Mass-Stabbing at High School Near Pittsburgh

[avboiler11]

I was bullied, too - I was the "short/fat/smart kid" in middle school....punch a couple bullies in the nose and you stop getting bullied pretty quickly.

The issue these days is punching a bully in the nose, even in self defense, often results in a kid getting arrested.

 

[ATOMonkey]

I was bullied, too - I was the "short/fat/smart kid" in middle school....punch a couple bullies in the nose and you stop getting bullied pretty quickly.

The issue these days is punching a bully in the nose, even in self defense, often results in a kid getting arrested.

The problem with this attitude is that bullies travel in packs. You think you can take down 5 or 10 kids, who are bigger than you? Also, why do you think bullies taunt kids? They're just BEGGING for a violent altercation. Do you think any other kids will take the side of the victim? No, because that just paints a target on their back that they don't want.

You punch a bully and you've just escalated the war. You'll always be looking over your shoulder for the retaliation, and it will come, and there won't be much you can do about it.

I've walked that road. The only thing that worked for me was to shut down my soul so all of the taunts and insults would just roll off my back. I was emotionally numb for the better part of my adolescense.

 

[Hoosier Cowboy]

I don't mean to downplay the effects of bullying. It's a serious matter. But how many of us 40 and over can recall the bullied kid in our class going on a murderous rampage? Is the bullying of today that much more severe, or are we raising children with less ability to deal with it?

The only reason people are not able to make rational decisions until 30 is because they were never required to when they were 12.

I get what you are saying but bullying today is ten times worst than back in the old days. Now with social media a kid can be harassed and bullied for the world to see and publicly embarrassed like you can't believe.

 

[HoughMade]

I get what you are saying but bullying today is ten times worst than back in the old days. Now with social media a kid can be harassed and bullied for the world to see and publicly embarrassed like you can't believe.

That's horrible. Still not an excuse for violence. This kid was going to snap and hurt people at some point regardless. If the world is too much for you to handle, it's too much for you to handle whether it be school, work, whatever.

 

[nakinate]

The problem with this attitude is that bullies travel in packs. You think you can take down 5 or 10 kids, who are bigger than you? Also, why do you think bullies taunt kids? They're just BEGGING for a violent altercation. Do you think any other kids will take the side of the victim? No, because that just paints a target on their back that they don't want.

You punch a bully and you've just escalated the war. You'll always be looking over your shoulder for the retaliation, and it will come, and there won't be much you can do about it.

I've walked that road. The only thing that worked for me was to shut down my soul so all of the taunts and insults would just roll off my back. I was emotionally numb for the better part of my adolescense.

My older brother was a scrawny nerd. He got bullied constantly. In 8th grade he took on three bullies and beat them bloody. He got a three day suspension. But yes, most bullies are cowards and when fists fly numbers don't always mean everything.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

Down the road from my brother and his kids. All my nephews and the niece are fine.

This happened on #2's birthday. I talked to him last night, he only wanted to talk about the rifle Uncle Kirk is getting him for his birthday.

 

[Stschil]

I was the bullied kid, and you'd be surprised how many are thisclose to acting out but don't.

I do think the bullying is worse. Do you recall the video of the kids that taunted and insulted the woman on the bus until she cried? Imgaine putting up with that all day every day for 180 days a year for 12 years.

Are kids unable to cope today? Sure, the decline in active church participation means that people of all ages, one, don't have a higher authority to answer to, and two, have no everlasting hope on which to cling.

I disagree that people aren't making better decisions simply because we coddle too much. Young people making bad decisions has always been around. Only maturity and wisdom, which come with age, experience, and strong character, will allow you to make good decisions.

Now, some people never grow up, and this isn't really new either.

You are correct in saying that Youngsters making bad decisions has always been around, but I fear your thought that our present generation isn't, in general, a swaddled, coddled, and babied mass of self centered, me first, I need attention because I'm specials, is a little off. Kids, for that matter everyone, used to be held responsible for their actions and suffer consequences. This is how we gained that maturity, wisdom, and experience that you speak of. Society isn't interested in this today.

