Stillwater junior high shooting this morning....

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cjjtulsa

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Teenagers do some rash things, so I can't fault the parents. Sometimes there are signs that they need help, and sometimes the child just keeps it in until they can't stand it anymore. Was he bullied? Depressed? What? We don't know, so I can't see assigning blame to anyone. Sad, sick-to-my-stomach deal. I just hope I have the ability to keep my kids on the straight and narrow throught that period of their lives.
 

MLRyan

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Yes it does. This kid was 13 years old, All he knew in life was torment. 13 is a hard age, this boy just didn't understand that life does get better. You should feel very bad for that young boy. He felt it was his only option, which isn't an option at all.

When I was 13 my mother was in the hospital dying of cancer, my family was going bankrupt trying to pay the medical bills insurance wouldn't cover, and I spent more nights with friends and extended family because I couldn't stay at the hospital. Yeah, 13 is hard...
 

71buickfreak

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When I was 13 my mother was in the hospital dying of cancer, my family was going bankrupt trying to pay the medical bills insurance wouldn't cover, and I spent more nights with friends and extended family because I couldn't stay at the hospital. Yeah, 13 is hard...

I am sorry for your experience. You obviously had other things outside your own life that altered your perception. I can understand you being heartless towards the boy, but that is the wrong sentiment. It would be different if it was a 40 year old dude who lost his job and just couldn't cope. This was a child who had not yet learned how to handle the stresses of life. While your were 13, you were surrounded by family, who no doubt smothered you with love because they knew the pain you were in. This boy's family probably had no idea how much pain he was in. He probably didn't tell them.

The boy's friends say that he had been bullied a lot. I was bullied, it has affected me my entire life, but I use it as motivation, not deprecation.

I have been through suicide. It is the most difficult thing I have ever had to deal with. It destroys lives, the ones who are left behind.
 

RidgeHunter

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I blame poor parenting.

Classy. Do you have a personal relationship with the parents that gave you enough information to make this judgement?

I feel bad for the kid's family and all the other kids that have to live with this trauma, but I feel no sympathy for the suicide. Does that make me a bad person?

When I was 13 my mother was in the hospital dying of cancer, my family was going bankrupt trying to pay the medical bills insurance wouldn't cover, and I spent more nights with friends and extended family because I couldn't stay at the hospital. Yeah, 13 is hard...

So you could deal and someone else that's not you couldn't. Really not relevant to anything. Mental illness is just as real as physical illness and other people might have some issues you don't have.

There doesn't have to be a "cause" for depression or suicide like a family tragedy or a visibly hard life.

"Let us be kind to one another, for most of us are fighting a hard battle."

People break. Can't rationalize or assign guilt with a irrational act.

SMS throws sense into yet another thread. Yeah, a lot of suicides don't have a logical process leading up to them that you can trace. A lot of them are permanent solutions to a problem that would have passed. But every single one was the only decision the person felt was viable at the time. Do you think anyone puts a gun to their head and pulls the trigger because they "kinda maybe not really thinking about it might not want to live anymore"? They think it's the only option. It may be easy to stand next to them and see it's not, but they can't see that at the time. I don't see why people have to assign guilt to people who commit suicide. The same stigma that this attitude causes is why a lot of people are afraid to speak up and seek help when they have suicidal thoughts. We've made it clear we don't wanna hear it.
 

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