Troubled ‘From Day One’

I think Mr Grassie hit the nail right on the head. And for someone to say that after being shot, we should all be listening to him!

Race, guns, the media.....I think the root of the problem falls into the pyschology of the kids. Take the guns away, fine. Anyone who is screwed up enough will FIND ways to let out their deep-seeded anger, sadness, frustration, whatever, whether they have a gun or not. I work in a trauma unit, and have seen a million and one ways that people try to commit suicide because they are so messed up. And guns are used the least. One guy shot himself in the mouth with a flare gun as a suicide attempt. So, I wouldn't blame this school shooting totally on the accessability of guns. My profession is also allowing me to realize more and more that people who need psychologic help are discarded as being "crazy" or "nuts". And anyone who knows anything about physiology should be able to realized that "crazy" stems from actual science . So why don't we focus more on fixing the "crazy" people instead of judging, labeling, turning our heads and placing the blame on everything else? Did anyone read how this kid grew up? I'm sure that would make anyone crazy! And guess what? He never got help or love until it was already too late. Whatever happened to love thy neighbors? Whether you believe in God or not, we should all care about one another more than we do.

I am in the field of education, and situations concerning violence in school (obviously) worry me. This has nothing to do with race at all.....Look at Columbine....two middle class white kids couldn't handle their lives anymore, so they took fate into their own hands. All of these situations have to do with the fact that kids, like adults, HAVE A BREAKING POINT!!!! They can only take so much. As an educator, I try to diffuse these situations when I see them. It is extremely hard to see 30 kids all picking on the same kid. You also struggle with it because sometimes, that one kid is antagonizing the rest of the class and they are at their breaking point (which is a situation I deal with every day right now). I explained to my parents before I ever started teaching that if I was ever in a school where a student had a gun, I would probably be shot. I would be the teacher throwing myself over the students to save their lives......or I'd be the one teacher crazy enough to try to get the gun away from the student. Either way, I would have saved someone's life.

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Well said Mr. Grassie. Please don't give up on your profession. We need you!

That's a really interesting coment-- I suspected the student might've been white-- based on the aformentioned fact that all of these freaks seem to be white or Asian (that guy in Long Island NY who shot up the the LIRR train back in the nineties notwithstanding) but I didn't know-- and the photo given here definitely made me think the shooter was black-- so, is Newsweek and other media outlets trying to sanitize this-- make this into a "Black" problem that good white folks don't need to worry about?

But that's not the issue-- that's just more smokescreen for the real problem-- and that, as the good doctor observed, it guns.
Guns. Too many guns in this country. We are beholden to a gun industry, a gun mentality, a gun political force, that has taken our country from us-- turned us into a nation of victims-- that has turned yet another shooting massacre into the equivelent of a tornado or hurricane-- just bad luck, but nothing we can do about it.
And that is a lie. Every one of these massacres didn't need to happen. I live in an Asian country now where there are no guns available-- and the sense of freedom and safety is unbelievable. We can take a wolk in a city park at midnight!
The sad fact is that freaks are everywhere-- violent young men with persecution complexes exist in every society. But only in our society do these freaks have the right to gain the firepower to massacre dozens in a single blowout.

Dissecting each incident won't treally tell us anything. We just need to clamp down on the guns. Even if it means taking them from the cold dead fingers of the NRA.

Everytime there is another school shooting there is always some one out there trying to place blame on everythign from race to video games. Get real! The problem isnt that the person is white, black, hispanic, or asian..and it also isnt that they play video games. The problem is that the news rushes to cover every detail of every school shooting...making it seem glamorous to these loner types. Maybe if the media would stop publishing every single detail of these crimes....the kids would stop trying to one up each other. Oh, and as for the spare the rod..spoil the child comment I read on here......studies have proven that abuse( aka: the rod) is a huge contributor to deviant behavior (violence) so spanking these kids that have committed these crimes just would have made them angrier at society and the world in general.

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Why has the press failed to show the shooters picture? Why is the impression being given that the shooter was black? Is the media going out of its way to sanitize the fact that this shooter is white? Is race something that should be mentioned? Is it a coincidence that almost all of the school shootings are being committed by white or asian males? What's really going on?

Part of the problems today stems from the fact that children are allowed to get away with to much when they are young. The Bible says spare the rod and spoil the child. We are raising a whole generation of spoiled chidren. Most have never had a spanking, so most don't know any fear or boundaries. They are more prone to take riskier chances and do more violent acts because they have never had any boundaries or fear put into them since being young. Don't confuse my message, I'm not saying go out and beat your kids up, but I do think that the time out corners are not working and todays' children are fearless and easily can compartmentalize their dangerous actions. These video games that show such graphic violence should also be studied more closely, Something in the past was lost and it needs to be retrieved and given to today's children, or I feel sorry for the future.

I Think that were several problems in Cleveland. It's not just Cleveland, however, it's a nationwide problem and it seems that things are getting worse instead of better. Ever since Coloumbine, it seems that there is a school shooting every academic year. It starts with the isolation and anger that young people are growing with now. It seems that something is systemically wrong with young people. It seems also that young males have limited ways of expressing themselves and accessibity to guns is easy. Angry young men, easy access to guns, copycat thinking, and you have the formula for tragedy over and over again. Someone needs to discuss these problems openly. I don't want to take away the focus here, but it seems that most of these school shooters are white and or asian young males, including the one here in Cleveland who was white. We need to explore the reasons why these boys feel the need to shoot there schools up. There needs to be an open dialogue on why this is happening. John H.

I think that our country needs to take a second look at the psychology behind these shootings, and realize that these children are not innocent, even those who are very young can be bred to fear, hate, and victimize. There is a current trend it seems to empower youth, and although ethically it was to give kids a voice, it has turned some kids into power hungry controlling monsters with other unsuspecting students and unarmed educators and other adults as their prey.

I think society as a whole needs to take a look at what drives these kids to want that feeling of omnipotent power over victims like some kind of "rush" for themselves, and my hope is that with more understanding, we can learn to diffuse their need into a more healthful outlet for all concerned, and stop being victims of these people and then turn give them the negative reinforcement of the spotlight in the news for their actions.

Thank you for allowing my opinion......skd500

The caption uses the definite article "the" before '14-year-old boy" without antecedent basis. The only reference that the reader has is the photograph accompanying the caption. Though it might be inadverdent, a combination of the photo and the caption convey the misleading message that the late 14-year-old boy was an African American. The story itself, rightly, does not metion the race of the boy. Thus, a reader, who is otherwise uninformed about this story, could be mislead. This could have been avoided.

The photograph and the caption with the definite article "the" before '14-year-old boy ' are misleading. Though it may be inadverdent, the combination gives the impression that the late Asa Coon is African-American. This was avoidable. The article does not talk about the race, which is fine.

If he had these problem and was recognized as having problems, why didn't someone try to reach out to him in love, with some kind of understanding and also get him some need help.

I' heard this news yesterday evening. I immediately felt pity for the child, but then how could a fourteen-year old boy managed to possess a gun. i remember when I was the same age Im also holding a gun but the bullets-of course- was plastic.It was just a toy. On the other hand, I wonder where were the parents?