In Today's society, consequences only occur in select cases depending on what social engineering governmental entity happens to be involved. Take the little boy with the pen cap on his pencil who was recently suspended for 'twirling it like a gun'. He has now been indoctrinated by the appointed psyco-analyst.
The 16 year old who was just arrested for suspected murder in Indy? He has been a frequent flyer in the Juvenile Justice System yet somehow, was let back out time and time again. He was a 'victim' of his surroundings you see. Or how about the rich kid who got himself all drunked up and killed some people while he was ripping around in his high dollar sports car. The one with 'Affluenza', as stated by the judge, because his position in life never allowed him to learn right from wrong. What a load of bovine excrement! He should be in Cell Block D with his cellmate 'coddling' him instead of serving 10 years of probation.

When I was growing up, you fought back. The person who started the fight was the one who got in trouble, These days kids aren't given any incentive to stand up for themselves, if they do the right thing, they are still punished because no one wants to take a hard line and point a finger and say "That little D-bag was wrong!" and deal out some good old fashion hide tanning to impress the point upon them. The system is too worried about banning words to avoid hurting peoples' feelings. Too worried about offending the sensibilities of this or that select group. Too interested in turning everyone into victims so that mentality can be exploited for financial and political gain. Bullying isn't worse these days IMHO, its the crop of kids raised to put up with it. Bullies only exist because there are those they can exploit. The power mongers on the left and right have seen to it that they have yet another block of voters in the pipeline that they can use the exact same tactics on (legally) to ensure their continued existence.

In our generational quest to 'Give our children a better life than we had', somehow the focus on ethics, responsibility, and consequences has been lost.

Added: Sorry for my mini-rant. I mean not to point at you personally, I hope you understand that. Your statement was more of a platform for me to jump off of.

 

[avboiler11]

My older brother was a scrawny nerd. He got bullied constantly. In 8th grade he took on three bullies and beat them bloody. He got a three day suspension. But yes, most bullies are cowards and when fists fly numbers don't always mean everything.

Exactly.

I don't assume to know everything about all types of bullying, but in my personal experience bullies are looking for an easy mark to pick on that won't fight back...as bullies themselves ACT tough, but aren't ACTUALLY tough. After a bully catches a fist or two, they realize their mark isn't as easy and passive as they thought, and they leave them be.

Its less about winning the fight with a bully or bullies, and more proving that you're WILLING to fight with them...in essence, making yourself a "harder target".

I would rather take an ass whoopin' than "shut down my soul", but everybody copes with things different ways. In fact, I took an ass whoopin' from a bully once - a GIRL that had a high belt in karate and was extremely aggressive toward guys and girls alike. After I got thoroughly embarrassed from getting "beaten up by a girl", she stopped harassing other kids.

I grew up in the 90s, before the rise of cellphones for 10 year olds, text messaging, and Facebook but during a time when AOL Instant Messenger over a 56k moden was *the* tween's communication link. So I've at least got a passing idea what it might be like.

I know what I'm going to teach my two young boys about this topic...

 

[bwframe]

...Young people making bad decisions has always been around. Only maturity and wisdom, which come with age, experience, and strong character, will allow you to make good decisions.

Now, some people never grow up, and this isn't really new either.

Young people being mean to each other has always been around. It is just in recent years that we named it "bullying." I good excuse for not having to face and deal with life as it is.

 

[HoughMade]

Young people being mean to each other has always been around. It is just in recent years that we named it "bullying." I good excuse for not having to face and deal with life as it is.

I heard Adam Carolla talking about his 6 year old son who complained that he was being bullied. When Adam asked him how he was bullied, he said he was trying to talk to another kid and that kid put his hands over his own ears and did not want to listen. Adam's son got the impression that anything anyone did that didn't make him feel good was being "bullied". This is symbolic and points out a problem.

When are kids taught to deal with it? I mean to just ignore it, walk away, forget about it or push back in a measured way? Instead, we teach kids that they deserve to be heard. They deserve to be validated. They deserve to be respected by EVERYONE just 'cause. Sure that, that would be great....it's not reality. When do kids learn to deal with unpleasant people if we work so hard to remove all semblance of difficulty, challenge and discomfort from their lives?

No wonder some kids explode in rage. We've never allowed them to learn to deal with unpleasantness in small ways so that they can learn skills to deal with larger problems.

The world does not revolve around every child and it's time we stop acting like it does. Let them struggle and sometimes fail. It's good for them.

 

[bwframe]

Listening to the interviews of some of the victims and parents is a bit of an indication of why we are going in the wrong direction on this problem. They are busy trying to analyze and think their way through this rather than being stomping mad and asking why no one seen this coming.

