Innocent bystander Derrion Albert killed

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

I agree. If it isn't getting bad or much hasn't changed, then why all the school shootings?

Why all of what school shootings ("school shootings" and mass killings like Columbine aren't the same criminological dynamic)? The ones that always happened or just the ones that made national news? Speaking of, have there been any school shootings in the national news in the past month?

There were school shootings when I was in middle school and high school. Students were holding principals up at gunpoint. The media and the majority of the American public just didn't care until it was white people bringing guns to school. Then it was more than "those bad minorities in those poor neighborhoods with their crackhead parents." That's all.

[There were also pregnancy pacts when I was in middle school and high school. That's why I am humored by the media attention given to those girls who did that pregnancy pact this year. Oh, the outrage...this didn't happen when WE were kids...and let's blame Jamie Lynn Spears.]

[cheerfulgreek]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

Why all of what school shootings ("school shootings" and mass killings like Columbine aren't the same criminological dynamic)? The ones that always happened or just the ones that made national news? Speaking of, have there been any school shootings in the national news in the past month?

There were school shootings when I was in middle school and high school. Students were holding principals up at gunpoint. The media and the majority of the American public just didn't care until it was white people bringing guns to school. Then it was more than "those bad minorities in those poor neighborhoods with their crackhead parents." That's all.

[There were also pregnancy pacts when I was in middle school and high school. That's why I am humored by the media attention given to those girls who did that pregnancy pact this year. Oh, the outrage...this didn't happen when WE were kids...and let's blame Jamie Lynn Spears.]

DrPhil I agree, and I've never looked at it like that. However, don't you think there are good reasons to dwell on school shootings even though they are rare? I dunno, I just think they're an unprecedented kind of adolescent violence.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

However, don't you think there are good reasons to dwell on school shootings even though they are rare?

No, dwelling on the acts themselves exaggerates their prevalence.

Observe the potential for such incidents, but dwell on the underlying point of raising children well and giving children and young adults healthy and positive outlets. The same stuff that we should be teaching each generation, anyway. This will buffer the negative effects of the Internet and other intrusive media outlets and social influences.

[cheerfulgreek]

Originally Posted by jojapeach

Why do things seem out of control to some of us (even early 30s like me)? Too many symptoms, but my top ones are lackadaisacal(sp?) parenting and kids too easily influenced by what they see in the media. The kids play violent video games but fail to separate the game from real life. Songs on the radio and videos on tv like "Girl Fight" glamorizing "swinging them thangs". (Sorry, I couldn't think of anything more current.) Value of life and self are just out of the equation in so many areas of this generation.

I know we had violence when I was a kid because a student in my HS was shot and killed on a rival campus in my sophomore year, but there were probably 2 total murders during my 4 yrs of HS.

Originally Posted by DrPhil

No, dwelling on the acts themselves exaggerates their prevalence.

Observe the potential for such incidents, but dwell on the underlying point of raising children well and giving children and young adults healthy and positive outlets. The same stuff that we should be teaching each generation, anyway. This will buffer the negative effects of the Internet and other intrusive media outlets and social influences.

I actually agree with both of these posts.