High School Shooting

[Niamh]

I just posted a similar thread in the Teen forum... Has anyone heard yet about the shooting at the high school in Santee, CA outside of San Diego? I've had the news on, and have an upset stomach over the whole thing. I think the latest is one fatality, 14 others wounded and the suspect is a 9th grade boy.
News like this always knocks me off kilter. It's very upsetting

[Mairwen]

I was reading about it. The report in the AT&T Worldnet newswire was headlined "Grinning Gunman".

[Niamh]

Sometimes the media really upsets me! How horrible! I was watching MSNBC, and the reporter was trying to grab mothers trying to get thier children home, to the car, etc. These poor people are crying, not understanding what has just happened, and the media doesn't seem to care! I'll put my soap box away now...

[Yvonne Belisle]

That's because no matter how disgusting it is blood, sorrow, tragedy and scandal sell papers. It's a cold part of buisness and something that often makes me want to cry but it's also true. I guess the people that like to read and hear that stuff want something to prove to them that they or their life is in better shape than someone else. Before I upset anyone I want to say I don't believe that anyone here is like that.

[richardcranium]

What is this world coming to?

[bluecat]

Every time I see this kind of thing in the news I seriously ponder whether the news is doing the right thing by plastering this stuff all over the TV. It is a very thin and grey line that is being walked. On one hand the people of the country have the right to know and the free press, which we take for granted, has the right to tell us about this kind of event. What bothers me, I suppose, is the manner in which it is done.

The latest shooter is being called "The Lone Gunman," the "Smiling Gunman," and other such things. Our regional news stations have metioned this event no fewer than 7 times in the past 30 minutes with film clips and soundbytes. This is the local news for Albuquerque, NM BTW, where shootings and news of shootings are a daily event.

I realize this kind of thing sells, but does the media have to sell it so hard? The coverage of this kind of news is unreal. As I am typing this response I can hear the network news broadcasting this story as the lead story; it will no doubt get about about five minutes of lead news time on this network (CBS). I am very disturbed by the fact that there were apparently plenty of "RED FLAGS" concerning this incident.

As usual there is always the statement that no one thought the shooter would do this kind of thing as well as the spectre of "Columbine" mentioned.

Well, it's 10 minutes after the hour and the story has just wrapped up, for now. (Now they are talking about VP Cheney's chest pains .... this story got less than three minutes vs the ten minutes of the school shooting.

I just heard Dan Rather announce that they are going to go "in depth" about "school shootings and how to prevent them."

Right now, some troubled spirit is sitting in front of the TV and saying, "When I do it, it will be on the news too, I'll show them," or words to that effect.

Well that is enough for now, I will climb down off of my soap box.

BlueCat

[Lilu]

I thought they were going "in depth" about school shootings after Columbine? I wonder sometimes if this issue just doesn't get addressed because there are no easy answers.

The last massacre to occur in Australia was the Port Arthur massacre, 35 people were killed by one man with a semi-automatic gun. The aftermath resulted in the government seizing all semi-automatic guns and destroying them.

But so long as the US Constitution has "the rights to bear arms" in there, which is often taken way out of context, I don't see any easy answers for school shootings, and it really scares me being that I'm probably going to be raising my children in America.

It's hard to know which way to go. Destroying the guns IMHO won't halt the problem, I think a lot of the problems lie with parents who aren't watching their children, spending time with them, or just are ignoring the warning signs. BUT on the other hand again, it's not entirely the responsibility of the parents. What about the teachers being taught to monitor students for warning signs? And on that hand, what about smaller classes so that you CAN know the kids more personally? And that means we need to focus more on education and teachers' rights and stuff. BLAH BLAH BLAH, it goes on and on and on.

