Very much describes the real criminal (at least one of the main ones) in Broward should be highlighted in these sorts of discussions.
Posted on 03/28/2018 10:34:45 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
PARKLAND, Fla. — My first interaction with Nikolas Cruz happened when I was in seventh grade. I was eating lunch with my friends, most likely discussing One Direction or Ed Sheeran, when I felt a sudden pain in my lower back. The force of the blow knocked the wind out of my 90-pound body; tears stung my eyes. I turned around and saw him, smirking. I had never seen this boy before, but I would never forget his face. His eyes were lit up with a sick, twisted joy as he watched me cry.
The apple that he had thrown at my back rolled slowly along the tiled floor. A cafeteria aide rushed over to ask me if I was O.K. I don’t remember if Mr. Cruz was confronted over his actions, but in my 12-year-old naïveté, I trusted that the adults around me would take care of the situation.
Five years later, hiding in a dark closet inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, I would discover just how wrong I was.
I am not writing this piece to malign Nikolas Cruz any more than he already has been. I have faith that history will condemn him for his crimes. I am writing this because of the disturbing number of comments I’ve read that go something like this: Maybe if Mr. Cruz’s classmates and peers had been a little nicer to him, the shooting at Stoneman Douglas would never have occurred.
This deeply dangerous sentiment, expressed under the #WalkUpNotOut hashtag, implies that acts of school violence can be prevented if students befriend disturbed and potentially dangerous classmates. The idea that we are to blame, even implicitly, for the murders of our friends and teachers is a slap in the face to all Stoneman Douglas victims and survivors.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I went to school with a boy who started with nasty lunchroom pranks, and by eighth grade had committed violent attacks upon people and animals. He was removed from school and we never heard about him again. Like Nikolas Cruz he was adopted.
It really makes me wonder about the risks of adopting a child, if the child has been placed because the mother is mentally ill, abusive, drug-using or if she knows the father is mentally ill, violent, or psychopathic, and she is afraid of him and how his child might grow up.
In the old days of wide spread poverty and disease, children were placed for adoption because of misfortune in their families, or because they were born out of wedlock. Now our society is prosperous, early death is rare, and unwed mothers can raise children without stigma. Abortion is common too. So adopted children are coming from circumstances much more out of the norm than they used to.
Some adopted children will turn out really well, but I do think there is a risk people are afraid to discuss.
So she didn't bully him.
He bullied her, and she let him.
I missed the part where she "tried to be his friend", I guess.
He objectified and humiliated her, and she arranged his book bag. How did that help?
Essentially she did the same thing administration did - ignore, appease, pass him along to someone else.
You put quotes around something I didn’t say. That really isn’t fair.
Were you one of the many that Bullied him into killing ?
I am convinced that Cruz was a fetal alcohol syndrome baby. He, like many others afflicted with this life sentence, was a broken egg from day 1. It is not just alcohol abuse - meth abuse is rampant now and the inner city was afflicted with the wave of crack addicted babies. The statistics are frightening and should cause far more focus on pre-natal care and monitoring when appropriate. On top of the damage done by chemistry to a developing embryo, we also do not understand the impact of using psychotropic drugs on developing children that also appears to have high risks.
Society does not account for the costs of substance abuse during pregnancy in the damage (statistically proven to be very significant) that is done to the baby. This damage manifests itself as educational delays, a lack of empathy,, psychosis, and many other debilitating mental conditions.
There are many factors that contribute to such a tragic outcome, but unfortunately the political debate tends to focus on firearms without realizing the underlying cause of the true weapon - a broken human being who be incapable of fully developing emotionally because their brain is damaged. Our current political construct and a dishonest media prevent us from having a deeper conversation about the underlying causes.
Agree. see post 25
I knew a less-mean kid who was still mean and he had been adopted.
People like this aren’t one-dimensional. Sometimes they have odd mannerisms that seem to invite others to pile onto them.
Sorry, RedNeck. How would you like me to fix that?
And in turn why are people escaping into drugs? Could it be because of other hell on earth?
Welcoming God back into lives is the only answer.
On a related story: Cruz should get the Chair.
By recognizing that the world contains many shades of grey. Some problems may only see partial resolution on earth. It’s still worth trying. The best ways would not need a lot of visits to court. Court is where people go when lesser forces fail.
decades of liberal nonsense is setting our kids up to be uneducated victims.
Schools are unable to deal with the problem element, but its the other kids faults?
Its not coincidence that other than a 1 room school house in Amish country every one of these events has happened at a public school.
Teachers and Administrators cannot enforce or expect any level of discipline... they know who the problem kids are, and are powerless to do anything about them.
He may only get the comfy one, in a mental hospital for the rest of his life.
It’s possible in a case like this one with the only difference being widespread capital punishment, that the shooting rampage would have still happened but ended in a suicide. Cruz was going “Cuckoo” in the open for months and years, and mainstreaming liberals wanted the whole society to be his insane asylum.
Very much describes the real criminal (at least one of the main ones) in Broward should be highlighted in these sorts of discussions.
But it is a good response to the Left and the protesters — it is a way to remind them of who did this horrible crime. Apparently the want to forget about Cruz and change the subject.
No doubt, you'd get a deer in the headlights stare if you responded with “Cruz should get the chair.”
Sorry about your friends, kid, but obviously we need more gun laws to keep people like Nick from being crazy. /s
I tend to agree. I’ve read quite a few accounts of Russian adoptions. Some have fetal alcohol syndrome, attachment disorder. His mom was older and treated him like baby, which surely did not help...plus had psychiatric issues, so throw the disgusting drugs in. Reminds me of that weirdo in Denver and super weirdo in Newton..two many to list...teacher, admin and dr’s KNEW. Police, FBI knew in this last one. And that creep that shot up the black church...you could tell by looking. I wish Trump would put a limited time group together to look at mental illness and how these disturbed teens can be dealt with. Pretty sure this would be effective on many levels.
According to the author she wasn't his friend and didn't try to be. She did get assigned to act in a disciplinary role as a proxy for a teacher or counselor by the school. Union teachers are big on getting students to do the hard work of dealing with other students that are having problems.
Looking back she is justifiably upset in being used in that way.
He does look like he is fetal alcohol syndrome. I have met a woman who fosters children like that and children who have murdered. Cruz will be tried as an adult but there are children who kill at a much earlier age. She talked about having to lock their doors and lock her door.
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