Nothing, I repeat NOTHING, justifies harming another human being. Ever.
But when it's happening with such frenzied frequency, we've got to stop and reflect on the reasons why kids snap, or it will only continue to escalate. Will your child be the next victim? Will mine?
Consider the following quotes from an Associated Press story about yesterday's school shooting in Ohio:
Students said Coon shot one student who had punched him after Coon
bumped into him, and another who was walking up the stairs while others
were fleeing... So this kid bumps into someone walking down a crowded hallway, a common occurrence in school, and he gets punched for it. And when he snaps, that's the kid he goes gunning for.
Coon was the subject of a juvenile court neglect case at age 4, came from a poor home and routinely showed up to school unkempt. ... His probation officer described the relationship between Coon
and his mother as extremely poor, with both using foul and abusive
language toward each other. Their home was reported in poor condition
with dog waste littering the front yard... He learned this behavior at home - did anyone witness this? A neighbor? Where was Social Services?
Christina Burns, who volunteered at one of the schools Coon
attended, said Coon both received and delivered abuse. She said that in
seventh grade, he did nothing after a classmate dropped a book on
Coon's head while the teacher wasn't looking... Right under the teacher's nose. All too often, kids get pounded just under the radar of those in charge - and sometimes they retaliate, and they're the ones that get caught and get in trouble, which only deepens their anger and resentment.
"He would often take this abuse from children all the time before lashing at them and cussing them out," Burns said... A person can only take so much before they reach the breaking point. Sometimes the anger leaks out, like cussing someone out, but if it's not kept in check, it can explode.
Burns said Coon was a bright child who was unable to focus on
his schoolwork and was prone to mood swings... Who could possibly concentrate on school work when they're getting whomped, both physically and emotionally, both at school and at home, every day? This kid had nowhere safe to be.
Burns said she is angry no one reached out to him. "This all
could have been prevented if he had the proper intervention," she said... Tragedy.
"That child was tormented from his classmates every single
day," she said. "Everybody's making him out to be a devil, a demon, but
nobody knows what was going on with this kid." I think we can guess.
The tragedy is not that this child lived a neglected, abused life. It's that he was brutalized every day for it, right under everyone's noses, and no one stepped in on his behalf! No one offered themselves as an ally, no one stopped to ask themselves, or him, or each other why he was so angry. That kind of anger doesn't exist in a vacuum - but no one took the time to find out. One student told administrators that this boy had a gun - and even the administrator was "too busy" to intervene.
It is a miracle and a blessing that no one was killed in this situation. But we have to know that at the root of this tragedy was a boy who was labeled an "unlikable" kid, and as such, was probably not worth anyone's time. No one wanted to be bothered to look for some good under all that so-called "evil."
Every kid needs an ally. Every. Single. Kid.
