequently talked about guns and weaponry (Segarra, Reilly, Meixler, & Calfas). Before the shooting, Cruz actively expressed racist and anti-gay sentiments online while uploading disturbing photos of his animal mutilations (Flesher & Wallman). From these instances we can see that, unprovoked, Cruz still exhibited evil behavior and sadistically mutilated helpless animals. While situationism relies on the situation in the moment, Cruz confessed to the murders and was charged with seventeen counts of premeditated murder (Segarra et al.); suggesting that his sole intent was to kill and no immediate situational factors could have provoked the attack. To plan the murder of innocent students solely because “he liked to see people in pain” (Flesher & Wallman) is exactly the kind of sadism that Fromm describes as “the core of sadism”;“ the passion to have absolute and unrestricted control over a living being” and “to force someone to endure pain or humiliation without being able to defend himself is one of the manifestations of absolute control” (Fromm 288-289). More specifically, to fit into Cruz’s case, Fromm depicts the nonsexual sadistic behaviorism of “aiming at the infliction of physical pain up to the extreme of death, has at its object a powerless being” (Fromm 283). Cruz reportedly set off the fire alarm to have his victims come out into the halls and, in his words, “the carnage began” (Segarra et al.). Ostracized and ultimately expelled from the school, Cruz’s sadistic desire to exert his power over innocent, defenseless students accurately illustrates the sadistic behavior that makes up his evil disposition and supports the idea that his character is the main fault, not the situation.
While it is apparent that Cruz had evil intentions, there are also some situational factors that cannot be ignored. In Doris’s words, “insubstantial situational factors have substantial effects on what people do” (Doris 22) and this may be relevant in Cruz’s situation. Diagnosed with developmental delays at age 3, he suffered trauma from witnessing his father’s death at 6, at 16 he became overcome with the ideas of war, death, and weaponry (Byan, McMahon, O’Matz, & Wallman). He was also bullied in his youth, was socially awkward, and had trouble making friends with peers (Bryan et al.); a familiar pattern that we can see in many other disturbed school shooters. Five months prior to the attack, a user under the name “nikolas cruz” on YouTube left a comment stating “I’m going to become a professional school shooter” (Segarra et al.). According to the article by Flesher and Wallman, “more than 30 people knew about disturbing behavior by Nikolas Cruz, including displaying guns, threatening to murder his mother and killing animals, but never reported it until after he committed the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School”. One student recalls that she and other peers “kept it to ourselves” and “just minded our business” (Byan et al.). Two students that did report Cruz’s behavior say that they were “brushed off by the school’s administration” (Flesher & Wallman). Even when the FBI was given a detailed tip about Cruz becoming a possible school shooter a month before, they failed to investigate (Flesher & Wallman) and even admitted to their failure following the attack. Had the school administration and FBI taken serious and immediate action, Cruz would have been detained earlier and directed towards help. Another crucial error in the situational factor was the failure to provide Cruz the help that he needed. A year prior, education specialists recommended he transfer to Cross Creek, “an alternative school for students with emotional problems where he had thrived in ninth grade” (Mazzei). Cruz decided to stay at Stoneman Douglas without any special needs protection; despite being entitled to special needs protection by district policy and the law (Mazzei). After attempting to enroll in Cross Creek, the district’s response to Cruz’s special needs services request was skewed in a mix up that resulted in the processes necessary to never start (Mazzei). While Cruz was a problematic student, it is questionable as to why he never received the special needs protection that he has always needed and was legally entitled to. Even when he did choose to further his education at an appropriate institution, the district failed to follow up with his requests and hindered his abilities to receive special needs assistance. When accounting for the situations, it is undeniable that there were traumatic events, mistakes made, and help not provided.
To say that the shooting is entirely the fault of the shooter’s disposition or situational factors is difficult to determine. To come to the most reasonable conclusion, I think that it is most likely both; but more on the dispositional side of the argument. While it may be difficult to argue that the Parkland shooting is perfectly dispositional, Cruz exhibited sadistic and evil behavior long before his crime was committed. More specifically, his mutilation of animals is also another way that he may have been able to inflict physical pain on a powerless being and foreshadowed the catastrophe that was to be committed years later. Although many situations may have affected him mentally, there was no predominant situation that could have served as a trigger for him to kill in the way that he did. With no apparent motive and no determining situation to force him to act out, Cruz’s fault was not his situation, but his own sadistic disposition. He admitted to enjoying watching people in pain and the shooting was his final exertion of absolute power and the “core of sadism”.
Works Cited
Bryan, Susannah, et al. “School Shooter Nikolas Cruz: A Lost and Lonely Killer.” Sun-Sentinel.com, 24 Apr. 2018, www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/parkland/florida-school-shooting/fl-florida-school-shooting-nikolas-cruz-life-20180220-story.html.
Burch, Audra D.S.and Mazzei, Patricia and. “Death Toll Is at 17 and Could Rise in Florida School Shooting.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 14 Feb. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/02/14/us/parkland-school-shooting.html.
Chuck, Elizabeth, et al. “'Pure Evil': 17 Killed in Mass Shooting at Florida High School.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 14 Feb. 2018, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/police-respond-shooting-parkland-florida-high-school-n848101
Doris, John M. “Moral Character, Moral Behavior.” Lack of Character: Personality and Moral Behavior, Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. 28–61.
Fleshler, David and Wallman, Brittany . “More than 30 People Didn't Report Disturbing Behavior by Nikolas Cruz before Parkland Massacre.” Sun-Sentinel.com, 14 Nov. 2018, www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/parkland/florida-school-shooting/fl-ne-florida-school-shooting-fdle-day-1-story.html.
Fromm, Erich. “Malignant Aggression: Cruelty and Destructiveness.” The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, pp. 268–296.
Mazzei, Patricia. “Parkland Shooting Suspect Lost Special-Needs Help at School When He Needed It Most.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 4 Aug. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/08/04/us/parkland-florida-nikolas-cruz.html.
Segarra, Lisa Marie, et al. “Florida School Shooting: Suspect, Death Toll – What to Know.” Time, Time, 14 Feb. 2018, time.com/5158678/what-to-know-about-the-active-shooter-situation-at-florida-high-school
Staub, Ervin. “The Psychology of Perpetrators: Individuals and Groups, Steps Along a Continuum of Destruction: Perpetrators and Bystanders, The Behavior and Psychology of Bystanders and Victims.” The Roots of Evil: Social Conditions, Culture, Personality, and Basic Human Needs, vol. 3, Cambridge University Press, 1999, pp. 67–169.