Depressed. Another Columbine in Santee, California...

[AKA_Monet]

The high school where the 9th grader laid out kids and 2 adults is just over a hill near my parents house...

I did not attend that high school, but I knew some kids that did back in the day.

There are hardly any Black folks that attend that school, so it is really, rural and the area is rather trailer parky...

This kinda hit too close to home for me, cuz it ain't too far from where I used to hang out.

But most of my friends would say: "The roosters are coming home to roost..." Oh well.

They had better give this kid the death penalty--watch the "powers that be" work soooo fast to overturn the "voter approved" proposition that makes minors that commit heinous crimes become tried as adults and get sent to adult prison... Now I'm pissed

[Conskeeted19]

When I heard the news, I was simply crushed. What in Egypt is going on with these kids today? My heart goes out to everyone involved. I took a moment to thank God for keeping my boys safe.

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You are the master of your own destiny!

[Shalom2U]

Shalom AKA_Monet~

I had mixed emotions inside me today after seeing this situation this morning.

First, I was, and still am very sad in my spirit that this is happening again. I had my son to kneel down with me and pray while the live CNN coverage was taking place (he was home today due to Teacher Planning Day in our district) because this is definately a "wake-up, get-up and line-up to GOD's Word Call" if every I've seen one.

Second, I was upset at how the media and the school staff kept this young man's identity shielded from us until this afternoon/evening. However, when the young African-American Middle School student shot his teacher (around this time last year), they had every television camera on his face as they lead him out of the school building and into the police car!

When I watched the shooting report today, the first thing that flew out my mouth was, "LORD, please don't let it be an African-American child". My neighbor commented, "No, it's not because they haven't shown us his face". I know that was sad comments to make because in reality, shooting is shooting/death is death and in GOD's Kingdom there is every tribe and nation; however, on this earth, it's like you stated, this new law that has been recently voted in by Californians (sp) will be reviewed because this student wasn't African-American or Hispanic...that seemed to be the talk this afternoon on many of the news-radio stations that I've tuned in to this evening.

Anyway, to conclude my long post...I just want to ask those of us who are naming the name JESUS as our LORD and Savior, to please
interceed and stand in the gap with prayer for our youth in schools. ***It's time we ask the LORD to heal our Land-2Chronicles 7:14.

Shalom~

[Convinced]

As a teacher that works in "one of those" areas, it does concern me. They always talk about violence in inner city schools, but there is a big, big difference. Please excuse me for generalizing, but in our schools, if someone has a beef with someone, they get the beat down in the hall and a THREAT that something will happen later, and usually, nothing does. If something violent does happen, it's usually off campus and away from innocent victims. I just don't get walking into a place and just shooting anyone that happens to walk in your path. That's not violent, that's pure psychotic.

[AKA2D '91]

Just today, we had the "dogs" and police to come out for a "raid" of student's lockers....

THEN, an idiot decides he wants set the fire alarm!

Shoot, we very well could have been on the news because of some kind of violence...

When instances like this and the situation yesterday, you don't EVER know what to expect from these kids and SOME ADULTS.

It does NOT matter what school or the KIND of school/area you work or your kids attend...THINGS ARE HAPPENING!

We, as teachers, parents, and members of society must acknowledge the seriousness of these events.

[MarvyG]

This was surely another sad situation. This is very serious and seems to be a "trend." It scares me sometimes because I have a sister in high school and you never know what might happen. I remember when they found a gun at my high school I was terrified and no one was even shot. My heart and prayers go out to all those students, and parents who were involved in this.

[Conskeeted19]

I teach at a predominately (and I mean predominately) black school. There was this white student who called a black student the "n" word. Ok, the entire class, girls and boys gave him the beat down of his life. I mean gosh, what did he expect. Only a crazy person would go into an all black school (there were only 2 white people) and call someone the "n" word. Anyway, he left school, but before he left, he said that he was going to get every "N" at the school. Guess what I did? You guessed it! I left early! The boy was picked up walking back to my school.

[AKA2D '91]

Soror, you got out of dodge? I am not mad at ya!

That sounds like what I would have done...I LOVE taking those 1/2 days!

[AKA_Monet]

The really sad part is an ADULT knew 'bout this kid's plan and didn't report it 'cuz he thought he was joking.

