The focus on gun control and mental illness after school shootings is largely unjustified. Of course, this is common knowledge to people with any shred of logicality, but I’m going to take it a bit further. There are many factors involved in these shootings, including parental neglect, reading insane material, depression, and…..
ZERO TOLERANCE POLICIES!
Yep, I said it. The very policies that the schools supposedly ‘rely on’ to ‘prevent’ violence are actually a major cause of explosive violence and school shootings.
Why? They don’t differentiate between self defense, retaliation, and aggression. This creates a catch 22 for people who are made fun of and feel as though they have nothing to do. Their parents can commonly be seen calling the school, but the school does little, and if they do, the insults continue behind administrators backs. Even so, they’re called rats and made fun of even more.
This unintelligent school policy not only reeks of lack of empathy, but is blatantly in line with the ‘politically correct’ groupthink of today.If these individuals ignore aggression, they run the risk of getting hurt but much more likely being completely humiliated. This leaves one option: fight back.
However, with zero tolerance policies, all parties involved are almost always punished equally. This leads to many who just defend themselves or stand up for themselves to think that they are at fault, and even if they realize that this is not the case, it creates a lot more frustration than necessary.
People who are made fun of and snubbed thus have no option other than to suffer, or explode like many of the school shooters do. Even before these ‘zero tolerance policies’, school policy largely started leading up to this. It clears the school’s ass of blame no matter what and makes for an easy method of ‘processing’ cases without any real critical thought, time or effort.
I’m not condoning school shootings. I understand that they are the minority of those put in this situation; those who have come across certain rhetoric, those who are often abused the worst, those who have formed thoughts that it is okay to commit such a horrible act. But just imagine a poor kid who has been verbally and physically abused in school for eight years. He finally gets the guts to fight back and guess what happens? He’s suspended, or worse, maybe expelled if he does a number on the other guy. What’s more, his parents make him out to be bad. In the short term, it may shut things up, and make the school look peaceful. But in the long term it fuels an explosive rage that just doesn’t go away.
So, next time you see this on the news, don’t think ‘That guy just must be crazy!’ It’s certainly true that some may be in a rather unstable state of mind, but think of the causes of this. Think of the treatment they endure, and think about how all their exists are blocked. Different people have different tolerance levels depending on many different factors, and though we should not condone violence, we must give suffering individuals a method to alleviate that suffering.
Otherwise, we are unfortunately contributing to the problem.
by sociopathicregret
I’m going to add a different element here, mainly focusing on someone who is not verbally and physically harassed , AS much as they are simply ignored.
at some point someone may be so mentally distressed, not from bullying, but from their own ability to connect with others and lack of social skills. The room mates of Cho of VA tried taking him out a few times, but his behavior was just odd and erratic. Sooner or later he probably realizes that he is being viewed as an outcast and completely isolated himself, and just fell into the cycle of hell, with mental illness worsening and likely the plot ideation. Finding no way out, ones judgments becomes skewed . This may have started biologically, or in middle school, but many people blame the college campus for bullying Cho. In college many students have hopefully matured, but it is the personality that Cho brings to the school that cause people to remain indifferent to him which is as painful as being called direct insults.
I hope you see where I am going. I fully understand that school shooters are likely bullied and that everyones tolerence level is different. But also everyone’s “social intelligence” is different. The general population don’t know how to react to the guy is seems a bit strange , rather than to brush him aside as the “weird guy”. They may try taking him out and hoping he “just gets it”, but when he doesn’t they just give up. By gets it I mean, a person whom you don’t mind introducing to others and treating as a real genuine friend in your social group or someone you actually enjoy spending time with rather than taking them out of pity .
“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference.
And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” Elie Wiesel
I found this quote on accident by clicking on the last link on your blog roll.