This morning the local cops parked outside the school. It won’t stop a shooter who wants to die or be caught anyway isn’t gonna be dissuaded. But strict entrances and metal detectors and searches - have a good chance of stopping him.
I worked as a middle school math teacher for a trimester in a private school that was having a hard time getting a replacement teacher for someone who up and quit suddenly. I am not certified in teaching, but was a research chemist prior to kids, and I know math.
Many of my 8th graders I had both for Algebra I and Math Counts, where I prepared them for a math competition later in the year. I was the middle school math department. Pretty quickly I noticed a dynamic where this one brilliant kid, who was flunking my class from lack of submission of work, was systematically torturing this other kid, and with his charisma, getting his classmates to do the same. I told him to cut it out, both in class and privately, had discussions with the other teachers who told me “Boys will be boys. Ignore them.” How I hate that saying.
I felt that allowing this sort of behavior to take place in front of adults without voicing disapproval was tantamount to telling the kids their behavior was OK. I wrote a letter to the parents of the tormentor, describing how intelligent he was and how well he could do if he applied himself in class rather than entertaining himself by using his classmates as a social torture experiment, getting the letter cleared by the middle school director, who like me, was new to the school. He told me to mail it off, and of course, the sh!t hit the fan when the parents got the letter.
Long story significantly shortened, I was eventually able to prove my allegations to the parents, who reined the kid in. The kid who had been tormented showed up after school a few days later to thank me. “I didn’t know what to do. It’s happened for years and no one did anything so I figured I just deserved it. My dad’s a US Marshal. I was going to bring in his gun…” At that point I said a silent “Oh CR@P,” and walked him down to the school psychologist. The two boys got counseled and I gave notice, waiting for them to find that new teacher, and moved my kids to a different school.
Boys will be boys. How about we adults be adults?
IP,
who was later approached in town by the tormentor, who thanked me as well, but he was such a gifted manipulator that I never really took it more seriously than an act of attempted manipulation