Shooting at my local high school this morning

[Goblin19]

I deal with teens every day at my movie theatre and while some are the bane of my my ecistence, they are for the most part still decent kids, and I work pretty close to w ng ere this incident happened.

[Brad]

I hate seeing stuff like this happen. It is horrible no matter why it happens.


Yes, kids can be cruel. I was teased for being adopted and much of it by my own sister (who is 5 years older then me) as I was told stuff like "you're not real" but that was tame compared to what others have had to endure. And it's not just kids as adults can be cruel too. I catch myself from time to time as I can easily act like a horses rear myself.


That's one of the reasons behind my signature. It helps to remind me to try and treat everyone with decency. This is something we have tried very hard to teach our son to do. Thankfully he has turned out to be a pretty polite and kind young man so far. While I am sure this is not 100% accurate I have always tried to live by the saying that "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" and Maggy has been even more diligent then I have in making sure that our son is accepting and understanding of all types of people, especially LGBT kids. They can be some of the most targeted and picked on of anyone. Since Maggy has spent so many years as a Social Worker dealing with young people she has seen first hand much of the damage, including suicide, that can be done by hatred and prejudice.

[Nostalgiabuff]

i think it is also just a certain type of person. i mean we all experiences bullying at one point or another....ekither being bullied or being the bully. it is part of growing up. difference is none of us brought a gun to school and started shooting people. i think that kids are desencitized to violence beuase they are surrounded by it every day...tv, movies and video games. i think that certain kids lose touch with reality on this stuff and can no longer differntiate and these are the ones who start shooting people. i am no a doctor but it is a type of mental instability...IMHO

[MegoMark71]

I had a job interview today. During this interview it came up that i lost my brother when i was 17.He had Duchennes Muscular Dystrophy. Well turns out the lady doing my interview just had her sisters little girl diagnosed as having some form of MD, but they are still running tests. This poor little girl has started having her legs angle outward when she walks. I was told that the kids at school pick on her and make fun of her for it. Kids freakin suck and are cruel as hell. I was in more than one fight growing up defending my brother from some stupid punk who thought he was funny punching my brother to see him in pain. But i will say this, my experiences at a young age made me the caring and compassionate person i have always been. I saw lots of death and suffering as my brothers friends passed away. My brother passed at 19 and was 2 years older than me.

[toys2cool]

Wishing death on kids isn't okay.

I was bullied terribly in elementary and high school...I was the poor, smelly kid who lived on a rundown farm and never had much of anything. It was absolute torture. I remember coming home from school crying, begging my parents to move away from there. I was held down and beaten. I was ganged up on at recess, and of course the teachers "didn't see anything" so nothing was ever done. I was even shoved through a window and had to get stitches in my right arm. This went on for years.

Fortunately, I never snapped. Being treated like dirt doesn't give anyone the right to kill someone, whether you think they deserve it or not.
I rose above the bullying and became a better person for it. Half of those jerks who bullied me ended up in jail as adults.
Living well truly is the best revenge.

sorry to hear that bro, I use to get bullied as a kid as well in elementary and some in Junior high...Until i decided to fight back..I killed myself making myself stronger..I'll never forget it, the summer of 8th grade..I would wake up in the morning and workout all the day, I came back to school that year and beat the crap out of a few, I was never messed with again, and the few who tried...well let's just say it didn't turn out well for them

but i stayed true to myself, I kept my geeky friends which I loved and stood up for them as well

But unless you've been thru that in your life you'll never know how it feels...it's pretty sad when a child is scared to go to school

[Hector]

Interesting perspective.
I personally don't see much as changed since the day I went to High school or Jr High. Of course I grew up in L.A. and in my junior year of high school a kid was shot to death in the hallways over a mobile phone. Senseless.
At other high schools nearby kids were shot and killed at least one or twice a year. Mostly gang related and I went to a decent public high school in West Hollywood.
The only difference I see in the media today is that what was once regarded taboo to show in media and was actually happening in the streets back in my day is now greeted with open arms in the media and encouraged by corporations and studios.
Be it on Television, Music or print.
Just sad to think kids are still killing each other senselessly. I do hope these kids can get their lives back in order, be it the victims and the perpetrators.
Just my 2 cents.

I think your post is dead on.

Violence has been imprinted in mankind ever since he first showed up on Earth...back during caveman days, ancient Rome...the Wild West...and so on...violence has always been present amongst kids as well...the only difference is that we are so wired together through media...that everyone is aware of everyone these days...but kids killing kids were happening during medieval times too.

Sad...but true.

[megoscott]

Um, yeah...vilonce is always with us...but while there's an apparently rich history of school shootings, according to wikipedia, (1802, who knew?) you can't deny that they've been occurring with increased frequency and increasing death tolls in the last 10 or 20 years. And few of the troubled misfits in the schools we grew up in had access to the kind of firepower these people have.

And you can't pin it all on bad kids. Adults go on massive shooting sprees all the time.

[megoscott]

Look at the chart on this page: Opinion: The Rise and Decline of Mass Shootings

[Brad]

Look at the chart on this page: Opinion: The Rise and Decline of Mass Shootings

Very interesting chart Scott. Gives me some hope seeing a decent decline in the previous decade. Maybe some of the hard work folks do to help prevent bullying is actual paying off somewhat?

