Re: fuel-air explosives and the next highschool "event"

[William Beaty <billb@ESKIMO.COM>]

On Mon, 20 Sep 1999, Hugh Haskell wrote:

> But I have one concern. In your letter you several times make remarks
> like "...public schools simply are 'living hell' in fact." My
> question here is why do you single out the public schools.

I don't have experience with private schools, and the stories posted on
those websites are from public school kids (I wasn't 'sensitized' to
private school kids while reading them, so perhaps if I go back and read
that material, I'll see private schools mentioned too.)

>  Don't you
> think that the students in private schools bring much the same
> psychological baggage with them?

Bring baggage with them?   Me, I was fine as long as I WASN'T in school.
The school environment and its promotion of competition and its toleration
for hatred was the problem, not the students' baggage.   Obviously
there will be some students with acutal mental disorders.  It's my opinion
that they are rare, and it do not explain the suicide rate among our kids.


> If the alternative you imply by your
> comments is home schooling, then we are doomed.

Nope, by my comment I mean this:  if a particular type of school
environment is to blame for these problems, then statistics will indicate
a vast difference between them and other educational alternatives.  If
teens themselves are mostly to blame, then depression, suicide, etc., will
be relatively constant regardless of the educational environment.  To
detect the effects of a certain type of school, compare them with other
types of schools.  (I choose homeschooling as an example, but perhaps even
private schools would serve as a useful comparison).  Hmmmm.  I wonder if
schools with competitive sports would have different results?  As a kid I
noticed an obvious difference when my family moved, and I left a no-sports
school in 4th grade, and entered a baseball/basketball/track/football/
school.  This was in fifth grade!  I'd love to know what happens to the
rate of depression and suicide when competitive sports are entirely
removed.  Or if *grading* was removed.  Do "alternative" high schools have
just as high a depression/suicide rate as "normal" high schools?


> This is a minor quibble, however. I am in full agreement with the
> main thrust of your comments, which is to create a situation in our
> society (not just the schools) where there will be no more outcasts.


In my experience American society is not nearly as bad as high school.
Escaping from high school and going to college was a breath of fresh air,
even though I was still a misfit and had no friends the first year.  It
would be nice to cure society's ills, but I fear the job is too big.
Fixing the schools...  now that might be do-able.  If the alternative is a
rash of fertilizer-bomb suicides, then perhaps desparation will finally
force us to make the needed changes.


> We can't do it by outlawing trenchcoats, or weird haircuts, or other
> superficial silliness. We must create a climate where normal
> diversity is accepted at face value. No one should feel ashamed about
> their religion (or lack thereof), their sexual orientation, their
> intellectual interests, their appearance, the way they talk, the
> language they use or their ethnic background, or any of a myriad of
> traits that are routinely savaged in our society by people who ought
> to know better. And for those who show signs of falling outside the
> accepted norms, there must be effective help available.

I think the very first step is to acknowedge the problem and stop blaming
the victims.  Until the Denial is removed, we will go on dismissing the
teen suicide rate as being caused by students' personal (mental) or family
problems, and we will find scapegoats for the murders in any other place
but in the schools themselves.

I just heard from somebody that there is a Bill before congress to make it
a federal crime to teach others to make drugs/bombs/etc.  If we go after
the "bomb plans", then we can maintain our denial, and pretend that we can
de-claw the kids.  A "War on Bomb Plans!"  I suspect that making
bomb-plans illegal will be about as effective as making drugs illegal.


> But I rant on. I may not agree with you on CF, Bill, but on this
> issue, you're right on.

Ah, I gots one for ya!  There was a recent "Outer Limits" show where a
college student penetrates the mysteries of CF and builds a bomb.  A bomb
like 100 megatons or so, made from stuff from the hardware store.  He
built a smaller multi-kiloton "demo" version which the authorities set
off, and then he used the big one to force the hostage negotiation team to
kill his abusive step-parent and his Physics prof. who had stolen his
ideas and published them as his own.  They finally shot the student and
the world was saved.   Very thought-provolking episode.

While the danger in the show was superbombs made from Radio Shack parts, I
think the contemporary problem with physical/verbal abuse in schools is
identical: using propane or fertilizer, kids are going to kill hundreds
(rather than killing all of Greater Los Angeles.)  We can ban guns, but we
cannot keep the world safe from suicidal kids who want to strike back at
their tormentors.



((((((((((((((((((((( ( (  (   (    (O)    )   )  ) ) )))))))))))))))))))))
William J. Beaty                                  SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
billb@eskimo.com                                  http://www.amasci.com
EE/programmer/sci-exhibits          science projects, tesla, weird science
Seattle, WA   206-781-3320          freenrg-L taoshum-L vortex-L webhead-L