If you thought the HCMS bomb threat from last month was bad, just look at this:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/09/justice/pennsylvania-school-stabbing/
A sixteen-year-old male
sophomore student went on a stabbing spree at Franklin Regional Senior High
School in Murrysville, PA on Wednesday morning. His weapons: two kitchen
knives. In the process, he injured about twenty of his classmates. He is now in
custody and has been charged as an adult.
Many of the students
injured did not know what happened initially. They felt pain, realized they
were bleeding, and brought attention to it. Students and teachers did what they
could to help before EMS arrived, many of them asking for sweatshirts to stop
the bleeding. The injured teens' wounds are “quite serious,” some to the point
of being life threatening. Most were in the abdomen and lower back. Some have
already undergone surgery. A fire alarm was pulled in the midst of the
commotion, which probably helped save some students from the actions of the
stabber.
The suspect was
described as being quiet and not having many friends, though not known for
being a victim of bullying. Mia Meixner, a student at FRSHS said, “He had this,
like, look on his face that he was just crazy and he was just running around
just stabbing whoever was in his way.” The student was eventually tackled by an
assistant principal and handcuffed by the School Resource Officer.
This relates to government in a number of ways. First of all, government pays for our schooling, and government requires us to go to school. School, as we’ve established before, simply is not for everyone. The environment is not always healthy, the material does not always relate. Sometimes public school leaves students looking for any way to get out of class and away from their peers. If students need to pull fire alarms, call in bomb threats, or bring weapons to school, so be it.
As mentioned before, the
student who committed this atrocity is being tried as an adult. That means
that, instead of focusing on rehabilitation and future reintegration like
juvenile court would, his case will focus on punishing this student and
deterring him from future crime. This child is sixteen. While it is obvious
from his actions that he has some issues, the fact that he is going to be
tried as an adult doesn’t really give him a chance at living life to the
fullest.
More and more, it seems
that shootings, bombings, stabbings, and the like are simply becoming a part of
life. It’s sad. I heard it said today that the evening news is where they begin
with “Good Evening” and then proceed to tell you why it isn’t. It’s sad, but it’s
true. While we all think we have this shield of invincibility around us where
nothing bad happens, it does, and much of it is caused by other humans just
like you and I. What can we do for this child? Probably nothing. It’s too late;
he’s in custody now. But we still have a chance for those who are starting out
in this world. This is why we need classmates and teachers and parents and
coaches and leaders who can show the world some love. If we don’t have love, we
don’t have anything.
“It doesn’t happen
here.”
I totally agree that these kinds of outrageous acts have recently seemed to become quite a normality rather than something that rarely happens. It is sad that these people feel like they must succumb to violence in order to solve their problems. I don't quite understand what pushes someone to that point. Although I guess one never does unless you're in that position. It is definitely time we start taking steps to prevent these things from happening.
ReplyDeleteShowing people love is so important. For example, when I ignore my dog or yell at her, she lashes out and bites me or goes to tear up the carpet. However, me yelling at her doesn't justify the fact that the carpet is now messed up. Just because he doesn't have many friends doesn't justify going around stabbing people. Schools need to become a beacon of help and safety, not the soulless, loveless place it has become. There are so many factors that made him do this: tv/media, treatment by peers, family life, things he's seen or thought of, the list can be endless. Side note because this is getting long but since he is quiet and has no friends, maybe he did this for attention and to get on tv like so many other crazy people before him??
ReplyDeleteI heard on the news a few days ago that this child did all this over a prom proposal. He was rejected by a girl who already had plans to go with her boyfriend. She was one of the students who died that morning.
ReplyDelete