Violence in our schools

Last week, a 16 year old boy serenely and quietly walked into a high school (near the gym/cafeteria) and SHOT 5 students, killing 3 of them; two were killed instantly and the third died of complications a little while later.  The 16 year old boy was a victim of bullying.

Obviously, no one saw this coming . . .  or, did they? 

We, as Americans, live in a culture of violence from inside our Boardrooms who practice and live by Sun Tzu’s Art of War, to the killing fields of professional sports and NASCAR.  We, as Americans, teach competitive sports via violence at a very early age.

We reward actors and actresses with gold statues, plaques, and other awards when their television shows and movies depict realism and unparalleled acting but oftentimes the actors and actresses are standing on the foundation of incredible violence through which no man, or female should be able to survive, yet they all do – but, that’s Hollywood.

We watch professional athletes use excessive force and applaud because that behavior helps their team win the contest.  We watch law enforcement use excessive force on an alleged criminal and while some applaud because they are, in fact, alleged criminals, others protest to the extent of contracting lawyers.

The violent killing of Osama bin laden was applauded by Americans because he orchestrated an act of terrorism on US soil and while some hoped for a capture, others were glad that our Navy Seals did not want to trust the American Justice System, but that observation may have stretched the truth a bit.

I recall that a former student of mine shared a scenario with me where he and his dad would sit in the family room on the family couch, side by side, and he would watch his dad point a handgun or a rifle at the television screen and pull the trigger until it clicked when someone came on the screen that his father did not like.

We, as Americans, sit back in our comfortable chairs and watch reports on the screens of our televisions or laptops, and wonder with a sense of awestruck incredulity how this could happen in America; yet, days later, we go on about our business easily forgetting that something like this ever happened.  But, when we were all made aware of this senseless tragedy, we wonder as seriously concerned parents, how the system could have allowed this to happen.