[MIB41]

Raising kids has shown me alot of differences between my generation and today's youth. One big culprit is Facebook. If the government banned it tomorrow, I wouldn't shed a tear. So many kids use this as a vehicle to spread discourse between one another. Someone has a misunderstanding? Bam! It's on Facebook and becomes a week long texting war until kids calm down. Today's kids have a hard time communicating effectively. Instead of working matters out, they go into their selected corner of friends and have a verbal stand off. Is it any wonder you have kids who crack? They are shunned at school, then go home and the verbal assault continues on other social outlets. No. Facebook did not kill these kids. But events like this should be a frank reminder to parents to stay on top of what kids are saying on these sites and to get more involved with their kids. Two young people are getting buried this weekend that had their whole lives ahead of them. Another is fighting to keep his life. And the kid who committed this act has effectively ruined his future. And the collateral damage to the families and friends of these people is unmeasurable. It's a tragedy spawned from this void in communication.

[enyawd72]

You've all made some very interesting points and given some different perspectives to think about. It is truly a tragic event for all parties involved.

Maybe I tend to look at the past through rose colored glasses, or maybe my years growing up were spent in ignorant bliss, or maybe both. But bullying aside, I still can't recall the level of violence among kids today when I was a kid.

[Earth 2 Chris]

Raising kids has shown me alot of differences between my generation and today's youth. One big culprit is Facebook. If the government banned it tomorrow, I wouldn't shed a tear. So many kids use this as a vehicle to spread discourse between one another. Someone has a misunderstanding? Bam! It's on Facebook and becomes a week long texting war until kids calm down. Today's kids have a hard time communicating effectively. Instead of working matters out, they go into their selected corner of friends and have a verbal stand off. Is it any wonder you have kids who crack? They are shunned at school, then go home and the verbal assault continues on other social outlets. No. Facebook did not kill these kids. But events like this should be a frank reminder to parents to stay on top of what kids are saying on these sites and to get more involved with their kids. Two young people are getting buried this weekend that had their whole lives ahead of them. Another is fighting to keep his life. And the kid who committed this act has effectively ruined his future. And the collateral damage to the families and friends of these people is unmeasurable. It's a tragedy spawned from this void in communication.

Well said Tom. I totally agree.

I think the same thing could be said about violent video games and movies. Kids in the past 20 years have been exposed to more and more violent games. I'm not blaming the games, but it's up to parents to communicate the difference between blowing away virtual characters and real people. Many young kids are exposed to these games and movies far too young, with no parental guidance on what is real and what isn't, what is right and what is wrong.

Chris

[megoscott]

Those kids knew the difference between right and wrong and they set out to do wrong on a grand, epic scale.

Even with fantastic parental guidance you are just up against some powerful and unprecedented forces. Intensely violent games that you can play compulsively for hours on end....what does that do to a young, still forming mind? Instant communication through dozens of sources--Facebook, instant messaging, etc where nasty and wrongheaded ideas can be suddenly spread all over the place. And all the drugs they put kids on these days for all manner of problems? What's that doing?

[jimsmegos]

But bullying aside, I still can't recall the level of violence among kids today when I was a kid.

Growing up in Little Rock, AR in the late 80's early 90's I got a taste of violence regularly. My junior high and high school had some serious issues with gang and racial violence. So I think in regards to looking back its all relative. I do believe that the way kids deal with the same situations today are different now.

For example; when a riot would break out it was always fists, feet and the occasional chair. That was it. By 1989 (9th grade for me) I had a gun pulled on me for the first time. That guy was bigger than me, most likely stronger and carried himself like he was meaner yet he wouldn't walk behind the band room and handle the situation in the traditional way. Thankfully even with the gun he was all talk but man did that suck. That did change however. A few years after graduation (which he didn't do btw) he ended up in prison for killing someone in some stupid gang turf thing.

With all of that said I'm not saying we go back to brawling in the streets or that fist fights were the right way to handle these types of situations. I'm just pointing out a time when if your circle understood the rules of engagement and the consequences (fists fly in two directions with strong probability of both parties being injured) honor can exist.

[MIB41]

Those kids knew the difference between right and wrong and they set out to do wrong on a grand, epic scale.

Even with fantastic parental guidance you are just up against some powerful and unprecedented forces. Intensely violent games that you can play compulsively for hours on end....what does that do to a young, still forming mind? Instant communication through dozens of sources--Facebook, instant messaging, etc where nasty and wrongheaded ideas can be suddenly spread all over the place. And all the drugs they put kids on these days for all manner of problems? What's that doing?

I'm a big believer that intervention is a powerful tool. Kids are emotional creatures. They have not yet developed the confidence through experience to separate how or why some things make them feel. When you have a virtual world that feeds on those insecurities without an anchor to ground them in reality, kids often act out as a means to find release. Rejection by your peers is a very powerful force. And the internet drives that emotional distress to higher levels when you have no one to intervene and keep you from sinking. Unfortunately the only stats people count are ones like these that show the kids doing something horrific. Imagine the countless acts that have been diverted because someone stepped in and said, "You need to think about this differently." Simply standing aside and throwing up your arms to let society take your kids is not my idea of being responsible. No. Not all efforts work. But doing nothing at all is a guarantee of more disasters like this. When you have kids, intervention is always worth the effort. Kids are not fully developed emotionally. And challenging the rudimentary understanding of right and wrong is typically the first device a teenager uses to express the angst he or she is feeling. What this kid did is completely wrong. But there's always a lesson society can take from these tragedies. My hope is parents will spend more attention to how their kids are communicating and expressing themselves on these social outlets.