It is another dark day for youth. Everywhere.
Tragedies such as these, involving youth, are so senseless. Taber is the most infamous in Canada. The Marc Lepine shootings, while at a college, were perpetrated by a 25 year old man, albeit, a most cowardly one.
When kids take up arms and attack each other, one must look to the parents when assigning blame. A parent must be so far out of the loop to miss the signs of such an impending disaster.
It’s not political. It’s not geographical. It’s not cultural, although the discipline inherent in Asian youth seems to nullify this particular kink in the aberrancy of such behaviour. I would also suggest that the proximity to America with its open market for weaponry, its violence-glorifying media and its quarterback2nerd caste system of bullying, makes Canadian youth more likely to so disengage than its European/Oceanic counterparts. So it may be partially cultural.
But it is still by and large an issue of childcare. If the caregiver isn’t up to the task, the community should take steps to intervene. That’s al I want to hear from politicians too. Get proactive. Get in the schools with outreach programs and stiff penalties for bullying. Nothing in this world more sensless than wasted innocence.
Spend money on youth instead of bombs, Mr Government Man.
As it is a behaviour that only a close relative could discern, a neglectful parent is all it takes to breed such a destructive force. And the scary part is, no one else will see it coming. It is a terrible thing. One that is only truly avoidable, imo, by banning all guns. A kid with a knife is easily tackled and disarmed. But there are few heroes with guns pointed at them.
As fate would have it, I have less than 3 degrees of separation from both Taber and Le Polytechnique. I dedicated my last couple of years in Canada to help spread a warning of this sort of time bomb hiding in the schools. You’d be surprised at the number of kids whom are so pressured that they become clinically depressed, and desperately suicidal. Almost every school has a percentage of kids who are close to the edge.
It’s a fine fine line these kids walk. As a society, we can only strive in insure better parenting. Mete out punishment for the parents of this shooter. And all parents of teen spree-killers.