The question is, does the government really care enough to do what has to be done?

lilu

[Yvonne Belisle]

There are no easy answers to the really hard questions. Sometimes these things are done by kids that would be pegged as teachers pets. Sometimes it's the kid that looked like they would be a problem. I just had to scare my son because he answers the door without looking or calling out. We have forbidden the kids to answer it unless we already know who is on the other side even if they know them. I pulled an article on the guy Hannibal is based on and showed my son his picture. I asked him if the man looked like a bad man. My son thought he looked nice so I read him the article by son is about to be 11 so I was a bit leery of reading it to him but I felt if the scare kept him safe it was worth it. My point is there really isn't a way to know who will blow up and who won't most of the time. That these people missed the warning signs bothers me. I have children that go to school and I'm about a 45 minute drive from where the shooting took place. To be honest this stuff frightens me I think it does that to every parent out there. Even if it isn't your child holding the gun it could be yours in the line of fire. My heart goes out to all of those children and their parents tonight.

[Kaylara]

Well, I'll tell you, this topic brings up good questions and bad memories for me. When I found out about the columbine masacre, I started crying. My question was how could this happen? How could these kids, who at the time were the same age as me, take so many lives? How could they be so uncaring towards other people? So, the next day, I dressed in black as a sign of mourning. I sometimes dress goth, and I got nothing but dirty looks the whole day. I heard comments like "it's people like you that caused this." and my band teacher asked me if I considered myself gothic. This is when I lost it, and addressed the whole class. I told them that it had nothing to do with gothic culture or dress, and was totally the work of some seriously disturbed individuals. The people in band had know me for quite a while, and knew that I couldn't hurt a fly, and I think that my addressing the class cleared up some issues that people in the area had.
It is not a video game, a way of dress, a movie, a kind of music, or the internet that causes these tragedies. It is the work of young people who are themselves deeply troubled and in my opinion have no one that they think can help them. They finally lose it. These people are obviously mentally disturbed; who but one so disturbed could do such a horrible thing?
How can we as a society address this? What can we do to stop these things from happening? It scares me that I have brothers, sisters, and cousins who go to school, and one day, may not come back.
How can the schools combat this? In my area, they started locking down the schools in between periods. They would lock the doors, to keep out the people who might come in shooting. But what do you do when the dangerous ones are already inside? What do you do when you don't know who is a threat, and who isn't?
My tears and blessings go to all families involved in this and all of the school tragedies this night.
As for the media involvement, I think it is macabe, and disgusting, and even more, it's dangerous. When you give out too many details about these crimes, blue prints of these crimes, you open the opportunity for people who would like to copy these crimes.

Blessed Be!
Kaylara

[Kaylara]

Here is an article I found:

School Shootings and White Denial
Tim Wise, AlterNet
March 6, 2001
Viewed on March 7, 2001

-------------------------------------------------------------------

I can think of no other way to say this, so here goes: white people need to pull our heads out of our collective ass.


Two more white children are dead and thirteen are injured, and another "nice" community is scratching its blonde head, utterly perplexed at how a school shooting the likes of the one yesterday in Santee, California could happen. After all, as the Mayor of the town said in an interview with CNN: "We're a solid town, a good town, with good kids, a good church-going town…an All-American town." Yeah, well maybe that's the problem.


I said this after Columbine and no one listened so I'll say it again: white people live in an utter state of self-delusion. We think danger is black, brown and poor, and if we can just move far enough away from "those people" in the cities we'll be safe. If we can just find an "all-American" town, life will be better, because "things like this just don't happen here."


Well bullshit on that. In case you hadn't noticed, "here" is about the only place these kinds of things do happen. Oh sure, there is plenty of violence in urban communities and schools. But mass murder; wholesale slaughter; take-a-gun-and-see-how-many-you can-kill kinda craziness seems made for those safe places: the white suburbs or rural communities.


And yet once again, we hear the FBI insist there is no "profile" of a school shooter. Come again? White boy after white boy after white boy, with very few exceptions to that rule (and none in the mass shooting category), decides to use their classmates for target practice, and yet there is no profile? Imagine if all these killers had been black: would we still hesitate to put a racial face on the perpetrators? Doubtful.


