Re: LIVE COVERAGE: Active shooter in custody at Santa Fe HS
I think you're on to something there -- we're actually "creating them" and I think (just my opinion) it's due to some of the crap that's going on in public schools. We've gotten to the point, in many schools, where the entire school revolves around the athletes. That's where the money goes (in my town, the varsity B-ball players get their own parking spaces closest to the school), and kids who don't make the sport-cut are nobody, even if they're lots brighter (and they usually are). Everything's geared around sports and all the rest of the kids have to spend their days in the shadows.
I agree with what Lursa said--"we need to
FIX the PROBLEM: males that cant handle rejection, failure, resentment, disappointment, jealousy, etc. We need to figure out how and
why our society is now creating so many of theses losers. That is what they are: losers. In the past, losers grew up and often had the last laugh...most of these kids arent of low intelligence. This new set of losers now seems to get older but *not grow up* and then we end up with the mass shooters who seem to have exactly the same issues and motives."
But I would be very surprised if even at your school, those who don't play sports are all "nobodies" who are all languishing "in the shadows." If there are no other activities--band, art, FFA, science/robotics, debate, dance, etc.--then maybe your school district and PTO need to consider these as outlets for personal expression and school-social enjoyment (and stop that crap with the parking spaces). Here is a list of the clubs at Santa Fe High School, and there is even a magic club:
http://www.edlinesites.net/files/_x...45a49013852ec4/2013_-_2014__Student_Clubs.pdf
I think that's it more than actual "bullying." These losers get the idea that they want to take down the ones who are at the top of the food chain -- make 'em pay -- and then they see all the attention other shooters get and the idea grows from a molehill to a mountain of revenge.
There is always going to be a "food chain"; this is human nature. Put a group of toddlers together and see what happens. The problem is the idea that others need to be taken down and made to pay
with their lives, the self-entitlement that allows a person to depersonalize others to the extent that they are capable of taking their lives.
Personally, I'd get rid of school sports (not athletics, just sports) and move competitive teams over to community recreation. That'd not only break the "jock clique" it'd also stop cheer-leading, and seriously, can anything be more demeaning to women than to think it's an honor to cheer for males? I mean -- really!
I was a cheerleader and didn't find it demeaning at all. I also cheered at girls' events. I'm wondering if you have a personal story behind your view of jocks and cheerleaders. They aren't all or mainly dumb.
Yes, people who can't deal with criticism and rejection become society's losers, and we have an over-abundance of them. But, let's stop the public school caste system that allows them to rise in the first place. Let's focus once again on academics.
Heck, I'd even be in favor of school-issued uniforms, just because I've seen children bullied because their parents didn't have the money to buy them the name-brand clothes that some of the kids wore.
Accept that there will always be a "food chain" or "caste system" or "pecking order," and not just in schools, but also in every workplace. I'm all for focusing on academics, and school uniforms are tremendous levelers. But you aren't going to change natural human organizational patterns. There are natural followers and leaders. There will always be someone smarter, prettier, or more talented than you. Sometimes, you will fail. Often, it's in the trying that you truly succeed. But you don't get to kill people because you aren't being appreciated the way you believe you should be. Let's teach this.
