[Drew68]

The real question is, why nobody saw this coming. My answer is the school was so large(1,400) he got lost in the system. Much like other shooters from large high schools.

Every school in America has geeky loner outcasts who wear trench coats with political pins all over them and harbor violent fantasies (don't all outcasts want to "get even" with the popular kids?). Most of them will get through adolescence without ever harming anyone and grow into stable adults. Only after a tiny minuscule number of them snap do we wring our hands over missing the signs. Are schools supposed to enforce "normality" on all of them? "You will not be a dork! You will be normal!"

I don't know.

[RedMonqey]

Are schools supposed to enforce "normality" on all of them? "You will not be a dork! You will be normal!"

That one's above my pay grade as I was a bit of a "chameleon" in High school.

I blended well with the jocks, geeks, rednecks, hoods and the nerds as in some way I had interests in all their activities and made friends pretty easily.(To have a friend you had to BE a friend)So defining normal" for me is like "what time is it?"

But sometimes all a kid needs is someone who will listen to their beefs.

Alot of pain and death might be avoided if the kid had a friend or better a teacher he could relate his problems to.

Hence my "getting lost in the system" comment.