Another School Shooting

Posted by: OregonMouse

Another School Shooting - 06/10/14 02:16 PM

This one was only a quarter mile from my home. It sounded as though every siren in the state was coming, just before I was to start my morning walk. Needless to say, I did not go. I have been praying for all involved. It's even more scary when it's so close to home.
Update on Reyolds High School shooting.
Posted by: Heather-ak

Re: Another School Shooting - 06/10/14 03:08 PM

I just don't understand all these shootings.

I had a really hard time in high school. It was plain awful. I was angry - hated school, hated most of the teachers, hated most of the other students, hated my parents - it was rough. Yeah, there was talk of blowing the school up and so forth - but we didn't _really_ mean it. I had access to guns, but I _never_ brought them to school. There were also hunting rifles in cars during the deer hunting season.

I do believe that the picking on stuff that is unfortunately part of school is worse than when I was in high school. I could go home and at least not have it in my face anymore. Now days, there it is on <insert social media here> - back then computers were only the geeks and we self policed.

Another difference is the total terror of the embarrassment of my family for doing anything really bad. I cannot, to this day, think of what my grandfather (who spoiled me rotten and adored me) would have done to me if I had taken a gun to school without shuddering.

So what has changed? Is there a lack of fear of repercussions? I did read an interesting military article, saying that one of the reasons training in the military is hard is that they found in one of the wars that soldiers on sinking boats just gave up - that hardship was something you learned how to deal with. Could it be that childhood has gotten to "easy" and some children simply haven't dealt with hardship and haven't learned that things often get better?

Sorry for the long post, but as someone who had a rough time in high school AND has been shooting since she was 12, I have great difficulty in understanding this issue... and honestly the issue deepy bothers me.
Posted by: packlite

Re: Another School Shooting - 06/10/14 03:25 PM

Just read it on Yahoo news. Bad business that. Unfortunately, it will get much worse. Just a sign of the times.

I was recently recollecting with and old high school mate about the contrast between now and our own growing up in the 50's & 60's in small town Oregon. For example, after duck hunting, we used to walk right down our town's main street in our camouflaged clothes with shotguns over the shoulder. Many times setting the shotgun next to the front door of a grocery store, like it was a bicycle, while we went inside to get refreshments. Real laid back. In my four years of high school the worst thing that happened was some guys got caught smoking cigarettes out behind the football field bleachers.

Since there were no electronic devices in those days, we spent much of our time outdoors, building things, exploring the woods, lakes, sand dunes (I lived only a few miles from the ocean) and otherwise always occupied. After age of 15, we all had full-time summer jobs during our HS years. I recently tried to share my experiences with my grandson and he didn't seem interested. He spends many many hours a day playing a Mindcraft game. He is addicted, I'm sure. Anyway, the times have changed dramatically and getting worse.

I just read in the news where two 12-year-old girls plotted the murder of their friend - and almost succeeded - so they would gain favor with Slenderman. Of course, Slenderman is just a fictional character of a computer game. Geez, the kids live a fictional world with different morals and behaviour. Fortunately, though, not all kids are like that, but enough so that the world is a much more dangerous place then ever before.
Posted by: billstephenson

Re: Another School Shooting - 06/11/14 03:32 PM

Wow OM, that's awful news. Of course I heard about the event, but had no idea it happened in your neighborhood.

I've watched this problem grow like so many other social trends and consider it to be just that, a social trend. There are many contributing factors and some of them could be addressed with common sense, but that gets drown out by self interests.

I believe I've expressed some thoughts on this issue here before, but it's clear now that as a society we seem to be paralyzed by it. We've not moved a bit on it for 15 years now.

Posted by: ETSU Pride

Re: Another School Shooting - 06/13/14 03:36 PM

I simply do not get it.
Posted by: coyotemaster

Re: Another School Shooting - 12/12/14 03:08 AM

Sorry to resurrect an older thread:
But I think one of the dirty little secrets about increasing school violence, from Columbine to Sandy Hook Elementary and possibly Reynolds (I couldn't find a reliable source about Jared Padgett) is the side effects of SSRI's, Ritalin and the like. Some teenagers get suicidal, homicidal and psychotic on these drugs.

On the other hand school violence, and other violence, has always happened. They just didn't have access to rapid fire, high capacity, firearms in the past.

I will add that if you check out pics of Jared Lee Loughner (2011 shooting in Tucson) and Adam Lanza they look crazy. Jared Loughner's parents had contacted law enforcement and tried to get him committed repeatedly but nobody had the power to do something with him till after the shooting.
Adam Lanza's folks were divorced for 3 yrs prior to his shooting. Mom won custody with final say over Adam. She also owned a high capacity battle rifle with multiple clips, and other firearms, and had been taking little Adam to the range and teaching him how to shoot for years. She had expressed concerns and fears of Adam but kept the guns handy anyway. She paid with her life for her failure to institutionalize her son whom she knew had serious issues.