It's been nearly 2 weeks since a 14 year old killed two fellow students & two teachers in Georgia. His father has since been arrested as well, as law enforcement is finally holding parents accountable for their juvenile children's rampages.
However, there have been more than the usual copycats looking to get their 15 minutes of infamy, but gun violence is not and never has been the real answer. We'll get back to that shortly.
Since the Georgia incident, there have been threats and foiled attempts, and a lot of the threats have turned out to be swatting hoaxes, including one close to home.
On Monday, Bethlehem School superintendent Jody Munroe held a presser to reveal that, well, the phoned threats her district and the police had been getting since last Wednesday were an extended swatting hoax.
The FBI and local police have also determined that the swatter is from outside the target area, which begs to ask, why randomly choose a school district miles away from your home?
Because it's all for the perp's twisted amusement. When the threats at Bethlehem were first reported, aimed at the high school football team, my first thought was, maybe this clown is an unhappy student who didn't make the team, or had a grudge with a coach or teacher. Swatters don't care about the target, just the reaction of law enforcement. If it works, you do it again until you get caught. With today's technology, sooner or later, the swatter does get caught, then make up some flimsy excuse.
Nationally, an 11 year old in Florida was arrested late last week for making threats he later claimed were in jest.
Sorry, kid, but this ain't no joke anymore.
We hear the usual stories that the shooters, such as the 14 year old in Georgia, were bullied, and they were lashing out. We hear about video games being blamed. The video games are used as a form of release if the child isn't sharing with his parents about how he's being hassled and bullied.
Video games aren't at fault. The lack of communication between parents and their troubled children, especially when it comes to physical or online and/or psychological bullying, is. All it really takes is a meeting between parents, their child or children, and a psychologist, as well as school administrators, to address the bullying, and how to stop it. The sooner it's addressed, and handled, the less of a chance the child lashes out. It's really that simple.
Making matters worse is the fact that on Monday, a first grader, 6, was found to have a gun in his backpack, presumably for show & tell in class. Presumably, the parents put it there because the child needed something for class. Somewhere in the southeast, there are parents who have insulated themselves from reality, with no clue on how to explain to their first grader that it's not safe to bring a gun to school, just for show & tell, not in these sensitive times.
Maybe, in that case, the parents need to be checked for psych issues, too.........
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