A couple of days late from the event, but it does not change the hard cold fact of another shoot out in School. Ten dead they say and ten wounded. And yet again, the story starts that the kid was bullied by people at school? To me, this bullying crap is getting very old. It has been going on since time immemorial.
Hell, I got bullied in school and it not stop until I back handed the kid in the locker room after our PE class. Did not even know it was him until I turned around as I was smacking him. Of course later I got whipped on again, but that was the last time he ever touched me.
There seems to be a disconnect between the kids, the parents and the Schools when it comes to this issue. Not everyone is going to smack someone and I for sure might not have if I had known who was messing up my hair? Yes, in those days, a full head of black hair.
I am curious if the kid in the Santa Fe shoot out ever talked to his parents on the problems? What about a Teacher or Administrator? Now I know if his parents had said anything, it would have been a nightmare- but no one dead. If they or the School Administration had been talked too, it might have changed the outcome- no one dead.
There needs to be a stronger and more serious effort to reach out to these introverted and in their minds unloved/ unwanted/ un-respected kids. But, I would bet that every one of our Schools are more interested in the popular kids; the jocks; the cheerleaders; the nerds than that kid who usually eats alone each day? No Counselor being advised of a need for some private conversations to feel the kid out? To contact the parent(s), to get a feel for how he/ she reacts away from School.
This adding more armed guards or steel doors that need to be activated plus the ever present metal detectors is a part of the process. But getting in front of an issue is better than trying to stop it as it unfolds one bright, sunny day in Spring.
Parents are in too many cases failing to parent. It is usually a hard thankless job of protecting some blooming young fragile minds and bodies from themselves. The kids don't want to hear it and they will move many times, Heaven and Earth to avoid whatever the conversation is about.
My Mother had absolutely no parenting skills for reasons I will not elaborate on, but still in her own unhappy way clung to me for the thought of a "family", by having a child. Poor woman had a miserable upbringing in her own right through no fault of her own.
I in many ways raised myself and it was also tough, but I got lucky and survived my youth.
It was a huge surprise on the last day of School in my Senior year as we were graduating that the school counselor had his mandatory interview with each student. His guidance was I needed to try and get over my inferiority complex. I didn't even know what it meant and had to go to the City Library to look it up? Didn't even know I had one until then.
So over the next years, I thought about issues and whether I was right, wrong or just feeling sorry for myself? In College Courses, I took several classes on Personnel Issues, dealing with Minorities and basic Psychology. Gave me a minimal idea on dealing with others and in some cases insured I could deal with myself. This gives me a background in my hobby of watching people and how they act/ react? That as a matter of fact is how when a person said to me that men did not respect her opinions because she was a woman that I could pick up so fast on her problem(s).
These College Educated Teachers, Counselors, School Administrators, each and everyone should have taken or be required to take at least 4-5 classes in dealing with people to include kids who are potential loners/ introverts/ troubled.
I am jaded from the ever increasing butchery/ mayhem going on in our Society. While there are many who would take exception with me, but it was a success for life that the kid and whomever is supposed to be his accomplice did NOT get those assorted bombs in place before he pulled that fire alarm. Most cannot imagine the carnage had they put set off with the kids in the hallway responding to the alarm? In spite of the losses in dead/ hurt, that school was very, very lucky Friday.
Folks, if you have a spare moment, take a good look at your kid(s), and try to see any thing that does not look right? What is the kid doing except the usual electronic device? What is the kid actually looking at? Learn to check the History/ Browsing files to follow up?
But the best thing is to try and talk with the kid? Start with a TRUE story on how things went sometimes when YOU were a kid. Not a long talk maybe, but an attempt to show that today while faster than yesterday is still the same World with its share of bullies. Let the lad/ lassies think about your story and maybe they will talk to you about a problem?
And for those of you who read or are told about this and have a smug look because your little Bobby or Emily are so well adjusted; or how can I know anything about children today; I may well have lived the front half, just like many others in the day?
Just remember, here we are just one bullied/ unloved kid away from our own disaster. And it won't be our interpretation but it will be that child's. 'ne'er nuff said'.