Even more so, the kid was smiling the whole time he was shootin' up folks...

There are 4-6 inner city high schools in this same area. Nothing like this ever happens on these campuses... Probably 'cuz all the "racial profiling" that goes on around these campuses and none that occur literally in "some people's own backyard"!!!

The only reason why there was a somewhat quick response to this kid's actions was 'cuz an off duty cop was registering his kid for Santana HS.

As far as healing goes. My heart goes out to the fallen and injured victims and their families who have to cope with this episode of amerikkkana...

But Santana is in an area where they still have signs up for "Colored" restrooms and drinking fountains... Hmmmm, I wonder.

[AKAtude]

And yet another school shooting in Pennsylvania today at a Catholic school. My coworkers and I were just having a discussion about these school shootings. Things were not this bad when I was in high school. How did things get out of hand so quickly?

[CarmelTreat]

I was in Kinko's picking up a copy job for my boss. There were 2 high school guys copying flyers that said something like "We have the right to carry backpacks". It seems that their principal has banned the use of them except to school and from school.

CT

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"Only passions, great
passions can elevate
the soul to do great things"

--Diderot
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[This message has been edited by CarmelTreat (edited March 07, 2001).]

[AKA2D '91]

Originally posted by CarmelTreat:
I was in Kinko's picking up a copy job for my boss. There were 2 high school guys copying flyers that said something like "We have the right to carry backpacks". I seems that their principal has banned the use of them except to school and from school.

CT

In our district and neighboring districts, it has been mandated that students carry "mesh" backpacks. Those that you tend to "see" through. Still, students will find ways, unfortunately, to act violently...

[novella000]

I was doing some surfing/reading -- and found this opinion to be highly interesting/enlightening to say the least... I apologize for the length & vulgarity -- but it's pretty good stuff.

School Shootings and White Denial
Tim Wise, AlterNet
March 6, 2001
Viewed on March 7, 2001

I can think of no other way to say this, so here goes: white
people need to pull our heads out of our collective a%%.
Two more white children are dead and thirteen are injured, and
another "nice" community is scratching its blonde head, utterly
perplexed at how a school shooting the likes of the one yesterday in Santee,
California could happen. After all, as the Mayor of the town said in an
interview with CNN: "We're a solid town, a good town, with good kids, a good
church-going town.an All-American town." Yeah, well maybe that's the
problem.

I said this after Columbine and no one listened so I'll say
it again: white people live in an utter state of self-delusion. We think
danger is black, brown and poor, and if we can just move far enough away
from "those people" in the cities we'll be safe. If we can just find an
"all-American" town, life will be better, because "things like this just
don't happen here."
Well bullsh*t on that.

In case you hadn't noticed, "here" is about the only place these kinds of
things do happen. Oh sure, there is plenty of violence in urban communities
and schools. But mass murder; wholesale
slaughter; take-a-gun-and-see-how-many-you can-kill kinda
craziness seems made for those safe places: the white suburbs or rural
communities.

And yet once again, we hear the FBI insist there is no "profile"
of a school shooter. Come again? White boy after white boy after
white boy, with very few exceptions to that rule (and none in the mass
shooting category), decides to use their classmates for target practice, and
yet there is no profile?

Imagine if all these killers had been black: would we still hesitate to put
a racial face on the perpetrators? Doubtful.
Indeed, if any black child in America -- especially in the mostly
white suburbs of Littleton, or Santee -- were to openly discuss their
plans to murder fellow students, as happened both at Columbine and now
Santana High, you can bet your a** that somebody would have turned them in,
and the cops would have beat a path to their doorstep.

But when whites discuss their murderous intentions, our stereotypes of what
danger looks like cause us to ignore it -- they're just "talking" and won't
really do anything. How many kids have to die before we rethink that
nonsense? How many dazed and confused parents, Mayors and Sheriffs do we
have to listen to, describing how "normal" and safe their community is, and
how they just can't understand what went wrong?

I'll tell you what went wrong and it's not TV, rap music, video
games or a lack of prayer in school. What went wrong is that white
Americans decided to ignore dysfunction and violence when it only affected
other communities, and thereby blinded themselves to the inevitable creeping
of chaos which never remains isolated too long.
What affects the urban "ghetto" today will be coming to a Wall-Mart near you
tomorrow, and unless you address the emptiness, pain, isolation and lack of
hope felt by children of color and the poor, then don't be shocked when the
support systems aren't there for your kids either.