Indeed, if any black child in America -- especially in the mostly white suburbs of Littleton, or Santee -- were to openly discuss their plans to murder fellow students, as happened both at Columbine and now Santana High, you can bet your ass that somebody would have turned them in, and the cops would have beat a path to their doorstep. But when whites discuss their murderous intentions, our stereotypes of what danger looks like cause us to ignore it -- they're just "talking" and won't really do anything. How many kids have to die before we rethink that nonsense? How many dazed and confused parents, Mayors and Sheriffs do we have to listen to, describing how "normal" and safe their community is, and how they just can't understand what went wrong?


I'll tell you what went wrong and it's not TV, rap music, video games or a lack of prayer in school. What went wrong is that white Americans decided to ignore dysfunction and violence when it only affected other communities, and thereby blinded themselves to the inevitable creeping of chaos which never remains isolated too long. What affects the urban "ghetto" today will be coming to a Wall-Mart near you tomorrow, and unless you address the emptiness, pain, isolation and lack of hope felt by children of color and the poor, then don't be shocked when the support systems aren't there for your kids either.


What went wrong is that we allowed ourselves to be lulled into a false sense of security by media representations of crime and violence that portray both as the province of those who are anything but white like us. We ignore the warning signs, because in our minds the warning signs don't live in our neighborhood, but across town, in that place where we lock our car doors on the rare occasion we have to drive there. That false sense of security -- the result of racist and classist stereotypes -- then gets people killed. And still we act amazed.


But listen up my fellow white Americans: your children are no better, no nicer, no more moral, no more decent than anyone else. Dysfunction is all around you, whether you choose to recognize it or not.


According to the Centers for Disease Control, and Department of Health and Human Services, it is your children, and not those of the urban ghetto, who are most likely to use drugs. That's right: white high school students are seven times more likely than blacks to have used cocaine; eight times more likely to have smoked crack; ten times more likely to have used LSD and seven times more likely to have used heroin. In fact, there are more white high school students who have used crystal methamphetamine (the most addictive drug on the streets) than there are black students who smoke cigarettes.


What's more, white youth ages 12-17 are more likely to sell drugs: 34% more likely, in fact than their black counterparts. And it is white youth who are twice as likely to binge drink, and nearly twice as likely as blacks to drive drunk. And white males are twice as likely to bring a weapon to school as are black males.


And yet I would bet a valued body part that there aren't 100 white people in Santee, California, or most any other "nice" community who have ever heard a single one of the statistics above. Even though they were collected by government agencies using these folks' tax money for the purpose. Because the media doesn't report on white dysfunction


A few years ago, U.S. News ran a story entitled: "A Shocking look at blacks and crime." Yet never have they or any other news outlet discussed the "shocking" whiteness of these shoot-em-ups. Indeed, every time media commentators discuss the similarities in these crimes they mention that the shooters were boys, they were loners, they got picked on, but never do they seem to notice a certain highly visible melanin deficiency. Color-blind, I guess.


White-blind is more like it, as I figure these folks would spot color mighty damn quick were some of it to stroll into their community. Santee's whiteness is so taken for granted by its residents that the Mayor, in that CNN interview, thought nothing of saying on the one hand that the town was 82 percent white, but on the other hand that "this is America." Well that isn't America, and it especially isn't California, where whites are only half of the population. This is a town that is removed from America, and yet its Mayor thinks they are the normal ones -- so much so that when asked about racial diversity, he replied that there weren't many of different "ethni-tis-tities." Not a word. Not even close.


I'd like to think that after this one, people would wake up. Take note. Rethink their stereotypes of who the dangerous ones are. But deep down, I know better. The folks hitting the snooze button on this none-too-subtle alarm are my own people, after all, and I know their blindness like the back of my hand.

