O/T feel sick inside - CT Elementary shooting

[npa589]

As an elementary school teacher, this one had an additional context aside from the fact that I'm a human with the capability to empathize.

Determining a """"solution"""" is entirely dependent on what each person believes as the impetus. Even with regard to mental illness, there is still an element of ambiguity as to an answer to the fact that these events are increasing. Focusing alone on that aspect of it, that's why I disregard the gun conversation as any type of solution. I'm not even going to spout off the "Guns don't kill people, people kill people" as some type of one-line argument to combat people who want to eliminate assault weapons. I believe that that conversation should be discussed in a civil manner, but entirely disagree and am usually frustrated when an event like this triggers that conversation.

As a Christian, my entire outlook at it differs at the impetus of the tragedy. Take God out, more evil will be let in. We have gradually taken God out of the country, out of the schools, and out of the government. Now, children play Call of Duty games at a 10000x higher rate than they do learning about their Father in Heaven, and are playing these games during their most vulnerable and impressionable years. Even if you are not a Christian, I think we can all agree with the fact about the desensitization of the culture, and especially the youth - and now 20-30 year olds, since these games allow them to vicariously take lives in a fantasy state and in a vicious, realistic, and to them, a titillating manner. Many times, these games are answers to stress, frustration, and depression. 5 year old kids have started to play these games regularly, and will continue for the next 10 years.

I am sickened, saddened, but also determined. Though a music teacher, I've had my school focus on security, and now reiterated it to the wonderful principal at my school to fight for better security, and to determine and assess the prospect of having trained law enforcement officers on school campuses all day, on rotating shifts. I'm not a big-government guy with regard to anything other than law enforcement. I don't care if they tax me an additional 5% if it means it pays cops more to monitor schools daily, and though I have respect for them, not school police. Will that solve the violence? No. Could it simply drive the violence to other locations? Yes. But, I think we can agree, that the fact that 20 KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS were murdered breaks us down in more a manner than adults. Sad all the same, pathetic and dastardly all the same, but these were the most helpless children that were at this school.


God, have mercy on us, have mercy on our country, comfort all of the parents who lost their loved and cherished babies this morning. Please help me and others to involve you more before these events, and not to just call on you after.

[Wite3]

*sigh*

I am an elementary teacher and today was especially difficult. I agree with some posters and just laugh at others. Here are my thoughts and my thoughts alone. I spent the better part of today dealing with this and my feelings might change but here it goes...

Mental Illness is just that. An illness. Nothing more, nothing less. It needs to be destygmatized. The reason is that people often ignore or excuse it and see it is some kind of horrendous problem (it can be, but often it can be managed and treated humanely). Often mental illness is treatable and manageable. In the 20 years I have been working with children, I have seen my share of children and parents with different types of mental illness from SED (seriously emotionally disturbed) to Bipolarism and depression. Parents often ignore warning signs, deny anything is wrong, take it personally, etc. Society has put a lot of pressure on these people to be "normal." This attitude seems to be causing problems. I would not be surprised at all if this person's mental status was questioned as early as elementary school. It does not excuse what happened but it might give a little perspective.

Gun control might be nice but it will probably never happen. Too hard to change the constitution. On the other hand...nothing is said about ammunition. Tax ammo like you take cigarettes...do not make it illegal...make it really really pricey. Might not solve the problem but can certainly help. If you cannot afford munition, it might keep you from buying and using it. Probably not but it couldn't hurt...

To the posters that said this did not happen before...not true...we (humans) have been very proficient at killing others for as long as we first picked up a stone and used it as a tool...When you look at the amount of killings as a ratio of our population, I bet it is less now than in the 1770s. To those of you that say the mass murder aspect is different, I say nope. There have been mass murderers forever. The difference now is the speed at which it can be accomplished and the way it is globally sent around the world. It used to take much longer to kill people before guns but it happened (more often than people realize).

Media has not helped. The media saturation is unreal. It was much easier 30 years ago to insulate your children from these horrific events. Turn off the tv and radio, hide the newspaper. Now, kids see stuff on the internet, phones, tv, radio, e-readers, etc. Much more difficult to avoid the saturation. I had a kid in my 4th grade class pick his phone up after school and immediately started yelling to his friends about the school shooting. Parents need to be aware of what they are handing their kids and how they discuss what is seen on that media. (Of course, the media has been around a long time...I bet people in London were saying the same thing about Jack the Ripper...probably the first mass murderer to have photographic portrayals in the newspaper).

The theory that this is happening because as a nation we have moved away from God and let kids play Call of Duty is sort of ridiculous. The amount of carnage caused in the name of God by countries that were "godly" is unreal. We forget our history so quickly...Crusades, Inquisition, Wars of Religion, etc. Belief in God does not suddenly make the unstable stable and the evil go away.

Call of Duty and other violent video games do not suddenly cause children to be violent. What science has shown is that it makes people predisposed to violence possibly more violent AND in some of those, allows an outlet for that violence. If everyone followed what they saw/did in games, half the country would have taken up farming. I dislike video games for a whole different reason...but that is another discussion on parenting and problem solving.

Again, my thoughts alone...and I am still emotional but there it is...

Joshua