Bulletin Editorial on School Shooting (What was left out ? )
Friday March 25, 2005
Op Ed
In school tragedies, hindsight is perfect
In retrospect, students and officials at the high school on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota could see that all the signs were there. But while most may agree that such a tragedy can strike anywhere, it is human nature to assume it won't.
Red Lake found out differently.
Jeff Weise looks baby-faced and almost cherubic in the photograph made available to the media after he killed nine persons and then himself on Monday. His chin is shown resting on one arm, and that hint of a smile offers no clue to the turmoil boiling within.
Weise, 16, was far from the way he appeared. But his classmates and acquaintances didn't recognize the depth of his troubles until Weise killed his grandfather and the grandfather's companion, then took his murderous rampage to the high school campus. There, authorities said, he killed five students, a teacher and an unarmed security guard. Seven others were wounded in the bloodiest episode of school violence since the 1999 Columbine, Colo., massacre.
Communities must never drop their guard to the possibility of school violence, and many have taken needed steps toward prevention. After 15 persons died at Columbine High School -- including the two teen-age killers -- many schools around the nation installed metal detectors, hired security guards and developed emergency plans. In Brownwood, plans for school improvements developed prior to last month's passage of a $29 million school bond included provisions for enhanced security.
Sometimes, though, emergency plans, improved architecture and better technology are not enough. Red Lake High School had taken many of the recommended precautions, including the hiring of security guards.
The line separating the rebellious behavior typical of many teen-agers and the more hostile activities leading to violence is not always clearly defined. It is easy to brush aside signs which suggest that a teen-ager is in deep trouble. There can be a tendency to avoid overacting to situations which may not be symptoms of anything at all.
Still, it is only through their tears that Weise's classmates could see a pattern in his unorthodox behavior and realize that his sketches and Web postings were indications of what was to come. He was a loner, and his father had committed suicide. His mother suffered serious brain damage in a car accident, and is confined to a care center.
The national outpouring of grief -- the shock and amazement -- which accompanied previous school massacres has not been as evident for Red Lake as it has been in similar situations. Hopefully that's not a sign of acceptance of these type of tragedies. Perhaps the legal maneuvers being made on behalf of Terri Schiavo of Florida have distracted our collective attention this week.
But the results are no less tragic. We may never know how many such incidents prevention and intervention programs may be averting, but the deaths at Red Lake prove, if nothing else, that such efforts to identify and help teen-agers in crisis must continue.
http://www.brownwoodbulletin.com/articles/2005/03/25/op_ed/editorial01.txt
--------------------------------
please see our post for
---------
----------
------------
what the KXYL Bullies don't want to talk about
--------------
Tuesday, July 27, 2004 "Where the rubbber meets the road" !
" Eventually, there is no safety in looking away, seeking the quiet life by ignoring the struggles
and oppression of others. "
President G.W. Bush-United Nations-Sept. 21, 2004
Printed in the Brownwood Bulletin - September 25, 2004 - Church Page Ad for Steves' Market and Deli
---------------------------------
Mr President, I couldn’t agree more with your words !
------------------------------------
“ The focus of this statement is on hate crimes related to 9/11. We wish not to dismiss other acts of hate that have been leveled against people of color and the gay and lesbian community in Texas.
For one example, the ACLU, with local concerned citizens, is currently investigating a rash of hate crime in Brownwood, Texas. We suspect at least 10 hate crimes in that town alone-including murders and even murders of witnesses to those hate crimes. Local officials have repeatedly refused to investigate or prosecute these crimes according to the mandates of the the Hate Crimes Act. In one instance, a field officer drafted a crime report which clearly documented race as the motive of the violent crime. Nevertheless, the local District Attorney's office still refused to prosecute this at all, much less as a hate crime. Our conclusion is that the law alone is not enough. The Texas Attorney General, or some external body, must be vested with full authority to prosecute these crimes or at least monitor the law's enforcement in some meaningful way. ”
William Harrell, Esq. Executive Director, ACLU of Texas
To the House Judicial Affairs Committee Regarding
The Committee's Oversight of the Texas Attorney General's Office
August 15, 2002 San Antonio, Texas
source: House Judicial Affairs Committee
[PDF/Adobe Acrobat]
... the ACLU, with local concerned citizens, is currently investigating a rash of hate crime in Brownwood,. Texas. We ...
archive.aclu.org/news/2002/harrell_statement.pdf
------------------------------------------------------
Note:
Brown /Mills County District Attorney Sky Sudderth (R) resigned
May 24 as part of a plea agreement in which three felony indictments against him - charges of aggravated perjury, tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and tampering with a government record - were dismissed.
source: http://www.woai.com/news/state/story.aspx?content_id=
2E2EB83E-DC23-42CF-A4CA-4EF22CF7777F
posted by Steves' Market & Deli @ 10:14 AM
------------------------------------------
The Bulletin Editorializes on the School Shooting and focuses on the Bricks, Mortar and Metal Detectors, but fails to mention this....
<< Home