Today there was a shooting at a high school in a community not too far from where I grew up. A community that has always been rather quiet, nothing adverse to report, kind of a place where you might find a family living there with the last name Milquetost . A high school with a population of non-descript students...Friday Night Lights. A high school that employed a math teacher and assistant football coach that I had grown up with...who had lived a block down the road from me most of my growing up years....who started elementary school with a speech impediment that kept him from pronouncing his own name correctly until 3rd grade...a guy who would not get on the bus unless I was at the bus stop...a guy that would not participate in the terrible kindergarten partner dances unless I was his partner...a guy that would have a nervous breakdown in 1st grade unless my desk was beside his...who gave me school pictures of himself with hearts drawn on the back for years! A guy who is married to a wonderful Christian woman who he had 4 kids of their own with and adopted 2 children from China...who leads boy scout activities and children's church. When I learned of the shooting my first thought was of him...Ron. I heard that the only ones actually shot were students so I relaxed a little but I put myself in his place and could almost imagine how he felt. I heard, then, that a coach at the school had chased the shooter down...Ron would have done that. It wasn't him...but it could so very easily had been.
Since Columbine there have been so very many more such acts of violence at schools across the country. I was living in Arkansas when the shooting in Jonestown happened...we weren't that far from there. Then many more and scattered incidents kept happening. Why?
Malcolm Gladwell wrote about such phenomena in his book "The Tipping Point". According to Gladwell, some individuals would only THINK about deviant behavior but not act on it UNLESS there is someone out there that acts out in such a way. Broadcast media plays it up and shows it over and over. The ones then that have only thought about it up to that point, then start to think about REALLY acting on it until something 'tips' their thinking into action.
One student that was interviewed by the media outside the school said that the shooter, TJ Lane, had been bullied. This, of course, will be his defense. With so many campaigns out there against bullying, the shooter could almost be turned into the victim in this scenario. He made a mistake...he tweeted about his intentions. This makes it premeditation. He will be tried as an adult...5 victims, 2 of them died...so far.
I do not condone bullying of any kind. In fact, I used to be the one that would step in the middle of such situations to stop it. Always have. I hate bullies. HOWEVER, there has ALWAYS been bullying as far back as God created man. That does NOT mean it is okay to kill someone over it. Granted, at times it seems that bullying now days is worse than in my school days (after all, there is the internet on which these bullies can carry things out there for EVERYONE to see/participate in) but these kids that are being bullied obviously feel that they have no one to turn to for support/help.
What about the parents? Do they know what's going on...and if not...WHY not?
I will continue this tomorrow in PART II.
