every time this sort of thing happens, i read the reports, and i see the same thing come up, time after time after time: the shooter cites bullying (most often from jocks) as one of the reasons for going on the rampage. and every time, i have to ask myself, how many MORE times does this have to happen before our educators wake up to the fact that bullying is one of the most serious issues facing our youth today?
these shooters are also almost always observed to have a problem with authority figures, often in the same sentence:
The Star said Gill wrote about hating authority figures, including police and teachers, and high school "jocks" for their bullying.ever wonder why these go hand in hand? they hate and distrust authority figures because it is those self-same authority figures that have REPEATEDLY failed to DO THEIR JOBS and administer ANY kind of enforcement or punishment on the bullies who make their lives a daily hell, or even worse, have passively or openly CONDONED the behavior.
We all know that educators dont really give a flip about education, they care about MONEY. the only time they actually worry about the education and well-being of their students is when it impacts their bottom line. do they lose funding if too many students fail to meet a certain level of literacy? well i guess they better teach them to read... but just enough to make sure they get the money. do championship teams attract money from donors, or the state, or the local govt? well, better turn a blind eye to the hulking neanderthal lettermen while they torture some poor kid every day. (besides, the kid's a freak, nobody likes him anyway so no harm done, right?)
NO, im not blaming the "jocks" for the violence, theyre just doing what theyve been ALLOWED to do. the blame lies squarely at the feet of:
the parents/family of the shooter for raising a goddamn pussy who wont FIGHT BACK against his tormentors when being bullied (and instead just takes it like a pussy, further encouraging the bullying, until he snaps and directs his rage against people who had nothing to do with it)administrators/police, please start to uphold the principles you are SUPPOSED to adhere to, and apply them EVENLY and FAIRLY to ALL your charges. parents/family, please stop ignoring your children, and stop teaching them to see themselves as powerless victims.
the "authority" figures in the community for both failing to prevent the bullying, and hypocritically, punishing the victims if they actually fight back (leading to even more hatred of authority, and a feeling that there is NO RECOURSE available to them to make it stop)
most of all, the shooter themselves. I have absolutely ZERO problem with the killing of people who deserve it (and boy, are there a lot of those out there) but just indiscriminantly taking your rage out on whoever is closest to you, whether they deserve it or not? pathetic.
its a hopeless sense of powerlessness that leads to this kind of misdirected violent over-compensation. its time to do something to ensure that we stop instilling it in students.