Blood and Roses

Last week a boy stabbed 21 people in his High School in a town very close to where I live.  I have been quite bothered by the whole situation.  Thank god no one was killed.  There were some very serious injuries and several of the victims are still in intensive care.  He apparently ran down the hallway of the school slashing and stabbing anyone in his path.  I can't even imagine the trauma of those who were stabbed and those who witnessed the tragedy.  It will take a long time for the wounds both physical and mental to heal, if ever.

What has bothered me intensely is why did he do it?  Now only he can say what his motive was and he is not talking.  Reports have begun to come out that this kid was bullied every day and had a horrid prank played on him in the locker room last week by some boys.  He was "Teabagged", a vicious hazing prank which is very dehumanizing.  So is this why he did it?  I would say probably.  Why didn't he tell his parents or a teacher?   Other students noticed him being bullied, why didn't they help?  He must have felt there was no way out.  His life made into a living hell, every day going to a place where he was virtually tortured by other students, with no escape.  Why did he have to harm innocent people though is my big problem.  The students he stabbed weren't targeted because they were bullying him, it was random.  I do not condone what he did.  He will have to pay the price for his actions.  It just bothers me that this kid was driven to this extreme because of bullying.

I know what it is like to be bullied.  One year of my life was a living hell.  I felt there was no way out.
I didn't stab or kill anyone though.  I made the decision to fight through it every day, one at a time.
There was no one there for me. I didn't have anyone to talk to about it.  It was the loneliest time of my life.  I have some empathy for this kid because I was there.

"I want to live but I don't belong, I close my eyes and I see Blood and Roses"

I don't belong and I never have.  That situation made me realize because of who I am, I will never fit in.  Back then, not fitting in or belonging meant a life of hell and torture.  Now I celebrate being different.  I would never want to be some stereotypical cardboard cut out of a person.  In school you must conform, they keep control that way.  People who are different pose a threat to tradition.

There has always been bullying and there will always be.  That doesn't mean we shouldn't try to stop it.
I don't pretend to have all or any of the answers.  In many Schools, what I call "The Elite" are the prime bullies.  These are "The Jocks",  "The Beautiful People",  "The Wealthy",  "The Well Connected", these groups almost never pay for their offenses in a High School.  The Teachers and Administrators look the other way because of the problems it could create by disciplining them.  So the Bullies very seldom get punished and the bullied know it.  Thus creating an atmosphere of a ruling class of students and the poor peasants.  Until there is something done to stop "The Elite" untouchable class of student, the bullying will continue and there will be more of these incidents.  Every school has this problem, yet so few do anything to really correct it, just pay lip service.

Bullying doesn't stop at the end of High school.  It continues on through all stages of life.  The more we do to stamp it out at a young age, the better off society will be as a whole.

"I've tried to live but I don't belong, I close my eyes and I see Blood and Roses"

As for this kid who stabbed his fellow students.  He will pay severely for his actions and deservedly so. There is no excuse for extreme violence to solve a problem.  In hindsight, I wish someone could have talked to him and told him things do get better.  Got him focused on other things.  There is a huge world out there after the minuscule microcosm of High School.  We have lost another one and all of the victims who's lives were ruined by his actions.  Will it never end?