Today's Texas high school shooting.....

[pinkytoe]

What is it that has changed in our mainstream, middle class culture over the last twenty years or so that the educational outliers seem to have avoided?

Perhaps the public school education system is partially to blame. All the testing and avoidance of dealing with bullying. Even the buildings themselves often look like prisons. I sometimes look at the police blotter news for my hood and was shocked to see that three suicides have occurred at the nearby middle school in the past six months. Yet it was never mentioned in the news as a cluster event. Makes me wonder though why a young person would want to kill themselves at their school? Or kill others there?

[razz]

What is the ratio of private to public schools? Are potential incidents kept quiet at private schools so as to not give the school a bad name? Do private schools have the option of limiting those allowed to attend and limit the number per class? I have no idea, just questions. Canadian public schools don't have the problems that US schools have, it seems. We are not immune but why do the US public schools have so many incidents compared to other public schools in developed nations around the world?

There are so many ways one could phrase the same question and so many comparables is the point that I am raising.

Virtually all these incidents seem to occur at public schools. I'm curious as to what the difference is for the 8-10% of students at the various types of private school.

[Yppej]

We've always had plenty of guns in circulation, and no shortage of screwed-up kids. What is it that has changed in our mainstream, middle class culture over the last twenty years or so that the educational outliers seem to have avoided?

The explosion of social media and its accompanying cyberbullying. The reduction of attention spans and the expectation of instant gratification. I see other people online showcasing their relationships and I am not going to wait for one. The girl I like keeps turning me down so I am going to shoot up my school in the case of Santa Fe, Texas.

I also wonder how many kids are on ADHD or other drugs with dangerous side effects to get them to fit into the outdated conventional model of education. I don't remember any of these shootings at voc tech schools.

[Zoe Girl]

I am rather chilled (but not surprised) at the part of the story where a girl turned him down and she was killed. Especially while my daughter is in the process of leaving a relationship. We could do a lot to work with youth and teens so they can emotionally manage these types of things,

[pinkytoe]

I also wonder if there is a lot of non-parenting going on. I have mentioned it before, but I can pick out the future misfits even in kindergarten where I volunteer.