"Alienation" after Collumbine

During the year after the tragedy of the Columbine shooting, television studios began to produce shows that depict life in american high schools. Such shows, such as Freaks and Geeks and Roswell addressed issues that many teenagers face in a true high school setting.

Roswell, in particular, addressed the issue of being an outcast, or in more literal terms, an alien. The show focused on the idea of three extra terrestrials who have been living as normal american teenagers in a high school in a small town. In the pilot episode of the program, the main character, Liz, discovers that her friend Max is an alien when he uses his powers to save her. Liz promises to keep his true identity a secret.

The adults in Roswell keep a strong watch over the teenagers of the town. After the shooting at the beginning of the episode, the towns Sheriff becomes convinced that there is something abnormal about Max. In order to investigate further he goes as far as sending his son, who is Liz's boyfriend, to take her backpack so he can look inside for information.

In comparing the pilot episode of Roswell to the Columbine shooting i saw a connection in the way the trials for Columbine and the investigation into Max. In the Columbine tragedy, it was decided that the Gothic lifestyle was to blame for the incident. The people who believed in the Gothic lifestyle were seen as dangerous and unstable. In Roswell it is believed that aliens are bad, and can never be good. The is why even though Max used his powers to save someone else, the Sheriff is set on catching him because in his eyes Max is abnormal, which means he is dangerous, which means he must be stopped.