It happened before and now the same thing happened for the same reasons

NWMO, have totally agree with you. In order for the media to make money and feed the frenzy, they are concentrating deeply on the shooter (what made him tick and what caused him to do this) and in doing that, you can open any newpaper or news site and find great glaring headlines about the shooter but very little on the innocent victims he killed. I was concerned today as to the condition of those in hospital and tried to do a search on their conditions and again, only came up with results on the shooter. I fear they leave the damaged mind open to the idea that fame may only come from killing more innocent people than the last event.

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People need to wake up and try to find out why he did what he did or there will be others that will do the same thing.

Because this is not and isolated problem, it goes on every day and some act upon it ! ! !


bumpus
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Bumpus, I totally agree that we need to figure out what makes people step beyond the accepted parameters of society but I don't think that it is going to be resolved in newsprint or with every news website saturating their sites wtih inane tidbits about the shooter. That may be best left to people qualified to deal with deviant behaviors. My concern is that possibly, to the sick mind, the media may be considered glorifying the shooter by giving him extensive front page coverage. In Canada we generally don't see a lot of the school related issues that you do in the US but within days of the Columbine shootings, a child in Alberta shot some of his classmates. I often wonder if he hadn't read all the news reports if he may have not chosen to act on his negative thoughts. I do think these behaviors are far more complex than bullying issues but it may hold some part in the equation or maybe it means nothing.

Not really!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Now hop up onto the couch while I ask you what may be in your make up to find this kind of response
Chas

Just listen to the media as they try to warp this story into what they want it to mean.
I also wanted to find how the wounded where doing!
I believe I know a little how the killers mind worked and how he got that way.
A young fella (first born) to a couple young parents that had an average upringing seemed to be normal at first.Just a little slow in talking!Others are born next and are completely normal, whatever that is!
Next we noticed he didn't respond to adults and not many children.
The parents said he was ok no need for counceling.Next he goes to school and wont talk to teachers.One even allowed him to go out side the class with a kid he would talk to so he could answere questions for him!
I tried for years to make friends with him(and not one word spoken by him) and then one day he wanted to know about the military and if I ever killed anyone in Nam.Talk about sending chills up my spine.
He tells me he don't know what he wants to do for a career,but wants to quit school.He hates his parents and others.Myspace has some dark ramblings and the parents still insist he dosen't need help.
Parents are afraid to have him near their kids and there seems no way to get the kid help without his or the parents permission
He can shoot, and yes he could get a hold of firearms easy enough.
The poor kid is NOT happy whatsoever.
So the next move is his I guess?!?!
Chas

Heck, even as adults, some people look down on others. No wonder kids are so disturbed anymore, they have so much to live up to, and they feel they have to keep up appearances.

Here's the thing that bothers me: the media attention. I think it's time to stop making such terrible occurrences into a media feeding frenzy. Every major network launched into an exhausting "how and why did it happen" news interuption. To me, that is glorifying what happened. Yes, it was horrifying, yes, I feel bad for the people, but I couldn't help but wonder what some of the other disturbed people out there watching might be thinking. I bet something like" "Oooh, here's a way for me to become popular, or at least to make people understand how troubled I am. I will kill a lot of people and it will make others stand up and give me some attention." They may even strive to "outdo" the killer before them.

How much you want to bet it will be followed by a copycat attempt?

I was sickened to see a huge picture of the killer, with guns in hand, splashed on MSN news, plus in my local newspaper. Is that necessary? What about young people that read the news? Do they need to see this? I thought it was a little much. Gee, the killer as a celebrity. What about putting a face on the deceased instead. Ok, admittedly, they did that too, but the focus is on the killer mostly.

And after 3 days of seeing nothing but reporters interviewing people or in-depth discussions on the killer's history, I think it is time to let it go and move on to happier things. The media is just encouraging more violence and sensationalizing the whole thing. Keep the information short and to the point, don't let the killer become someone of that kind of interest.

I think it is a double-edged sword: trying to identify and help hurting children (when they are younger than college age, ideally, which is like shutting the barn door once the horse is out) and teaching children to be more welcoming to those with differences.

I found it quite interesting that the popular view here is how people should treat everyone equally, and yet I recall on threads past, there have been members who make uneducated comments about "foreigners" and such, and generally-speaking, no one seems to make much of a fuss about that unless they are being personally insulted. The difference is ????

I feel for the families of the victims and hope the media comes to their senses and stops turning every crime into a circus event.