Found at:

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=10560

Kaylara

[Niamh]

Thanks for the article Kaylara, it was interesting, and lends a different perspective.
ANd Yeah! for you for speaking up in class for what you feel. Not enought of us have that strength and courage. We need more people like you in the world!

[Summer Solstice]

the craze is now hitting the east coast.My coworker left in hysterics today, her 10 year old daughter was stuck in a room with a boy who said he had a bomb..They had to get the cops the fire dept and the bomb Squad to the school .. The boy was saying he wanted to copy Ca. He only had a box full of wires and he thought it was gun powder. For 3 hours my friend and coworker was crying and going insane thinking of the safety of her little girl.
What is this world coming to ?

[Niamh]

That is definitely scary. Nothing has gone on in my area, but I get the chills reading about the things that have been going on around the US, even before the CA shooting.

[Laiste]

Merry Meet All


OK I would just like to say that I grew up in a racially mixed area and have had friends of all races all of my life. I now live in a mostly white area and can't wait to move...these teenagers around here are the biggest punks...they hang out accross the street from my house at the elementary school (when it's closed) and smoke "weed", drink beer, break bottles, scream and yell blast car stereos (the brand new cars...that belong to or were given to them by their parents). They then proceede to drive inthis condition. Putting the lives of others in peril. My neighbors and I have called the police (five of us that we know of) one right after the other and the police don't come or they show up hours after the kids are gone!!! We have gone to community meetings and met with the politicians and police including the commissioner (who is a major ass!!!) They dismissed everything we had to say, they said and I quote this from the big old ass commissioner himself "We don't want to get these kids in trouble. We don't want them to have a record and such a young age". Can you believe. He might as well go out there and hand them guns and drugs and tell them go ahead kill someone, kill yourself.

You see if we continue to give these children all the freedom and means to "enjoy" themselves it will only lead to destruction on all levels.

There is so much more to say on this but I think I have gotten my point accross. I don't have all the answers, but I'll be dammed if I ever let my son act like that and if I ever see him heading down that road...I run after him as fast as I can ...I am his mother.

May the Lord and Lady be with us always
Laiste

[bluecat]

Right, and when one of those young "kids" does something they can no longer hide the "kid" has no "record" so no one understands how such a wonderful person could have done such a thing. But if a minority child does the "wrong" thing, it then becomes necessary to keep a record of this kind of thing so "we" will know who the "troublemakers" are.

Makes you wanna yank out yer hair!

Yup, just sweep it under the rug and it will go away.

Steve

[Laiste]

Know thyself...this is an important lesson...children must be taught this from the beginning. They must learn to value their own lives before they can value the life of another. In today's world this is a difficult task. In some families both parents have to work and in other cases there is only one parent. This is the main reason I have chosen child care as my profession. There is such a great need for loving caring souls to take care of our children when we cannot. It is a difficult job and sometimes nervewracking but it is worth every minute of it because I get so much out of helping these children and their parents. I keep my rates on a sliding scale fee and accept what the parents can afford no questions asked. My son, who is an only child, benefits from this because he has the interaction with other children on a daily basis. Anyway this is my small contribution to the children of the Lord and Lady.

Blessed Be
Laiste

[Yvonne Belisle]

I hate to say it but if the kid that shot up the school in Santee was white he was an area minority. The majority of kids in public school here are Hispanic. Other than problems that arise due to language they really aren't that bad. Parents of most of these kids are really tuff on them for misbehaving. They do have gang problems but they don't bring those to school. So while they are being color blind to a very big issue here at least this would not be a white nieborhood.

[Twig]

I have sent the contents of this message to all I know. what more can I do? Gods this hurts.

[Yvonne Belisle]

Twig you have a gift for understatement.

[Laiste]

Hello again,

Why must we separate ourselves by race...does it really matter if the kids who are killing are white or black, Latino or any other race? The point is that they are KIDS!!! It's truly sad that this is happening and will continue to happen until we (all of us) can find a solution. Let's try to unite rather than separate and maybe through unity we can resolve. I can't imagine what is going through the minds of all the parents directly affected by what has been happening. I only know what is going through my head as a parent who is indirectly affected. This is a war amongst our children...the violence, drugs, abuse...
they don't stand a chance with the way things are going.


