New school shooting. What the hell is wrong with us?

While I originally began this as a comment on an article on the subject it got quite long and I decided I would post this as an article.

As someone who has been raised durring this new school shooting trend and seen it all unfold from often way too close I have my own opinions. I remember living only about 15 miles from columbine highschool at the time of the shootings. While we were in the school gym listening to some kind of motivational speaker we were told that there had been a shooting at Columbine and our school was put on lock down something I never even heard of till that day. At the time it seemed so insaine to think that someone my age had been so full of anger they would have done that. But now it seems almost normal.

I think many of the problems that are facing youth of today come from the way things are handled AFTER the event. Not just school shootings but teen pregnancy, highschool drop outs, rape and even bad grades. Things that use to carry a stigma that made every parent, grandparent, student and teacher know that these things had negitive effects, no longer seem so bad.

I am 22 and I know of two girls who are CLOSE personal friends and currently pregnant who are just over the age of 21. They are both well educated college students with bright futures and plenty of common sense. Both know that their future children were not planned and will put a big kink in their plans durring and after college. The scary part is I know atleast 15 other girls who I went to highschool with that already have 2-5 year olds who welcomed and even encouraged pregnancy. I am in no way saying having a child young is a terrible thing. I fully support all of them and their little kidaroos. But the real issue is that this is now looked at as "not ideal". People are too affraid to offend someone by flat out saying "Getting pregnant young will ruin your youth and will effect you for the rest of your life" No one says "you made a mistake" instead people say "oh what a blessing!" and it is a blessing to have a child, no doubt about it. But by normalizing things like this it only shows young people that it is "not as bad as it could be!"

Young men do not live in fear of prison after they rape a girl. The know their chances of the girl even telling someone are slim let alone pressing charges and being penalized. And even if they are they know they can lie, get a good lawyer or just pay a fine and be on their way. A girl I know was raped by her cousins boyfriend, 16 and now no longer a virgin her entire family entended and all has disowned her claiming she made it all up because thats what the guy said. What is this teaching people? What example are we setting?

When a teenager decides that they are going to end their life. Not because a girlfriend dumped them or a parent is abusive but because they are teased and tormented at school. Why honestly would they feel taking more students down with them would be a bad thing? Sure I couldn't kill an innocent person but I also couldn't tease and torment an innocent person to the point of making them hate their life so much they wanted to end it. To someone who is ready to take their life because others have made it so painful to live, there is little logic involved in defending the lives of the people that made them feel that way. The difference is in how it is all viewed. 15 years ago a 16 year old would never think of going into their school and shooting everyone. Now they have people to look up to who have done it in the past.

Has anyone ever seen a interview where a reporter is talking to a student who felt this same way but recieved help and changed their mind? No. To the outcast student there is no example of getting better but instead examples of getting worse. Why do you think the news makes a point of mentioning any terrorist act that is stopped before there is a problem? They want anyone else to see that others who have tried have failed and you most likely will too. If all the news covered was sucessful terrorist attacks no future terrorist would second guess trying an attack.

People need to swallow their little bits of Hallmark and stop crying about issues like this and instead do something to stop them. Instead of asking your kid if there are any people like "this" at their school. Sit down and talk to them and make sure they are ok. Your kid, your problem.