Teen Suspect in Murder Plot Often Teased

AP via Yahoo ^ | Mon, Jul 07, 2003 | By GEOFF MULVIHILL

[Fred Mertz]

If anyone ever flames me...

They'll deserve what they have coming.

[Isn't that the same logic stream we have in this article?]

[UnBlinkingEye]

Teasing implies good natured exchanges, I suspect the interaction was not 'teasing'.

[Support Free Republic]

We Replaced Patrick Leahy's Brains With Folger's Crystals. Let's See If Anyone Notices!
	Donate Here By Secure Server Or mail checks to FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794 or you can use PayPal at Jimrob@psnw.com
STOP BY AND BUMP THE FUNDRAISER THREAD- It is in the breaking news sidebar!

[The Red Zone]

"I'd like to apologize to the town and the people of Oaklyn for what my son has done," Lovett said.

How about also apologizing for ignoring the copious warning signs of a ripening public menace, while you're at it? Too bad Dad can't be sued for negligence.

[ladyinred]

God bless the father for his apology, but thumbs down to the uncle (I think) who is saying Matthew would never have done this stuff. Admitting there is a problem is half the battle at least, and to pretend this is some normal kid is just not helping him.

[jjm2111]

What I don't understand is how unobservant can these parents get?

Don't they snoop in their kids rooms? Take a gander at their CDs and video-games? Look at the way they dress? Ask questions.

I mean seriously. The all black, getting made fun of at school all have their symptoms.

[Skywalk]

Yeah, but it reminds me of how Chris Rock ridiculed the Columbine plotters, "they're complaining, 'oh, we're outcasts, we have no friends!' There was six of them mfers! When I was in HS I didn't have six friends!"

Look, does movie-style 'geek' teasing occur? Of course. Does it sometimes turn physical? Yes.

Do I believe that all of these idiots plotting to kill not only their tormentors but EVERYONE they can shoot is really beaten down day after day? Hell no.

To believe that, I'd have to start looking for reasons why idiotic pussy-men go on shooting rampages at work. It ain't from teasing, that's for sure.

[Skywalk]

Honestly, a lot of kids who get teased set themselves apart and make themselves targets.

Even in a gifted and talented program there were kids who were a bit weird(and that's sayin somethin' as I've been called weird more than once.) They were never physically abused, and actually people rarely ever directed comments at them. So, while worse may occur in other locations, we must also remember that some of these cliques actually harbor the same attitudes(or worse) towards the outside world.

It's one thing to hate some jock beating you up every day, but in many cases that's not what is happening. In many cases a group of kids is self-isolating and begins to develop a superiority complex in order to compensate for their 'outcast' status.

Jocks or popular girls may also have group superiority complexes, but they don't go murdering a bunch of people, either.

[50sDad]

1) I was a fat, elitist, literary, SF-reading geek. I had the crap beaten out of me several times, only for existing, and I never, never considered killing anybody.

2) We have forgotten that evil exists. We make excuses for it, we debate about it, we pretend that it isn't there. Evil exists, deal with it.

3) Agreed, just like with Columbine, where the hell were the parents? How do kids collect this kind of crap without the parents noticing. They probably want to "be friends with their kids", or "respect their privacy." Horse hockey. Start being parents, morons!

[Frank_2001]

The first two sentences of this article should have been big-time RED FLAGS But of course we can't be judgemental, why he's just "being himself"!/sarcasm off

[CobaltBlue]

I'd love to see abusers take responsibility for the all-too-predictable human reaction in the persons abused.

If you pick on someone, and that person after being abused many times lashes out, please don't whine about it.

[pubmom]

I suspect that if this story had a different outcome, the uncle would have been the first to say," I never thought he'd do such a thing."

Don't you wonder just a little, why no one noticed this teen's weird behavior?

[pubmom]

My husband and I just had this discussion a few days ago, it's good to be a nosey parent!

[weegee]

Anyone know if the 18 year old saw Bowling For Columbine?

[dc-zoo]

Oh for crying out loud.. he was teased? Well give him his fricken guns back then and turn him loose. Better yet, take him to Michael Moore's house. He can't miss that lardass.

[Braak]

Amen!

The worst part is, when a kid defends himself in our school with his fists, he is the bad guy. (to the idiot teachers). And to those who think jocks and other are "above" homicide, trust me, they ain't. I had a few try to make me road pizza as I walked home every day. I learned E & E real quick! Do I condone what these kids have done? NO. But, let's ask ourselves, with overmedication on the one hand, and teachers who simply collect a paycheck and take in oxygen on the other, it's no wonder our schools resemble warzones for some.

I once said, if we saw what was done to some in our schools done by governments to their own citizens, the 82nd would be on the Green Ramp. Flame me if you will, but I lived it..all of it, and it was hell. I blame frankly, the entire educational system. It fails to keep dicipline, it allows students to play "Lord of the Flies" with their fellows and if a kid gets too smart, aha! RITALIN FOR YOU!

[alphadog]

"If anyone ever flames me...

Do you have any children? If my child ever made fun of a kid with a speech problem...I would be a real problem to them...having said that...I tell my kids not to take any crap from people "every day"... so what's a parent to do?

[CARepubGal]

Good points. These are the kids my friends and I avoided like the plague (and we were and are geeks). There is a difference between forming a group and shunning the idiocy of high school and planning a killing spree.

[jjm2111]

I was teased mercilessly in HS. My "lashing out" was beating up one of my tormentors with my fists (after he hit me first.