We must band TOGETHER and fight for our children, our FUTURE.

Pray for the children
Laiste

[Niamh]

THere really are no easy answers. The media will hype certain issues, prod us to thinking in one direction, etc.
We just need to do our part! Some of us are invoking change in the way we raise our children, and our children influence their friends and others. THose of us who do not have children are probably doing their part in other ways.

[Earth Walker]

One place to start is education, teaching that the
Constiutional right to arm bears, oops, I mean bear
arms is very much outdated. Guns are only made to
kill people...and only a coward carries/uses a gun. :mad:
Working on dismantling the power structure of the
NRA would be a good start, but it will be a challenge,
especially now that Duhmbya is president non-elect.
(Hail To The Thief) :smash: :G

[eaglewolf]

Originally posted by Mystique
One place to start is education, teaching that the
Constiutional right to arm bears, oops, I mean bear
arms is very much outdated. Guns are only made to
kill people...and only a coward carries/uses a gun. :mad:
Working on dismantling the power structure of the
NRA would be a good start, but it will be a challenge,
especially now that Duhmbya is president non-elect.
(Hail To The Thief) :smash: :G

Yeah? Should anything ever happen to you and yours, and the only one to save you is the radical, gun carrying, NRA member next door, you may change your mind...

~ew, who carries a gun, and is no coward~

[Lady Tana]

Originally posted by eaglewolf


Yeah? Should anything ever happen to you and yours, and the only one to save you is the radical, gun carrying, NRA member next door, you may change your mind...

~ew, who carries a gun, and is no coward~
i have to agree with ew on this one... taking away guns from the law abiding citizens does nothing.. those who are going to get them to commit crimes are still gonna have them whether they are legal or not (look at the drugs out there... its not like theyre all legal). all that will happen is that they will come and take my gun and leave me with nothing to use to protect my family with, and im sorry but if someone comes into my house to harm me or mine, im using that gun. both my kids have been taught gun safety since day one and both of them know that they arent toys. they have also both been taken shooting with us and allowed to shoot them (with our help of course). i hope that allowing them to do this with us helps with the 'wow a gun.. lets mess with it and see what it does' part of life. it is kept up from them and not loaded. but back to my original tangent :D

'they can have my gun when they come and pry it from my cold dead fingers'
:uzi:

*climbs off her soapbox and hides it again*

[Laiste]

MM All,

While I don't personally own a gun I know many parents who do. They are extremly cautious about where they srore them and the ammunition. They teach thier children about the dangers of guns. Although I don't know any who actually teach thier children to shoot the weapons. This may just be an accident waiting to happen. There is always that "what if" situation when the child may want to show off this gun to his/her friends...This kind of incedent happens all too frequently...one child shoots another...another life snuffed...

While I am not for taking guns away from law abiding citezens I don't feel that teaching children to handle guns in this day and age is such a wise idea.

Blessed Be
Laiste

[eaglewolf]

Originally posted by Laiste
I don't feel that teaching children to handle guns in this day and age is such a wise idea.

You are absolutely right...

...it is much better for children to learn about guns from their friends and from television... what was I thinking.

...teaching something to my kids I would rather them not learn elsewhere, sheesh...

~ew

Laiste, not trying to get down on you or sound harsh, just trying to make a point. The children are our future and we need to start acting like it...

[Kaylara]

I have to agree with EW.
I learned how to shoot a gun when I was five. But I also learned that you never ever aim even a fake gun at anyone. I knew first hand what a gun could do, because I had watched my grandfather shoot raccoons that got stuck in his traps. You teach a kid that guns really do hurt people, and when you kill something, it doesn't get up and shake it off. Teach your kids about guns, and the good and bad points about them. Because if you don't teach them, someone else will.

