Columbine Video

[Miss Mary]

Thoughts on school shootings/violence. We're all wondering how it starts (probably in the home, although I agree j you can't blame ALL the parents, some are good to the core and their kids stray) and how to fix it. I just keep coming back to this:

I was born in 1955. My brothers 1945 and 1946. My brothers were only 13 months apart (my poor Mom!) and routinely played cops and robbers, cowboys and indians, outdoor games similar to those. With play guns or sticks made into guns. I know boys my age still played like that. And on a regular basis if someone got mad at you (usually siblings) you'd hear - Mary, I'm gonna kill you! And that murder word was uttered too. Of course they didn't mean it but you knew you had really ticked your brother off! And you'd better lay low for a while.

I don't recall any school shootings or violence back then. You went to school, w/o fear Johnny would bring a gun to school. Now I should add I went to school with fear, LOL. Of those strict nuns!!!! But for the most part, you didn't feel threatened with your life. We had bullies back then, just as today. But true death threats just didn't exist.

So I'd like to know what the difference is now. We clearly knew back then - this is make believe. Just games kids played.

Thoughts anyone?

Mary

PS - I suspect part of the problem today is a direct result from violent video games and movies.

[GalvestonDuck]

George Junius Stinney Jr. (early 1900's), Jesse Pomeroy (early 1900's), Cindy Collier and Shirley Wolf (1980's), Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker (1950's), Edmund Kemper (1960's). Names that are not as familiar as Harris, Klebold, or Carneal. But they were all young killers. Not necessarily in their schools. Some were more violent and vicious than the 1990's school killers.

It's sad to know that children are capable of such violence and hatred. But even before the 90's, kids have been in gangs and hate groups. They've killed their parents, then themselves. They've killed their own babies (and I'm talking about post-natal deaths, not abortions). They've killed as a result of cults and ritual abuse. They've killed in rage.

The only difference I see between Dylan Klebold & Eric Harris and adult spree killers/mass murderers like Pat Sherrill, Joseph Wesbecker, and Mark Barton is age. If Harris and Klebold's anger hadn't caused them to kill when they were teens, they probably could have just as easily done it as adults. They were the textbook profile of a rage killer -- narcissistic, angry, emotionally immature, unable to vocalize their feelings to resolve problems, sensitive to criticism and rejection, loners, unwilling to accept responsibility for their own actions, obsessed with violence (thanks in part to TV and games), drug or alcohol problems, and family problems.

[streetsoldier]

What I don't "get" is that sociopaths garner extended coverage, while the vast majority of teens who DON'T kill their classmates are ignored.

Something terribly wrong here...

[sunnyday]

As a teacher, I can't begin to tell you how this kind of thing makes me feel. Streetsoldier, you are right. We should devote our time to showing how great most teens are and what a wonderful influence they can be on others.

[vbhoutex]

What I don't "get" is that sociopaths garner extended coverage, while the vast majority of teens who DON'T kill their classmates are ignored.

Something terribly wrong here...

As a teacher, I can't begin to tell you how this kind of thing makes me feel. Streetsoldier, you are right. We should devote our time to showing how great most teens are and what a wonderful influence they can be on others.

AMEN!!!!!!