No one can blame school administrators from being somewhat…err…well to pardon the expression, gun shy in the wake of the VT shooting. 

One of the dangers I blogged about earlier was the constant stream of experts all pointing to this or that as a warning sign of potential behavior so as to answer our burning need to know “why”, and who is to blame:

As soon as the news of the massacre had really sunk in, I waited for what I knew would inevitably happen.

The Blaming.

So far, we have the Devil, violent video games, Guns, hedonism, Guns, Al Qeada, Guns and occasionally Guns.

To me the whole concept of “why” is an exercise in futility.  As much as anyone could explain this, only the killer can come close, assuming he actually knew what drove him, and he took that with him to whatever awaited him in the afterlife.  All we get are speculations, theories, allegations, accusations and the like.

My conclusion?

We will never be able to answer the questions they insist we ask, and even if we could it wouldn’t matter as it would only apply to Cho, it wouldn’t be a recipe for the prevention of schools shootings.

All the psychoanalysis, explanations, precautions, laws and measures we find, create or enact will not stop the tide of senseless brutality. 

Close the doors and the evil creeps in the windows.  There are simply people that for some reason are wired to do bad.  The devil, genes or even the Twinkie defense, it matters not.  They exist, and they will continue to exist.

Some may see that as fatalistic, but I see it as calm reality.  We can do all we can to prevent these things from happening, but as soon as you identify a “factor” or a “trend”, an exception arises and you have to recalculate.

Here is a perfect example of a person meeting the “profile” of what they should be concerned about, and a school taking action preemptively to stop the violence, and apparently finding out that the threat was nonexistent.

This story has slipped below the radar of the main stream press.  I heard about it because the student is the son of a friend of mine.

Fears unfounded at Hart County High School

A 17-year-old student was released to his grandparents Thursday afternoon after police determined that he posed no threat at Hart County High School.

The boy was 18, not 17 as reported.

But Principal Dennis Brown said the student is suspended from school until a tribunal meets to discuss the case. The options of what could happen to the student range from a return to class or expulsion.

The hearing is expected within 10 days, Mr. Brown said.

So based on no real threat he is suspended and facing expulsion.

Prior to the start of school on Thursday, school officials detained the student after he arrived on campus by school bus. The boy was not armed with any type of weapon, Mr. Brown said.

Hartwell police, who escorted him from campus, later determined that he would not face any criminal charges.

Mr. Brown said he had been alerted on Wednesday that the student might act out.

There seems to be a lack of details of the warning, so I cannot comment on it.

In an “abundance of caution” after the mass killings at Virginia Tech on Monday, officials confronted the boy in Hartwell, Mr. Brown said.

Question:  When does “abundance of caution” cross the line and become groundless paranoia?

“There were no threats against (anybody),” said Hartwell Police Chief Cecil Reno after the student was questioned until midafternoon and interviews were conducted with about 50 to 100 students.

Principal Brown said the 17-year-old “made statements that he should not make” on Wednesday and had “disturbing writings in his notebook” on Thursday.

Chief Reno said the writings were lyrics from the boy’s interest in heavy metal music.

Mr. Brown and Chief Reno said there was no danger to high school students or staff and that the school was never placed on lockdown.

Yet the boy’s mother was told via phone that the school was in lockdown.

On Wednesday, the 17-year-old was in a classroom when the discussion centered on Monday’s killing of about 30 students and wounding of almost 20 more on the Virginia college campus.

A girl asked the Hart County student if he could bring a gun to school and kill, Chief Reno said.

“The boy said nothing,” Chief Reno said.

And there is his major sin:  Silence.

The story continues:

Student apprehended for threatening statements, writing

An 18-year-old student sent Hart County High School’s teachers and administrators on alert when he reportedly made “inappropriate statements and writing” Wednesday, April 18.

Principal Dennis Brown said he and counselors took the statements as a threat. “When he got off the bus this morning, we took him into our offices and held him until the police came,” Brown said.

He had several journals of “inappropriate” writing in his backpack, Brown said. He was not carrying a weapon of any sort.

Brown said he will ask for expulsion, given this incident and the boy’s background of distraction and disruption in the school.

And…

Student turned over to police for “disturbing writings”

Mr. Brown said he received a call from someone Wednesday night, tipping him off about the statements. When the student arrived at the school by bus Thursday, officials were waiting. They searched the student’s book bag and found a notebook, also containing “disturbing writings.”

The comments on one of the articles contains another interesting fact:

What many of you dont know is that the child that this happened to was already being picked on daily by other kids. He came home with food on his clothes from kids throwing food at him, and the principal had done NOTHING to stop this. He had been told that his very appearance was a disruption to the school by the principal, because he wore heavy metal shirts to school. But then so did ALOT of other students. Are we seeing a pattern here ??

My friend confirms this:

Needless to say, all of us are NOT HAPPY about all of this !!! When the police questioned 50-100 students they found out that my son has been being picked on all year, and the Principal hasnt done ANYTHING about it !!!

Yes, i’ve been dealing with this man all year, and so have my parents..Now maybe justice will be done !!!

The ironic thing is that if this is true, it is actually one of the warning signs experts look for, the kid being a target of bullies.

But at the same time, the principle is sitting athwart a contradiction.  If he admits the kid was bullied it justifies his position the kid was a threat, but at the same time he then becomes a part of the problem for his failure to act on complaints by the parents and grandparents.

And there is a hint of animosity in the relationship between the principle and the student and family, so now this takes on the flavor of a witch hunt.

I don’t know the family very well, so I cannot speak to any degree of authority or knowledge about the student, or whether he posed any kind of real threat.

I think it telling that no one will talk about this beyond the basic facts, and I am sure the police would be proceeding much differently if there had been a threat.

I am also concerned that the student faces expulsion despite not being a threat. 

I have to acknowledge that if there was a threat reported, the school would be remiss in not acting on it, in not investigating it.

But the manner in which they did, they have now stigmatized the student, and created a climate of fear and paranoia, which is not going to help.

We run a risk of doing too little, no question.  But the risks of doing too much are equally as dangerous in the long run.

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