Yes, I'm Disturbed **Old Post from 3-07**

I watched the storms come thru yesterday and I enjoyed them alot. There were some cool thunderstorms and great lightning. We got some straightline winds of around 70 miles per hour. It was a cool day. Then I heard about the storms in Alabama. I actually thought the town was close to me, but I got it confused with another town. I guess that with the good there is always going to be bad. I feel so bad for those people and their families. It was a horrible thing. But this doesn't have anything to do with my blog today I guess. I just feel bad for them.
I keep coming back to reactions, over-reactions, and lack of common sense with the schools, authorities, and the public (me included). If I go to school with a pocket knife, I can be arrested. If I take a rifle to school and show how all the parts work for a grade, I can be arrested. If I show up with a plastic toy gun, I can be arrested. If I am a kid that is picked on and bullied, that's ok with the authorities and the school. It's boys being boys. But if I write the names of my tormentors on a sheet of paper, I can be arrested. If I write on my web page that I hate these people and I wish they were dead, I can be arrested. Even if I say I have a gun at school, I will be expelled. In all of these examples, I will definately not be allowed at that school anymore. But nothing is better. Nothing is remedied. Nothing accomplished. The next day, it's the same crap at that school. The same people doing the same crap minus one student.
I understand that it bothers people when kids kill people, especially at school. I can only imagine how horrible it is. But when the reactions are overblown to the extent it is now, it's just crazy. Of course, when a kid with a plastic toy gun or a dismantled rifle is in the school setting, it is such a horrible thing. I can see that a kid giving a speech on the interworkings of a rifle can cause so many injuries and deaths. And God forbid, someone should say GUN in school. It's a panic. All the teachers run for their lives. He's got a plastic toy gun, run for your lives. "This is CNN live at Central High School where a student went birserk with a semi-automatic plastic toy gun during school. There are 7 teachers dead at the chained side door, crushed by the weight of the librarian and the girls softball coach. We can only guess at this time what prompted this student to perpertraite such a hianus act. We have unconfirmed reports that after his rampage on the school, he turned the plastic toy gun on his self. Such a tragic afternoon. When we get more information, we will pass it along to you.""This is CNN reporting at The Central School Massacre". "Now back to the studio".
Fear of a kid with a gun is not half as frightening as an adult with a gun. I just wonder how many Columbine type shooting there have been compared to shootings by adults at their jobs. Now I'm not saying that I think that its ok for kids to be armed. I'm saying it's stupid to think that expelling students for a pair of nailclippers is protecting people. I'm saying that in the school setting, that the kid giving a speech on how a rifle works is not distrubing. What's disturbing is that anyone can find that criminal. But it's the way things are. Make a fuss about nothing and ignore anything that could actually accomplish anything.
But the most disturbing thing is that the real problems are never acknowledged or remedied, they're ignored. If the public, school officials, and/or authorities can over-react like this for these things, why can't they atleast react to students that bully, mock, use racial terms, use sexist terms, use all manner of degrading terms, and actually use physical violence? Why can't they react to the popular crowd that use the schools as their little kingdom? It's because they don't want to. They, in a way, like the popular crowd. They look normal. They act normal. They are good students. They are from good, well-known families. They are the cream of the crop. Why not let them do what they want? The freaks, the loners, the quite ones, the ugly ones, the fat ones, the short ones, the so called "sexually confused" ones, and the poor ones are not the ones that people normally identify with. Why not just let survival of the fittest take over? So what if the popular crowd and the bullies torment the "less than desireable" students. Hey it's just kids. They don't mean anything by it. It's just part of growing up. It's harmless fun.
It's because, sometimes, the "less than desireables" get to the point where they can't take it anymore. Then it's the same old song, "a disturbed student does something crazy". It's never, " a tormented student that got no protection from the public, authorities, or school officials did something horrible". Sure you hear from time to time, a news report or a politician will say something about how schools can be vicious. You will hear it but nothing is ever done about it. It's too simple. So we just wait for the next horrible act. Then it's back to over-reacting. It's back to blame the freaks. But lets not look too deep. Let's not use any common sense. Let's not actually try to make things better. Let's just put on a show, pass some ignorant law that won't do anything beyond use more paper and get news coverage. Then it's all ok, till the next horrible act.
See the less than desirable kids have very few options. It's not like they can just stop going to school, sometimes there isn't another school to go to. So it's just not an option in most cases. They could tell someone, a teacher or parent, but that just brings on more trouble. So it's just take it or do something about it. See it's typical that the people with the least options are the ones that have to adapt to conditions that are not remotely fair. But schools are suppose to be a place where kids are taught on an even plane. But in reality, these kids are shown that nothing is ever fair and that the rich, good looking, athletic, popular kids that play their part in the day to day drama can do just about anything they want. And they are protected.