DD

__________________
"The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese in the trap."

Just curious what your response to that question was. Did you express remorse for killing people? Feel sorry for their families? Tell him that war is a terrible thing, and that you wished it didn't have to be that way?

Perhaps this could have been a learning experience for the boy in that maybe it would put a face on the victims and make him rethink joining the army "just to kill people" (if that was his intention)?

__________________
"The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese in the trap."

The courage, strength, and determination of the students from VT shown in all interviews I've seen is amazing.

"TIME" has pictures of all the victims as it's cover this week.

There have been candlelight services for the victims on campuses across the nation.

The good still far far exceed the bad in our country

Marlene

__________________
It is the one with persistence and determination that brings great ideas into being.

Cho was severely mentally ill. I have read his play "richard mcbeef" and it is both disturbing and instructive. Any psychologist would come to the conclusion that this man suffered from some sort of traumatic mental illness. I am no professional, but as a mother of a mentally ill son, I can see definite similarities to my son's Attachment Disorder.

In the play, the 13 year-old son baits the stepfather into fighting with him. The stepfather tries repeatedly to make a connection with the child, but the child sees this as an attack and pushes the man away with verbal assaults. The kid goes after the man by pushing his buttons, accusing him of murder, molestation, and finally of being a loser. The son also pits his mother against the stepfather. She falls for it, believing her son that her new husband has just tried to molest and injure her son. He is sent to his room, where he plots his stepfather's murder. Eventually, he is able to drive his stepfather over the edge and the man hits the boy, accidently causing his death.

Attachment Disordered kids who are severely ill have a negative world view. The see other people as evil and as objects to be destroyed if they get in the way of the ill person's desires. They triangulate adults. They often have speech problems because they do not view other people or societal rules as being applicable to them. The same for social skills. Unless they can use some behavior to manipulate others, they do not value it. They do not understand cause and effect, so consequences for their actions are viewed as others being mean to them. They do not take responsibility for their actions. It is always someone else's fault. They are frightened of anyone who tries to love them or make connections with them. They have built up a wall around their hearts and anyone who tries to get in is seen as dangerous. They see everyone around them as the problem. They are superficially charming, but if anyone tries to impose limits on them, they will soon see that charm turn to a demonic type of hatred. I am not exagerating to get some sort of effect. Yesterday, my 10-year-old RAD son decided to hit, kick, and scratch his teachers because they asked him to write his answers "on the lines". He drew blood. This is almost a weekly occurance. And my son is not nearly as ill as this sick man was. We have received death threats, assaults on siblings, parents, and teachers, and near constant attempts to draw us into anger. This is normal life with a RAD sufferer.

This was a sick man who refused to get help. His professor, God bless her, tried to help him one-on-one to protect her students. She tried to get him professional help, but he would not go. He was sent to a hospital for being suicidal, but they had to release him when he was no longer a danger to himself. No one could keep him there because no one could PROVE that he was a danger to others. This is the law, not the fault of a negligent hospital staff. You cannot keep someone in the hospital unless you can prove that they are a danger to themselves or others.

I am so saddened for the victims of this horrendous crime, including the Cho family. There were so many people who tried to help this young man and were rebuffed. Attachment Disorder is not helped by medication and there are few people who are qualified and experienced enough to make much of a difference. There truly was little anyone at VT could have done to help him. He was too far gone. It is time we all stop trying to blame one another and simply pray for the families.

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. "

If you really want to do something to prevent other tragedies, find a family struggling to raise a mentally ill child and support them emotionally. They are exhausted from fighting the good fight.

havenberryfarm, thank you very much for sharing. You have provided some very interesting information to consider.

havenberry, you are sooooo right. We too raised a mentally ill son. Was he picked on? You bet. Did it cause his problems? Not at all. I guess it is just part of nature to pick on the "not quite there" one, as even animals seem to do it. I don't approve of picking on ANYONE, and do agree we need to learn basic civillity as a society. However, society is not to blame for what this young man did.

Can you imagine, if a child is born with one leg, taking society to task for his not being able to "run right?" That is exactly what we do when we blame society for the actions of the mentally ill.

If we REALLY want to prevent these tragedies, as well as help people like my son, we need to reopen a whole heap of mental hospitals and make involuntary confinement much more available for doctors and loving families. When our son had his first psychotic episode, the law was clear. He could not be confined because he MIGHT or even PROBABLY would hurt someone. He had to hurt them first in the state where we lived. I walked away from court thinking the system was sicker than my son.