A 15 year old student painted two messages, apparently pretty much the same. One to his parents and one to his schoolroom. The one at home was ignored. The one at the school was found when another student saw the student search for ammunition for his known Christmas gift, from his parents, of a pistol with a 13 bullet clip. When the teacher went to his desk to talk to him she found the message. The student had previously told everybody about his new gun and how neat it was.

The message had pictures of a gun, somebody shooting a gun, and a message which said that he had been having dreams of blood and shooting people and was also thinking about that all the time. It also said that he needed help. The teacher immediately went to a supervisor and reported about this and the school called the parents to come in and have a little talk. They had the little talk. The school suggested they take the student home and get him some help. The parents refused and said to keep the kid in school. Nobody, at this point wondered where the gun was. It turned out that it was in his backpack.

The parents left the kid with the school and the school just walked away and left him in the classroom. The student then took out his gun, walked into the hall and started shooting other kids. He killed, I think, 5 and wounded others before he was stopped.

I should also say that my facts may not be absolutely right as its been a couple of days and my memory is not great. Anyway, the parents, obviously, simply ignored the kid and then got him a gun, designed to kill with a big clip. When they went home the father couldn't find the gun and called the police about that but it was too late and the deeds had been done. Oh, and the mother told the son the he had to learn how to not to get caught. Basically, and obviously, the parents had been ignoring the kid for a very long time and had probably decided they knew all they needed to about the kid. The school, in its extreme wisdom kept the kid in school and, rather than getting the kid the help he said he needed just kept him in class.

Anyway, after the incident the prosecutor announced that she was going to charge the parents. The parents then ran away to Detroit, got 4 grand out of a machine and hid out in a warehouse, part of which was used as a studio of a kindofa friend of the parents. By this time they each had a 10,000.00 price on their heads. Somebody spotted them, called the cops and got 20,000.00 (tend to believe the kindofa friend was a little upset over that but he was ignorant of all the rest). Anyway, the cops have them all in jail, now - in the same jail!

So, a recap. Two parents ignored a written request for help and the mother told her son not to get caught. They were told about their child and they told them to keep him in school. The school knew everything but decided not to find help for the child but ignore all that business about killing, and blood, and obsession. Afterwards, I suspect, they might have thought they had made a little error in judgement for which, I also believe, they are going to pay for - BIG TIME!

Its hard to believe that there could have been worse parents! Its also hard to believe the lack of intelligence insofar as the school was concerned. EVERYBODY screwed up!

My only question is that I wonder. Did the school have a school nurse or councilor? Nobody has said anything much about the school but I fully expect to hear a whole lot when the law suits start. When I was raising my kids every school they went to had a nurse and a councilor (sometimes more than one). These days, however, many have neither and also many no longer teach anything about government (Civics) as well. Kinda makes one wonder.

Last edited by jgw; 12/07/21 08:24 PM.