While I don't entirely disagree, Zora, the problem with the level of generalization that these are angry and depressed kids is that it describes most American males at some point in the lives. Bullying is a HUGE issue in schools, but that hardly explains a shooter since it is almost a universal experience but most of us wouldn't consider striking back at our tormentors let alone thirty complete strangers. It is not an adequate explanation. Emotional disaffectation does not = murderous rampage.
Oh no, of course not! I don't agree with "zero tolerance" policies or any kind of all-or-nothing approaches. My own daughter was suspended from school for two months when someone found an old note from six months ago that she and a girlfriend had been passing in class that contained the line "I wonder if you cracked her open like a pinata if candy would come spewing out?" and decided she was a potential danger to society. She had to make up the time in summer school and really lost her desire to perform because of it. Was the school wrong? Well, I know her and she's never been in a fight of any kind, never threatened to hurt anyone, had plenty of friends and was getting a 96 in the class where she made a comment about the teacher. She and her friend were (cruelly) making fun of the teacher for being fat. They actually liked her, they were just being stupid kids. After writing her a five page letter of explaination as to why she understood how what she said was hurtful, and reassuring the teacher that she had the utmost respect for her, and being a bigger size person herself, she felt awful that the note had been brought to her attention, the teacher didn't respond at all, not even to say she got the note.
Julianna was interviewed by the police, two school counsellors, and we had a hearing before the school board to review her "mental stability". While it was unanimously decided that she was not unbalanced, the suspension was applied anyway as a punitive measure. I think losing nearly a quarter of the school year is a bit excessive for being rude. Everyone involved knew exactly what was going on, it was no mystery. They wanted to
look "tough on crime" without having to confront any of the real problems.
Earlier that same year, another kid, a "dangerous one" that no one wanted to piss of, got suspended for two weeks for bringing a pipe bomb to school.
Several students had guns and knives confiscated from them, with no suspensions, just their parents had to come pick up the weapons.
What I'm saying is that in almost every case where actual violence does occur, there have been plenty of warning signs, as there were in this latest case. Several teachers, and even his counsellor knew of this boy's problems, and he had been removed from classes because of them. It surprised no one who knew him that he did this, his fellow students had reported him to teachers and the police. Why nothing had been done may eventually come to light, but there is a lot more to look at than just gun control.
The article you posted for me does present my view more closely. Note that the author also does not offer blanket solutions, but closes in stating that these issues will be debated for years to come. That's how it works. While we all crave a quick fix, we won't be getting one. There's the social pressure on boys to be "macho", there's the rampant bullying left unchecked that makes a certain few people feel exceptionally disenfranchised, there's the unwillingness of educators to act as police (which is understandable, they didn't enter law enforcement for a reason),
and like every other problem we have as a society, there's a complete lack of accountability. Parents just want to say "not my kid", even though they know the kid's been torturing animals and frightening girls or whatever. Teachers don't want to confront the truly dangerous, knowing there's no one around to keep them safe, and why should they? Schools don't want to allocate funds for school counsellors that would divert monies away from athletic programs, and society as a whole wants to punish the individual while ignoring the reality that for a multitude of reasons, our schools are becomming pressure cookers for underdeveloped minds who see school as the whole world.
I would like to see education focus at least some attention on the backgrounds of some of our historical figures and people of accomplishment- they are often NOT "popular" kids in school, but no one tells us that. To a young person, being a loser in school seems like a life sentence. Dorks often grow up to be very successful adults (Bill Gates), and didn't the geekiest Beatle get the prettiest wife? Drive back to your hometown and see how many of the football players and cheerleaders are still there, working at the pizza joint or changing oil. Nothing wrong with either thing, honest money, but when you realise that poor social skills often don't transfer well into the real world, then you understand that these bullies and braggarts are often covering up the fact that they lack substance. Let's talk about
that.
By introducing into schools, and society, and increased awareness of what causes extreme pressure on our kids, at the worst we could get some kids who need a little more reassurance and direction some help. At best, it
may prevent some of the episodes of violence. A counsellor is the proper person to walk with the kid through the issues going on in his/her life, and also lay out the consequenses of all the possible actions he might choose.
Too many schools have no guidance counsellors anymore, or too few. I HAD an on-staff guidance consellor at my school, as I suspect most people attending school in the 70s did. Funny how we cut budgets of these kinds of "fluff" positions, and we sentenced our kids to school conditions that are less regulated than some prisons.
The people who are saying "Guns don't kill people, people kill people" have a point, although not a conclusive one. Accidental gun deaths don't happen where guns aren't around, and
easy access to guns leads many a depressed kid to shoot himself, some who may lack the resolve if it weren't so easy.
The article you posted was for research done prior to 2001 (thanks for that article, by the way), I wonder if anything has been done more recently? I don't really see the bush admin investing money into the fluff sciences, when they are so vigorously rejecting the more commonly accepted ones.
We all want answers, and the answers are that we HAVE to start paying attention to obvious signs, and reacting with intelligence, compassion, and firmness. It's just not okay to walk away from these events shaking our heads, but learning nothing. I get angry hearing people saying "Stop focusing on the killer, he's baaaaad- let's talk about the wonderful lives of the people he killed". Well yes, there is certainly a place for that, and I agree that killers should not be glamorised, but eulogising the victims gets us no closer to an understanding about what's going on, and what we can do to grow out of this insideous phase in our development.