(Scary Story: I went to a weeklong Baptist teen retreat. And that was the first time I shot a 22. and a 12 gauge. They had us practice shooting, playing paint ball, and running army like obsticle courses. It was almost like we were preparing for war... Scary.)

Kaylara

[Laiste]

Hello again,

ew you make a good point...I guess I never looked at it that way because I grew up in a home where there were no guns. Upon rethinking the matter with a more open mind I can understand that these parents are taking responsibility. I won't go out and buy a gun but maybe I'll find an alternative. Thanks for the eye opener.

Blessed Be,
Laiste

[belladonna23]

Yep, I agree with you, EW. My dad is a police officer, and taught me how to shoot when I was a teenager. He also taught me how not to use a gun. I could have learned the first lesson from TV or from my peers, but not the second. Thanks, Dad.

[Yvonne Belisle]

My son has a knife scar on his arm because of different parenting styles in regards to knives the same is true of guns. My friends 3 year old was visiting my house I was in my bedroom he was watching cartoons with my kids in the living room. I taught my kids to use knives his mother kept them on top of the fridge. By the age of 3 my kids knew better than to play with them but he had taken one out of my kitchen and was experimenting with it. My son's arm got in the way. He didn't know that they were dangerous he didn't know that my son could get hurt. She still felt she was right and that it was my fault for having knives in the kitchen drawer. My youngest right now is 3 about to be 4 and I can leave a knife on the floor and he will carefully pick it up and ask where I want it. My warding dagger sits on my nightstand and I know he won't get hurt. My father kept guns I learned early to respect them. I even have a switchblade in my house where it's easy access it is a matter of how we teach our kids about them. I will not let my children have toy guns or knives because to me they are not toys. I have the confidence in my children to know if they are at their friends house and their friend is playing with a gun my children will leave if it isn't put away. I see kids everyday here that do not respect that a gun is deadly those kids scare me because they are the ones you will read about in the paper. If you think about it most drugs are illegal but people that want them can still get them guns are the same way. We can't and shouldn't get rid of them but people that have them should take some type of safety class or test to possess them. A lot of gun owners that have them before they have kids don't think about changing habits when they have them, one person even hid their gun in their kids room because they thought the kid would never find it there. That person lost their kid education might have saved him.

[eaglewolf]

If you are saying education, not control... that is my whole point, and I completely agree.

If that is not what you are saying, I must apologize, get some sleep, and read it again when the sun comes up ;).

~ew

[Yvonne Belisle]

Your fine EW I am saying education I wouldn't give up my weapons for anyone! If someone breaks into my house I'll use them. Unlike most people I've spoken to if my atheme gets blood on it while protecting my home it will not be destroyed. Cleansed yes destroyed over my rotting corpse. Everyone has a right to have a weapon some people abuse that right and should have it taken away. Everything for good or bad has the potential for abuse. Lethal weapons are everywhere you look. They can't be eliminated or completely controlled. I know the prior service people know what I'm talking about when I say you can kill with a straw, a pen, your hand....... The options are endless the reason people don't do these things daily is twofold 1 most people don't know how 2 those that do for the most part would only use them in self defense. The kids who take a gun to school are using them for defense because they just can't take the abuse anymore. If you take away the guns they will find another method. The answer is educating kids that words hurt. My children's school will not do anything about my sons being teased. I have sent them a letter with the thread on the 12 year old girl. If I can make one school see that turning away is not the answer then I'm glad. People need to understand why kids are killing each other before they can fix it. If you don't know something's wrong or you don't know what is wrong you can't fix it. Education can prevent some of the deaths. Education of educators on the affects of teasing education of gun owners of simple safety precautions. It's not a perfect answer or even all of the answer but it's a start. We can start that change by educating our own families and friends that this problem is out there. I'm crawling under my soap box now. I'm sorry people but because of my boy's I'm really sensitive about this topic. I watched my son spend a week in the hospital at the age of 9 because he threatened suicide. He is teased this weekend he attacked a pack of kids that were teasing him with a 2 by 4. We have had a long talk about this and I'm really really glad I don't keep guns in the house. It is now a rule that they may not go outside to empty the trash without an adult with them. It's the best I can do here to protect them the kids parents won't deal with their kids.

