First off I want to cry or vomit as I write this (Friday December 13, 2013) just 1 day before the anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. We have had another school shooting....Sigh....Cry....use a bunch of naughty words....Arapaho high school in Centenial Colorado experienced the terror of a armed 'student' or 'former student' but a young man who felt he had no options in his life to address the wrongs he believed were done to him. From what we know he asked for the 'school cop' and a specific teacher. The school officer was out of the school on unknown business (also none of our business--officers have other duties that must be attended to). The specific teacher was in the building but tried to lure the young man with the shotgun out of the building away from the children (yes high school students are children...becoming young adults but still legally children). The young man with the shotgun critically injured 1 student/child and also gave another student/child (both reported to be females) a 'minor injury'. At last report the 1 student was undergoing major surgery in hopes of saving her life and the less severely injured young woman was expected to be released yet this evening. Additional reports indicate the young shooter had turned the shotgun on himself and caused his own death. The teacher and school officer were not injured. I hope the teacher and school officer get help with dealing with the trauma they have because the shooter was looking for them but took out his wrath on 2 young women. Some reports indicate the young shooter was 'bullied' at school but other reports indicate he had poor grades due to lack of consistent attendance. Which is correct will have to await further investigation.
We must control the access to lethal weapons. We also must curtail the 'anger inducing games' that are so popular with the young men in the world. The isolation of playing a violent game is only 1 part of the issue...
The military uses similar but presumably more violent games on game stations to condition recruits into believing the enemy is less than human and can be destroyed with impunity. That is called brain washing. The violent games convice people to believe the 'bad guy' will get up to fight again in the next scene not the reality that someone has been murdered and will be forever dead. When the handcuffs go on or the jail door is slammed shut or the blood, vital organs,and life flow out of a dieing person then the shooter realizes that it ain't a game. I suspect the horror of what the shooter did caused him to take his own life.
My heart goes out to the young man's family as they are going to take a long time understanding what has happened. My heart goes out to the young women who were injured as they will have to live the rest of their lives with the scars and yes their families will deal with that too and they will heal eventually. The teacher and the school officer also have my thougths and prayers as they deal with this. But oh so many young men and women in the school will deal with this the rest of their lives. My heart goes out to them all. Lets not vilify the shooter nor the injured nor the teacher and officer but lets get some real responses to this tragedy for all so it does not happen again....
I do not have the answer as to what we need to do about the problem. First, we need to talk to our children from the time they are little about what being bullied is and to tell a teacher, school officer, principal, mom, dad, grama and any adult what is going on until someone steps in to help solve the problem. This bullying must be stopped. To be stopped we have to think like adults and help our youth to understand the problem is not over when they part ways but it can affect them their entire life. It affects the bully and the bullied. Second, wake up people and quit thinking it is 'kids just being kids' and you need to be their 'friend' as you need to be the adults and protect the bullied whild using the moment to help the bully to also see the behavior they are doing as the problem. This concept of we have to be the kids firend has to go and asults have to take back being the ADULT and stopping the bullying. Bullies feel they have to prove they are better...why not make it more popular to prove they can be compassionate towards others?
My heart is broken for the loss of the families and the loss of a feeling of safety in our schools.
Peace, Cyn
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I have 4 children all but one is grown now, and I saw potential problems with the officers at schools, first off most police are not payed well and this results in unprofessional handling of potentially serious problems, because the public can not choose cream of the crop cops. I have seen police improperly acting with students that could create a big problems, and wonder if that is why a certain officer was asked for, in this case! and I also feel they need to change the officers out, so certain friendships do not develop I am referring to drugs and sex! These situations to me are deeper than poor attendance, a young personality is formed by community too!
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