 

[ghuns]

I heard Adam Carolla talking about his 6 year old son who complained that he was being bullied. When Adam asked him how he was bullied, he said he was trying to talk to another kid and that kid put his hands over his own ears and did not want to listen. Adam's son got the impression that anything anyone did that didn't make him feel good was being "bullied". This is symbolic and points out a problem.

I listen to his podcast daily so I have only heard that story in the hundreds of times, for some reason it's funnier when he tells it.

The problem it points out is that it belittles those who are legitimately harmed by peers. We just seem to have a need to apply a name to something that describes that something in it's most severe state.

I heard children of divorced parents the other day being described as having PTSD. Unless there was physical abuse in the home, I highly doubt PTSD is an accurate description of the condition they suffered from. Is divorce often traumatic and stressful, sure. But is the same trauma and stress that soldiers in combat are under?

 

[Trooper]

In 10 years nearly half of our population will be retired. Currently Baby Boomers are 50 and older.

Millennals are 15 to about age 34, Gen-X are 35 to 49. If 74% of the Millennals are so screwed up that even the military will not take them then what jobs can they hold? Less than 25% have a college degree. And most of them are not in engineering or science. A large percentage of Millennals are just like Simeon Adams. After who had children, it was the minorities. Guess who is out there.

Yeah I have a number of Gen-Xers and Millennals in my office. Good kids, educated. But so clueless at times. So ill prepared by their parents, by their schools. We spend a lot of time retraining them on basic life skills that they should have had before they went to college. And these are the elite kids.

Just remember that by 2025 over half of the US population will be retired. HALF!

 

[avboiler11]

In 10 years nearly half of our population will be retired. Currently Baby Boomers are 50 and older.

Millennals are 15 to about age 34, Gen-X are 35 to 49. If 74% of the Millennals are so screwed up that even the military will not take them then what jobs can they hold? Less than 25% have a college degree. And most of them are not in engineering or science. A large percentage of Millennals are just like Simeon Adams. After who had children, it was the minorities. Guess who is out there.

Yeah I have a number of Gen-Xers and Millennals in my office. Good kids, educated. But so clueless at times. So ill prepared by their parents, by their schools. We spend a lot of time retraining them on basic life skills that they should have had before they went to college. And these are the elite kids.

Just remember that by 2025 over half of the US population will be retired. HALF!

I'm a millennial. The military "wouldn't take me" because of Ocular Hypertension (that actually isn't ocular hypertension, but rather high read pressures due to thicker-than-normal corneas...but since the Pentagon doesn't prescribe to modern ophthalmology here I am), so I fall into your ever-quoted 74% that the military "won't take". Despite scoring a 423 out of 500 on the Air Force PFT.

I manage two airplanes and fly a jet at 45,000ft by myself.

I'm not "unique" in being highly educated and capable of employment, yet unqualified for military service.

The Death of the Republic due to the "failings" of youth have been spoken since probably 1776...and yet, the Republic is still here...

 

[Trooper]

I'm a millennial. The military "wouldn't take me" because of Ocular Hypertension (that actually isn't ocular hypertension, but rather high read pressures due to thicker-than-normal corneas...but since the Pentagon doesn't prescribe to modern ophthalmology here I am), so I fall into your ever-quoted 74% that the military "won't take". Despite scoring a 423 out of 500 on the Air Force PFT.

I manage two airplanes and fly a jet at 45,000ft by myself.

I'm not "unique" in being highly educated and capable of employment, yet unqualified for military service.

The Death of the Republic due to the "failings" of youth have been spoken since probably 1776...and yet, the Republic is still here...

No, we did not start complaining about youth in America until 1910 when the Frontier ended. Before 1910, if a kid could not make it, he died. But with prosperity we became softer, fatter and lazy each generation.

While you may be successful, you are a very small minority of your age group. Well over half of your age group was born into a minority family. And often into poverty. Simeon Adams is more typical of a Millennal than you are.

Look we hire lots of Millennals and Gen-Xers at work. University trained, mostly in science. We have to teach basic life skills. They have never changed a tire (we do field work where we might be too remote for someone to come to help). Most lack tool knowledge so we have to teach them how to repair equipment, to build things. Most have trouble troubleshooting or thinking logically through a problem.

Frankly we want college educated farm boys. City kids have too many holes in their basic education.

