Nearly thirteen years ago two high school seniors wreaked havoc on Colorado’s Columbine High School, killing twelve students and a teacher before killing themselves.
That horrific massacre set off a flurry of activity designed to improve safety in schools and prevent future tragedy. Metal detectors, uniformed security officers and other measures were put into place nationwide.
On February 27th of this year another young man opened fire at Chardon High School in Chardon, Ohio and left two students dead and three others wounded. He is currently in police custody.
In thinking and reading about these two situations it seems that in both cases the shooters were troubled teens who acted out of some sense of avenging past hurts. The Columbine shooters were allegedly bullied by other students before becoming bullies themselves. They convinced a friend to help them get the weapons they used in the shootings.
It seems to me that maybe we need to focus more on identifying potential issues with our young people before they get to the point where metal detectors and uniform security officers are involved.
According to several news articles I’ve read and watched the young man who allegedly did the shooting in Chardon (T.J. Lane) was in an alternate school for “at-risk” or troubled students. His grades were said to be very good. But some say he was also a target for bullies.
T.J’s parents are divorced and he has been living with his grandmother. His father allegedly has a history of arrests for everything from attempted murder to violence against women. T.J. wrote a long “rant” on his Facebook page last New Year’s Eve with very violent overtones that has since been deleted but was captured as a screenshot and shown in an article about the shooting on the Huffington Post website.
His final words in this rant were “Die all of you.”
Shouldn’t that have set off alarm bells with anyone who read it?
Given what we seem to know of his environment and background, is it any wonder that young T.J.’s view of the world would be filled with anger, rage and low self-esteem?
The truth is I don’t really know what other actions people around this young man may have been taking (besides putting him in an alternate school) to help him change his worldview and become more positive and productive prior to the shooting.
It just makes me wonder what each of us as individuals could do differently going forward that might help us be alert to these potential volcanoes before they erupt.
There is no way we can know everything about everyone all the time (though it seems some who are in power would like to believe it should be that way) but maybe we should be paying more focused and serious attention to teens that act or speak aggressively or use language that clearly shows violent thought patterns.
One person bullying another is never OK. Parents of kids who are bullies need to take swift and decisive actions to stop that behavior instead of ignoring it. I believe that parents who know their kids are bullying others and don’t do everything in their power to immediately stop it should be held as much responsible for their child’s behavior as the child is.
Those in leadership positions in schools and other areas of a teenagers life should also adopt a more proactive mindset when incidents occur or they see or hear things that may indicate trouble ahead.
All of us who live in the world can use our voices, positions and influences to be more aware and spread the right message to our young people about bullying. We can all become change agents within our own families and communities.
It’s what we have to do if we’re going to prevent history from continuing to repeat itself. We need to work together. The next young child to be innocently hurt or killed could be our own.
