Two Killed, 13 Hurt in California School Shooting.
Police said the suspect — a high school freshman treated like a weakling by some of his classmates because of his small frame and scrawny looks — used a .22 caliber revolver, which he reloaded once after emptying its chambers to shoot people at random in a hallway and boys’ bathroom of Santana High School.
The shooter had apparently told several friends over the weekend of his plans but no one believed him or reported him to authorities, according to accounts from students.
Reynolds said the suspect was often the butt of jokes at school, but that he usually replied with a joke and smile. ”He’s a kid who gets picked on a lot because he does not stand up for himself. Most of the time he just takes it. He is joking around about it … I didn’t think he was serious.”
President George W. Bush decried the shooting as “a disgraceful act of cowardice.”
I have a couple of things to say about this. First of all, if this kid’s motivation was the fact he was being picked on, where was his family to teach him that other kids are cruel and it doesn’t matter what they say? My next point is that I hope you can understand why there is a teacher shortage in this country. When a person weighs the pros and cons of teaching — whether to put his or her life on the line because of the few students that are out of control, or to take that risk due to the love of having an influence on kids (maybe even being able to reach out in some small way to the ones that need the most help) — most are going to choose to value the safety of their own life.
Many kids are missing out on having great experiences with great teachers who no longer have any desire to set foot in a classroom. If parents are not able to teach children the difference between reality and television (or between reality and video games) at an earlier age, then the teacher’s job, like an object being sucked into a black hole, quickly approaches the singularity of impossibility.
Taking into account media sensionalization, I can realize that not every school has incidents like this, but it’s enough to keep myself out of the school buildings for now. I know I can be a great music teacher, and I know that I can, and that I have the desire to, touch the lives of young people in a way that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. But until parents start shaping up, getting involved in their kids’ lives, and caring about what their students are learning, my would-be students will just have to do without me.
I never really thought about the impact on teachers. It’s the thought of the kids going to school in fear that turns my stomach. I mean, I’m getting close to the point where I’m thinking about having kids, and it scares the hell out of me to hear about this stuff, and the fact that it keeps happening. What the hell is wrong with this country? I mean, I was depressed in high school…but I never even CONSIDERED bringing in a gun and shooting people. I mean, it was fucked up enough when teenagers would consider taking their own lives…but now to think that the solution is to take the lives of others? And at random? It doesn’t make sense. I agree with Spike…where are the parents? They said that they searched the father’s house and found 14 other rifles. Did the father never mention to his son that he shouldn’t touch these rifles, and that guns are bad, and that you shouldn’t fucking shoot people?? I’m sorry, but this subject really upsets me….
What about the other parents? The parents who never told their kids not to be so cruel to other people. The ones who don’t teach their kids not to be elitist and condescending? That you don’t have to play with everyone on the playground but that it’s not ok to be mean to them. Yeah, kids have always been cruel to each other, but I think the level of cruelty is escalating just like everything else in our society. The bad things keep getting worse and we’re not going to be able to stop it until parents start bringing their kids up differently. And that’s getting harder and harder because parents are working longer and harder than they ever have before, so kids aren’t being raised by their parents anymore- they’re being raised by the television and video games and music and movies and other neighborhood kids without effective parents. I’m not saying we need to censor things- I’m just saying that without proper guidance from adults kids don’t necessarily know how to “take” things anymore- they see or read or hear something and they don’t have anyone to help them make sense of it. So kids today don’t know what it’s like to not be mean to people- it’s what their whole life is about because no one’s shown them any other options.
Sure, and then what’s horrible is that the parents who ARE doing those things have to suffer because of the parents who aren’t. That’s the part that frightens me…I know that when I have kids, I’ll raise them right. But I’m afraid of something happening to them because of the kid whose parents ignore him/her.
Of course we’re all going to try to raise our kids right, and that the question becomes “the other kids.” Well, what about the other kids? If their parents aren’t raising them “correctly”, does that make them a lost cause? When I was growing up, my whole neighborhood had this tribe-like feel, and if I was doing something wrong, there was no way I would get away with it. All the parents were friends, all the kids were friends, everyone else’s parents felt like surrogate parents to me…. I don’t think neighborhoods are like that anymore. I think we’re heading in the direction of caring only about ourselves, and trying to shield and protect ourselves and our families from the “others”. but when we do that, we’re only increasing the chance that someone is going to fall through the cracks. I think we all need to be more invested in everything- our communities, our schools…everything.
I have kids, one who was horribly teased simply because he didn’t (and still doesn’t) care to be like everyone else. The problem as I, as a parent, see it is not absentee parents, TV, video games, inappropriate music or even guns in the home, but apathetic parents too concerned about being their kids’ friends, than giving them morals and values. It’s no coincidene that this “one nation under God” began slipping into the moral abyss when the nation as a whole decided that personal self worth was to come before any other pursuit. Self esteem took over accountablility and a kid who’s only ever been made to feel good about himself, without ever being taught accountability, will badger another to a probable point of no return. From where I sit, I think those of you considering parenthood need to think about who you want this child of yours to be in 20 years, and not whether or not they’ll like you, or sometimes even themselves. Believe me, the dislike is short lived, but a child raised as if they’ll never be an adult, only made to feel good about themselves and the people raising them, and never taught empathy or consideration outside their own little world, will offer nothing to their future society but selfishness. You are not raising children, but future adults. This is not to say that the childish things of growing up, the pretend play, the video games, movies, music, etc are to be taken out of things. But look at the big picture. There’s a kinetic factor in child raising, nothing that touches that child will not affect or effect them. There is no such thing as “harmless” and I think that troubled child in California just demonstrated this. We can’t change society as a whole, but we can make a difference in our own little corner of the world.