 

[rhino]

Look we hire lots of Millennals and Gen-Xers at work. University trained, mostly in science. We have to teach basic life skills. They have never changed a tire (we do field work where we might be too remote for someone to come to help). Most lack tool knowledge so we have to teach them how to repair equipment, to build things. Most have trouble troubleshooting or thinking logically through a problem.

Frankly we want college educated farm boys. City kids have too many holes in their basic education.

So how old are you? The oldest GenXers are over 50 now! (the original definition when the term was coined was born 1960-1980).

Of course, the oldest of the group vary quite a bit based at least in part on how old their parents were. Those of us who had "old" parents have more in common with boomers and those of born to then 18 year olds are probably more likely to fit your stereotype.

​rhino out!

 

[Expat]

So how old are you? The oldest GenXers are over 50 now! (the original definition when the term was coined was born 1960-1980).

Of course, the oldest of the group vary quite a bit based at least in part on how old their parents were. Those of us who had "old" parents have more in common with boomers and those of born to then 18 year olds are probably more likely to fit your stereotype.

​rhino out!

I didn't realize I qualified as a Gen Xer... I do agree that having a Dad that grew up in the depression and fought in WW 2, gave me a different outlook than many of my fellows.

 

[Trooper]

So how old are you? The oldest GenXers are over 50 now! (the original definition when the term was coined was born 1960-1980).

Of course, the oldest of the group vary quite a bit based at least in part on how old their parents were. Those of us who had "old" parents have more in common with boomers and those of born to then 18 year olds are probably more likely to fit your stereotype.

​rhino out!

Baby Boomers were born from 1946 to 1964
Gen-Xers were born from 1965 to 1981
Millennals were born from 1982 to 2000
the Generation after next is those younger than 14 (born in 2001)

 

[TheEngineer]

While i see the point you are trying to make and i do agree with you that a vast majority of children are being raised...umm...poorly (? probably a bad choice of words, but thats all i got right now)...i have to point out something.

In 10 years nearly half of our population will be retired. Currently Baby Boomers are 50 and older.

Millennals are 15 to about age 34 (thats me) , Gen-X are 35 to 49. If 74% of the Millennals are so screwed up that even the military will not take them (yep, they sure wont...but its because of a heart condition i was born with) then what jobs can they hold? (currently? Design Engineer and Project Manager for a fabrication company specializing in material handling equipment working with very large, well known companies worldwide) Less than 25% have a college degree. (yup, got me one of those too...man, im batting a thousand) And most of them are not in engineering (guess again ) or science. A large percentage of Millennals are just like Simeon Adams. After who had children, it was the minorities. Guess who is out there.

Yeah I have a number of Gen-Xers and Millennals in my office. Good kids, educated. But so clueless at times. So ill prepared by their parents, by their schools. We spend a lot of time retraining them on basic life skills that they should have had before they went to college. And these are the elite kids.

Just remember that by 2025 over half of the US population will be retired. HALF!

In fact, i am who i am today despite growing up in one of those "PTSD kid from a broken homes" (not your quote, but i saw it referenced earlier...i dont think the OP agreed with it either)...

No, we did not start complaining about youth in America until 1910 when the Frontier ended. Before 1910, if a kid could not make it, he died. But with prosperity we became softer, fatter and lazy each generation.

While you may be successful, you are a very small minority of your age group. Well over half of your age group was born into a minority family. And often into poverty. Simeon Adams is more typical of a Millennal than you are.

Look we hire lots of Millennals and Gen-Xers at work. University trained, mostly in science. We have to teach basic life skills. They have never changed a tire (we do field work where we might be too remote for someone to come to help). Most lack tool knowledge so we have to teach them how to repair equipment, to build things. Most have trouble troubleshooting or thinking logically through a problem.

Frankly we want college educated farm boys. City kids have too many holes in their basic education.

I'm sure there's more of us out there...

What im getting at is that i dont think that these kids are as lost as you think...but if something doesn't change, they soon will be

 

[DragonGunner]

I didn't realize I qualified as a Gen Xer... I do agree that having a Dad that grew up in the depression and fought in WW 2, gave me a different outlook than many of my fellows.

Had the same kind of Dad also, I was born in 61'......in my day we said the Pledge of Allegiance, and had Bible class in the public elementary school, but even by then prayer had been kicked out of school. And as we all "know" now, the schools are so much better, so much more liberated, and so much safer. Why didn't we get rid of those 3 things long ago. Add purple where needed.