[Kaylara]

"It's only me," said the boy with the gun, as he surrendered to sheriffs in the boys' bathroom. If only that were true. In the 48 hours after Charles Andrew Williams shot up his high school in Santee, Calif., 16 more kids in California were arrested or detained for making threats or taking guns to school. An 11-year-old in Higley, Ariz., threatened to kill the girl he liked and the boy who had kissed her. He told police that he got the idea from news reports and was only kidding. Another 11-year-old, in Phoenix was arrested after threatening to shoot a teacher's tape player and then the teacher. He apparently did not like the teacher's "obnoxious music." Elizabeth Bush, the eighth-grader in Williamsport, Pa., who dreamed of becoming either a human-rights activist or a nun, shot the head cheerleader in the cafeteria. "No one thought I would go through with this," she yelled as she fired her .22.

It's not only Andy Williams.

A reasonable person who read the papers or watched the news last week might conclude that murderous violence could happen anywhere, at any time, in any school in America. The one thing that nearly every school shooting has in common is the chorus of parents declaring that "I never thought it could happen here." That's not because they know the statistics--that youth violence is dropping, that schools are getting safer, that fewer than 1% of teen gun-related deaths occur in schools--it's because many of us float our children off to school in a bubble, grateful to live in a wholesome town--"We are America," Santee Mayor Randy Voepel declared--and unwilling to admit that the danger could follow us no matter where we go.

Don't look for a pattern; by the time you find it, you will find a counterargument wrapped around it. Is it the absence of parents, the presence of guns, the cruelty of the culture, the culture of cruelty? School shootings are like plane crashes, rare but riveting for the primitive fears they evoke. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, the executioners of Columbine, gave that fear a face: cold-blooded, calculating, seeking immortality, dancing with the devil. They gave our kids the awful shorthand: You're not going to do a Columbine? Williams' friends asked. They even frisked him that morning before school.

In a spasm of fear and frustration, the adults fire back at a moving target. Last week politicians went after the tormentors: in Washington State the senate passed a law requiring school officials to investigate--and notify parents about--incidents of bullying on their campuses. Police went after negligent parents: in Indianapolis, Calvin and Shawnee Sistrunk were charged with felony neglect after their six-year-old daughter arrived at kindergarten with a loaded handgun. She wanted to show it to her friends. The culture cracked down on itself: on Friday night KGTV, an ABC affiliate in San Diego, televised the memorial service for Williams' victims; then, for roughly 35 minutes, it dropped its regular programming and showed only a text message urging parents to turn off the TV and spend time talking to their kids.

Those are the conversations that matter most. Given the agony that Williams inflicted on his victims, it is awkward even to discuss the agony he was in. Some friends came to his defense, talked about how badly he had been treated, how the bullies stole his skateboard, stole even the shoes off his feet. Was there, this time, a measure of pity for a lost boy, who seemed to have had nowhere to go, who wore a silver necklace with the word MOUSE on it, who called at least three of his friends' mothers Mom, who in the end seemed to want nothing more than to be taken seriously and to be taken, at last, into somebody's custody?

One night recently police came upon Williams in the park with several huge bottles of beer. "They just told me to go home," he told friends later. His buddies heard him Saturday night, when he got drunk at a bonfire, talk about taking a gun to school and shooting the place up. "I'll show you one day," he said. When it was over, when the police came to take him away, wrapping him in that oversize white jumpsuit, no one heard him say anything about being sorry. And no one heard him ask for anyone, not even his mom or dad.

From:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,102025,00.html

Kaylara