Another day....
Is it just me or does everyone sometimes wonder what happened to the kids who they bullied at school?
Bullying is as old as time, it comes in all different guises. At my boarding school there was a girl that no-one ever spoke to. I mean it, if she asked a question I guess we’d answer – but only just.
One night when she was asleep girls drew all over her face in permanent marker, another time a girl offered to cut her hair and hacked it off at the back.
You know, I honestly couldn’t tell you what that girl ever did wrong – why she was so ostracised, but her school years must have been hell. And I am completely ashamed of my part in that.
Two boys from a nearby boy's boarding school committed suicide while I was at school. Both of them were bullied.
In the US state of Virginia this morning they are dealing with the worst school shooting in history.
At Virginia Tech, 33 people are reported dead and 28 are in hospital with gunshot wounds after a lone gunman opened fire on students in the engineering department. It’s almost 8 years to the day since the Columbine High School massacre of April 20th, 1999.
Apparently the gunman went first to a dormitory on the campus, shot one person and managed to get away. Police began investigating that shooting, but for some reason chose not to evacuate the campus until the gunman had been found.
Two hours later the gunman entered the engineering department, chained the doors closed and began shooting in each classroom.
America’s gun laws have got to come into question again. Surely without availability of semi automatic weapons, there is no way the death toll could be so high.
But what about the root cause? I think the most chilling thing I ever read about the Columbine shootings, came from a diary of one of the boys, written while he was planning the attack.
He wrote about the jocks who had made his life hell, the jocks he was planning to kill. He wrote with glee, that he knew people were not going to like what he did. Then he wrote something that will stay with me forever, he simply said, 'They started it.'
Bullying is as old as time, it comes in all different guises. At my boarding school there was a girl that no-one ever spoke to. I mean it, if she asked a question I guess we’d answer – but only just.
One night when she was asleep girls drew all over her face in permanent marker, another time a girl offered to cut her hair and hacked it off at the back.
You know, I honestly couldn’t tell you what that girl ever did wrong – why she was so ostracised, but her school years must have been hell. And I am completely ashamed of my part in that.
Two boys from a nearby boy's boarding school committed suicide while I was at school. Both of them were bullied.
In the US state of Virginia this morning they are dealing with the worst school shooting in history.
At Virginia Tech, 33 people are reported dead and 28 are in hospital with gunshot wounds after a lone gunman opened fire on students in the engineering department. It’s almost 8 years to the day since the Columbine High School massacre of April 20th, 1999.
Apparently the gunman went first to a dormitory on the campus, shot one person and managed to get away. Police began investigating that shooting, but for some reason chose not to evacuate the campus until the gunman had been found.
Two hours later the gunman entered the engineering department, chained the doors closed and began shooting in each classroom.
America’s gun laws have got to come into question again. Surely without availability of semi automatic weapons, there is no way the death toll could be so high.
But what about the root cause? I think the most chilling thing I ever read about the Columbine shootings, came from a diary of one of the boys, written while he was planning the attack.
He wrote about the jocks who had made his life hell, the jocks he was planning to kill. He wrote with glee, that he knew people were not going to like what he did. Then he wrote something that will stay with me forever, he simply said, 'They started it.'
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