Another school shooting...

[jizumper-5]

Well another shooting in a school, Williamsport,PA by a 14 yr old girl in a private school this time! To those who say it can't happen here...well it can. I am still surprised to hear that said when people are interviewed. That is about an hour from me. Too close for comfort. What are we going to do about this new epidemic?

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Keep Safe!

[FireRebel]

I still believes it starts at home...raise and teach your children Morals, self-esteem and most of all be there for them when they come home from school and say "tommy" is teasing me and so on....how many children through out are educational system are teased and tormented....raise them correctly and the so- called name calling will not effect them as much as needing to bring a weapon to school and harm other classmates...I could go on and on but it starts at home and needs to end at home...I know this is such and "old fashioned" rule but really hits home for me...."treat someone else the way you want to be treated"

[Dalmatian90]

6 or 7 incidents over, oh what 5 years is an epidemic?

Violence is cyclical, and types of violence runs in fads...don't have many clock-tower snipers anymore, yet at one time that was what everybody feared like they do a school shooting now.

This too shall pass.

[RJE]

The "cyclical" nature of these incidents isn't helped by the "copycat" shooters, that are inspired by the manic round the clock coverage by the media.

Did you guys hear that after the San Diego shooting, kids were going home to change, do makeup and hair, etc. I work w/a teenage youth group. We used to talk about 15 minutes of fame. To them, if you aren't on the news, you aren't anybody. So the star of the football team makes the local sportscast, he's "famous" in his school. And the "geek w/the big ears"? What's he supposed to do?

Guess what. The go commit crimes, not for the crime's sake, but just to get arrested and get their picture on the 6 o'clock. And their friends (and enemies), get their 15 minutes, too. All they have to do is say they (knew, overheard plans, teased, hated, saw.... you name it) and some reported sticks a mike and handycam in their face.

So what happens if the news is a 15-sec clip. 1 still picture of an ambulance as background. 1 anchor saying, "...there was a shooting at a school outside S.D, CA. Two dead, 13 injured. The suspect is in custody". No names. No pics.

Now why would the kids want to "get on the news".

[Althea Forhan]

I'll tell ya what people need to do-PREVENT,PREVENT,INTERVINE.Prevent by ingraining it in your kids that it is a crime punishable to make fun of the other kid, prevent by having anger management in the EARLY years of school (2nd grade or so) and keep it coming. If they'd done this at the elementary where I went there wouldn't have been half as much violonce as there was.

Althea,14

[tlfd600]

Well personally I am about half way to getting my bachelors degree in Criminal Justice. We actually discussed this topic in my Police Systems and Practices class. The opinion of the class and my professor who is an expert in crime is that the route of the problem is parenting. There has been too much of an absence in parenting over the past few decades breeding a generation called Super Predators. Many kids today either only have one parent in the house or if they do have 2 parents they both work till 6 or 7 at night, so the people raising the kids are under staffed day cares trying to make a buck. I am not a 100% sure on this, but I belive the average parent/child interaction time is about an hour a day. When you are not there to interact with your kids and teach them right from wrong, the kids only teacher about life is television. So are we surprised that we have incidences with movies like Terminator, Leathal Weapon and any movie made by Steven Segal. You have good parents and you have good kids, look at me I had good parents and what did I have, a high self-esteem, I was a Boy Scout for 10 years and attained the rank of Eagle Scout, plus as soon as I turned 18 became a volunteer fire fighter and went to EMT school. Also, get those kids to church, I am not always the best church going person, but I try to be.

[1627]

Just remember that there are many more happening everyday and not all of them make the national headlines. We had ann incident here last year where two students were arrested when a parent found a note where they were planning to commit a shooting similar to Columbine. Bomb threats are another problem that needs to be addressed those also happen way to often.

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Leon Bass
SWVFD Station 16

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Disclaimer:
These are my opinions and do not reflect the views of my department.

[Althea Forhan]

I truly beleive that no matter how you are raised, words hurt. Name calling tears people apart. That saying about sticks and stones...broken bones eventually heal, emotional damage lasts forever.

Althea