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

[William Beaty <billb@ESKIMO.COM>]

On Fri, 24 Sep 1999, R. kirk Bailey wrote:

> Michael Edmiston wrote:
> > I've been wanting to respond to this issue, but I cannot get a handle
> > on what to say.  But before the moment passes, I'm going to say
> > something anyway.
> >
> > If William Beaty (and others) say that high school was hell for them, I
> > don't doubt it for one second.  I realize this type of thing can and
> > does happen in schools, both public and private.  But  I also know
> > there are places where it doesn't happen.  My first response to Bill is
> > to say, "I'm really sorry that happened to you.  I wish you could have
> > had a high school experience like I did."  And I mean that sincerely.
> >  No one should have to go through what he went through.
> >  Congratulations on surviving.

Thanks!  Actually, my memories of the experience are dual: a "good
version", and a partially-suppressed "bad version."  I suspect that this
might be similar to events after childbirth: the mother remembers the
experience fondly, but buried slightly below the surface is the honest
version that is destructive if it's continuously gazed upon.  Me, I seek
out the honest version even if it is negative.  The benefits of denial-
breaking far outweigh the depressing aspects being masked by the denial.


> 1) General lack of respect for themselves and for others, fostered by
> media glorification of being sarcastic, rebellious, and having to have a
> snappy, funny reply for everything. I see discipline in schools making a
> comeback, but the lack of it in the past decade has contributed.

I'm of two minds.  The "TV Generation" sucks, ethically and
philosophically.  But isn't this blaming the victim?  I'm a member of the
"TV Generation."  Those darned teens are *me*.

If TV makes kids "cool", and makes them torture anyone who is not, and if
that is the reason schools are as they are... then this means that the
children are to blame, and their caretakers can have no effect.  The
children control the situation.  If they do nasty things like killing each
other, then we can lay the blame where it belongs: at the feet of the
school kids.  After all, they're the ones who created the bad environment,
right?  Adults can complain about it, but only the kids can change it.

Right?




In hindsight I see that I avoided the effects of TV by intentionally
cultivating non-cool behavior.  Few others did this.  I had few friends
until senior year.  Here's a thought. Can you imagine a modern kid walking
down the road, belting out a song?  Never!  It's sooooo uncool.  Downright
creepy!

> Bill, I had some of the same thoughts about some of the bullies when I
> was in school. I had plenty of access to guns in my house, but I never
> seriously considered using them. I knew right from wrong and hopefully
> still do. So did you or you would have come up with some creative way of
> payback. We were not coming down to their level.

Mental problems would obviously have bearing on some teenage suicides, but
I believe that the major portion of suicides are caused by other things.
What causes so many kids to kill themselves?  For every murder/suicide,
there are huge numbers of plain old suicides.  We can argue forever about
the causes.  My point was not to explore them.  I wanted to point out the
fact that the causes of planned self-destruction can easily cause planned
massacre instead.  Why buy a rifle and shoot myself, if instead I could
buy a propane tank, a sparker, and a timer.

But this has rarely occurred in the past.  Murder/suicides are a tiny
portion of teen suicides. Why would kids suddenly get the idea to do this?
Because that's what was done at Colombine.  It doesn't take much to
convince a person to direct anger at others rather than at themselves.  In
many cases, all that is needed is to encounter the idea. If the bomb at
Columbine had succeeded, I think the danger would be much worse right now.

Should we take seriously a POSSIBLE rash of exploded high schools?  Should
we hope that the "get even" idea and the "fuel/air bomb" idea never take
off and spread?  Or should we wait for it to begin occurring, and only
then behave responsibly and do something drastic to lower the rate of teen
suicide?



> For every kid who shoots up a school because he was treated badly, there
> are thousands more who don't and many were treated worse.

Right.  Many just kill themselves, and it never occurs to them to kill
their tormentors instead.   Teen suicide is so common and "normal" that it
horrifies nobody, and barely makes the local news.  But if the situation
should flip, and if murder/suicides should become common...


> One way to help kids is to get involved with your local high school and
> mentor some of those kids. Hey, start a computer club or an electronics
> club or a chess club or some other type of activity that the kids that
> are like you could enjoy and relate to. It may not seem like much, but
> it is a start.

These exist in many places, and have great power.  However, I think the
problem calls for far more drastic measures.  I also suspect that nobody
believes this, and we'll have to wait for that "rash of exploding high
schools" before we decide to do anything major.  Things which involve
drawing attention to ourselves and threatening our jobs.  But maybe our
luck will hold out forever, and kids will just silently kill themselves as
in the past.


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William J. Beaty                                  SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
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