As everyone now knows, a mass shooting occurred on Valentine's Day at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. It was considered one of the deadliest school massacres of all time, with 17 people killed and 15 more taken to the hospital. The suspected shooter, Nikolas Cruz, was also suspected to be mentally ill, and many people have said that his mental illnesses were the cause of his behavior. His family was aware of this but thought it was because of the loss of his adoptive parents, so he went untreated.

It disgusts me that there are still people out there that excuse this from him because "he's just mentally ill. That's just how they are." This type of thinking affirms the stigma towards mental illness, which is harmful when it comes to creating programs that can help those with mental illnesses. As someone who is mentally ill that is still fighting to get proper medication, I know for a fact that this thinking is a serious issue that cannot be taken lightly.

There have been many public opinion surveys that suggest that mental illness and violence go hand in hand, but research shows that this is far from the truth. Most people with mental illnesses are not violent, and findings by psychologists have been inconsistent about how much mental illness contributes to violent behavior in real life. Actual studies have shown that only approximately 18% of people with mental illnesses have committed one act of violence every year.

Did you know that white males have the greatest access to mental health treatment and are still more likely to cause mass shootings than any other demographic? Plus, many of the people who start school shootings are not even mentally ill at all. The school shootings are much more of a patriarchial and entitlement issue than it is a mental health issue. And believe it or not, it is possible to have a stance on gun violence without resorting to the stigmas that the mentally ill face. Many people just have to dig much deeper into the subject and see that everything that people thought about mental illness going hand in hand with violence is actually not true.

What I'm trying to say is, people need to stop generalizing mentally ill people as "violent", especially when talking about school shootings. The media's tendency to portray mentally ill people as violent or dangerous has caused lots of stigma towards mental illness, and it has made a lot of people much less likely to help mentally ill people lead successful lives. The first step to ending that stigma is listening to us.