What went wrong is that we allowed ourselves to be lulled into a false sense
of security by media representations of crime and violence that portray both
as the province of those who are anything but white like us. We ignore the
warning signs, because in our minds the warning signs don't live in our
neighborhood, but across town, in that place where we lock our car doors on
the rare occasion we have to drive there. That false sense of security --
the result of racist and classist stereotypes -- then gets people killed.
And still we act amazed.

But listen up my fellow white Americans: your children are no
better, no nicer, no more moral, no more decent than anyone else.
Dysfunction is all around you, whether you choose to recognize it or not.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, and Department
of Health and Human Services, it is your children, and not those of the
urban ghetto, who are most likely to use drugs. That's right: white high
school students are seven times more likely than blacks to have used
cocaine; eight times more likely to have smoked crack; ten times more likely
to have used LSD and seven times more likely to have used heroin. In fact,
there are more white high school students who have used crystal
methamphetamine (the most addictive drug on the streets) than there are
black students who smoke cigarettes.

What's more, white youth ages 12-17 are more likely to sell
drugs: 34% more likely, in fact than their black counterparts. And it is
white youth who are twice as likely to binge drink, and nearly twice as
likely as blacks to drive drunk. And white males are twice as likely to
bring a weapon to school as are black males.
And yet I would bet a valued body part that there aren't 100
white people in Santee, California, or most any other "nice" community who
have ever heard a single one of the statistics above. Even though they were
collected by government agencies using these folks' tax money for the
purpose. Because the media doesn't report on white dysfunction .

A few years ago, U.S. News ran a story entitled: "A Shocking
look at blacks and crime." Yet never have they or any other news outlet
discussed the "shocking" whiteness of these shoot-em-ups.
Indeed, every time media commentators discuss the similarities in these
crimes they mention that the shooters were boys, they were loners, they got
picked on, but never do they seem to notice a certain highly visible melanin
deficiency. Color-blind, I guess.
White-blind is more like it, as I figure these folks would spot
color mighty damn quick were some of it to stroll into their
community.

Santee's whiteness is so taken for granted by its residents
that the Mayor, in that CNN interview, thought nothing of saying on the one
hand that the town was 82 percent white, but on the other hand that "this is
America." Well that isn't America, and it especially isn't California, where
whites are only half of the population. This is a town that is removed from
America, and yet its Mayor thinks they are the normal ones -- so much so
that when asked about racial diversity, he replied that there weren't many
of different "ethni-tis-tities." Not a word. Not even close.

I'd like to think that after this one, people would wake up.
Take note. Rethink their stereotypes of who the dangerous ones are. But deep
down, I know better. The folks hitting the snooze button on this
none-too-subtle alarm are my own people, after all, and I know
their blindness like the back of my hand.

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"No matter how worthy, admirable or fiercely desired the goal may be, it takes commitment and action to make it a reality."

[This message has been edited by novella000 (edited March 09, 2001).]

[AKA_Monet]

You know somewhere I read that the boys lawyers are going to appeal the "manditory adult" sentancing from prop 21 (I think--I'm not a lawyer)... But I think the judge said "whatever" and sentanced him to adult court...

Then they put that 12 year old black boy who kid a 6 year old girl into adult prison in Florida... The youngest to ever be imprisoned. But do you even THINK they will put Charles Andrew Williams into adult prison? NOT!!!

[tickledpink]

You know, this is sad the way our society works. I have to admit, I think 12 is young for a person to have to go to an adult prison. Can you imagine?? But then I always think ... if that had been my daughter, I'd want that kid placed under the prison. Likewise, I send my children to school to learn. I put blood, sweat, and tears into protecting them and to have some looney tune walk in & shoot them (while smiling!)... He should also be in adult prison. Skin color should not even be a factor.

Now, here's what I'm wondering... I haven't read the reports, but when the 12 year old was sentenced to adult prison, did the girl's parents protest (I don't recall - was this his sister?)? Will the shooting victims' parents protest that this kid should be tried as an adult? Has anyone heard anything?