For the two years that I was in high school, I was never what anyone would consider popular. People didn’t ask me to do things with them on the weekend, People thought I was a Satanic Lesbian after my first two months in school, no reason was given for either of those accusations. People made fun of me, wrote “Go to hell” on my notebook, and left me out of everything that they possibly could. And I was going to a very small school (which Time magazine claims cuts out the cliques and the ostracizing of students), there were only 150 people in the entire school and yet these things still happened and no one was about to do anything to help me out. I went to the so-called student counselor, and her only suggestion is that I bring in the ‘CARE’ team, which is a bunch of students who are supposed to do peer intervention, but some of those people were the people causing my life to be miserable. So what good would that have done?
These shootings obviously caused a lot of pain to many people, and we’ve heard all about how much pain it caused through the news, magazines, and newspapers, but what about the fact that the shootings were inspired by pain? I’m not saying that I know for sure what was in those boys heads, but I do know what it’s like to have feelings of wanting revenge. Having such a deep hate for someone that the only options you can see for making things better are killing them or killing yourself. But thankfully I was lucky enough to have parents that cared about me and I was able to get out of that school and get help.
I mean, doesn’t anybody else take it as a sign there is something seriously messed up when at the announcement about the Colorado shootings said it was The worst school massacre in America? Doesn’t the fact that there have been others to compare it with seem to to be a sign that our school system needs some serious re-thinking? And by that I don’t mean thinking about putting more Security in schools. I mean re-thinking how schools are set up period.
Schools put kids in such horrible environments. They are extremely constricted, adults are shoving mostly worthless information from subjects that could be interesting if they would only let the kids learn them on their own, or in an interesting way, and then there are the tortures that the kids put each other through. You’re stuck with this set group of peers for however many years, and if you don’t fit into one of their cliques that they’ve been pre-destined to be part of, Then you’re ultimately screwed and you can prepare yourself for a living hell until you can get out of there.
People should stop being so quick to blame music, movies, and video games, and try and get those things that they consider to be “triggers for violent acts” banned, because what they don’t know is that music with painful/depressing lyrics can be an amazing outlet. Listening to a song that you can relate to can help you feel less alone, and make you realize that if that person made it through that period in their lives, maybe I can too. For me, playing a so-called violent video game where you can kick some ass, is a safe way of getting my aggression out, without actually hurting anyone.
It seems to me that everyone who’s been writing articles on these events are all so afraid of blaming the school system or the other kids, or even the parents. They have to resort to blaming things they know little to nothing about, because they think that that will save their asses from negative responses from other adults in their fields. Well I’m sick of all this bullshit and there needs to be some action taken to stop other kids from feeling like they’re rejected and worthless!
I’m sick of reporters talking about “how sad” this is and how those kids must have been monsters and how that girl who confessed how much she loved god before she was killed was a martyr! She wasn’t! Just because she was religious doesn’t make her any better than anyone else. And those boys we not monsters. It could have happened anywhere, to anyone. It could have been me.
