Wednesday, February 18, 2009

School Shootings

gun

I know you are probably wondering why the hell am I posting about school shootings, but I just read Nineteen Minutes, by Jodi Picoult. The book is about a boy who is bullied his whole life, and decides to take matters into his own hands and goes on a rampage school shooting. Not unlike her other books, it is an eloquently written, easy to read book. Only Jodi Picoult could actually make you feel empathetic for a school shooter. She is an incredible author.

The first school shooting was at the University of Texas at Austin Massacre in 1966, where a  student killed 14, and injured 32 more.

In 1979 a 16 year old girl shot and killed 2, and injured 8, when asked why she did it she replied, “ I don’t like Monday’s, this livens up the day.” This was after her father gave her a gun for her birthday. If you are not old enough to buy cigarettes, you certainly should not have a gun.

In 1997 a student stabbed and beat his mother to death and then drove to his school, where he killed his ex girlfriend and her friend. Moments before shooting he gave his friend this message :

"I am not insane, I am angry. I killed because people like me are mistreated every day. I did this to show society, push us and we will push back. ... All throughout my life, I was ridiculed, always beaten, always hated. Can you, society, truly blame me for what I do? Yes, you will. ... It was not a cry for attention, it was not a cry for help. It was a scream in sheer agony saying that if you can't pry your eyes open, if I can't do it through pacifism, if I can't show you through the displaying of intelligence, then I will do it with a bullet."

That gives me the chills. There was of course Columbine, in 1999 where 13 were killed, and 24 injured. The biggest and far worst of the school shootings was in 2007, at Virginia Tech, where 33 were killed and 23 injured.

The majority of these school shooters were being bullied by fellow students or parents.

This is hard for me to understand since I was never bullied as a child. Were any of you bullied? How did it affect you?

 

 

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I'm reading: School ShootingsTweet this! Posted by Beth Mancuso at 7:21 AM
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12 comments:

  1. Beth
    Thanks for doing this post. It really brings things into reality especially for me with children in schools. I am going to read that book so I can understand the signs and maybe just maybe help my children their friends or at least protect them. Thanks
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  2. I was bullied in grade school - made fun of because of my clothes being so rumage sale or homemade. It hurt a lot. Instead of going postal, I grew up to be a model, had a fabulous wardrobe and had a laugh over it. As a parent tho, I saw the most flagrant bullying and how obnoxious kids can be. Makes you wonder where the kids learn this behavior? at home or tv/movies?
    suZen
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  3. I was going to write a post on this myself since this whole bullying really gets to me. My son (7th grader) tells me, from time to time, about incidents at school that I think constitute mild bullying, calling names, flicking pencils using a crude crossbow contraption, shoving kids aside in the hallway etc. It just shows the meanness of some of these kids. Arent's their parents teaching them anything?

    What annoys me is how educational institutions at middle and high school levels are unable enforce discipline on their campus. I can't think of any parent that would object more discipline in schools.

    School is a place of learning and principals and counselors should not allow unruly and anti-social behavior on campus.
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  4. Wow, great post. I was bullied in high school, but not too drastically. Luckily I had a great base of friends that I could get over being called "cow girl" and "theater nazi" (If anyone knows what that last one means, I would love to know!)

    The thing is, I wasn't even fat. I weighed 130 in highschool, which to me is not a "cow". Girls are the worse I think. They can be so evil to each other, and for what?
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  5. Theater Nazi...?, that one is funny. I am working on a follow up post to this one about bullying, I was amazed at just how many kids are bullied or being bullys.
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  6. I was teased a bit but I wouldn't call it bullying...I said stuff back to people, so it was more like mutual piss-taking.

    Don't really have that much to say on school shootings, it's not really something I understand.

    You might want to read 'We Need to Talk About Kevin', by Lionel Shriver, it's excellent.

    Laura
    xxx
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  7. Hi! I'm visiting from Mom Bloggers Club Best Blogs. You might also want to read We Need to Talk About Kevin for another take on school massacres. Great post!
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  8. Ok, I see the person above me also suggested teh same book! I guess I should have read all the comments a little better.
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  9. Thanks for the book reccomendation, I will add it to my Amazon wish list.
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  10. My daughter is in her 1st yr of jr high.

    My daughter has Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. Occasionally her hip, knee or ankle will hurt and she limps and walks slow. Some kids are VERY insensitive to that and tease her.

    The girls esp. are such little [insert B word]. Thank goodness my daughter has a base of 3-4 good friend's she can hang with.
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  11. Kids are cruel. What I perceived as being talked about and picked on in school was actually jealousy. I found this out from a good friend after we'd graduated. It seemed the other kids were jealous that I had a good sense of self in high school, and I didn't have a need to fit in. At least that's how I appeared on the outside.

    I went through high school at what seemed like the height of all the shootings and violence. I still can't wrap my head around it. We even had a local incident where a kid injured several students and killed a teacher at an 8th grade dance when I was a senior. It was surreal to watch the security increase in our school because of these incidents in other schools being that we were a small and almost rural school district.
    ReplyDelete
  12. Hello, I found your blog on a search to add a "grab a button" Excellent info btw! I started looking around and read this review. I had a wart on my nose in 2nd grade, I know, right? I had to have it burned off, but as you can imagine I was teased unmercifully! In 6th grade I formed a gang and we went around on the playground and beat up the bullies! I went on to be included in just about every click at one point or another, I never really felt scarred by it or anything. I homeschool my kids, now, but the bully factor is actually low on the list of reasons why...
    ReplyDelete

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