But I wonder why, if he had some classmates who were also in his troop, didn't they say something to his troop leader? The leader might have been able to talk to the kid, and help him through whatever was going on, or at least steer him toward some help.
I don’t know. Many adults assume the school will keep things from reaching a disastrous level, although I don’t know why, and other students don’t want to be snitches. I can still name and describe the people I would happily have killed when I was in school, say around 1980, if I’d thought I’d get away with it.
If I had been a kid with no family life worth mentioning, I might have decided going out with a blaze was worth it.