VA Tech Horror–Result of Ignored Behavior?

The travesty at Virginia Tech. once again begs the question of where one person’s civil rights end and those of others begin.

The scant details being revealed about the shooter already indicate serious and apparent mental problems long before this horrific massacre took place. English teachers questioned this student’s mental state, based on violence in his writing, and it was reported today that at some point counseling was suggested. There had to be other indicators too. Those will surface in coming days and weeks.

While I understand we can’t go back to the early part of last century and arbitrarily lock anyone with opposing viewpoints and offensive behaviors away in asylums, today’s society is full of individuals who blatantly showcase their imbalances and ill intentions. Over and over they’re left alone until something like this happens. It happened in Colombine and it happened yesterday. It happens somewhere on a regular basis although not typically resulting in double digit deaths.

As a society, we simply have to start paying attention and taking responsibility. We have to reach out for help instead of ignoring the proverbial elephant in the living room.  Even parents who care have a hard time when emotional or substance problems come to light. I know. I’ve been there. Once a person is 18 there’s no help. Concerned relatives and friends are shown the door as they shout helplessly toward the deaf ear of bureaucracy and limited (as in none) funding. So then, we have to help each other demand help.

Young people today have the same crosses to bear as the rest of us and generations before had. Broken hearts, social exclusion, self imposed–as well as externally imposed– pressures to produce and succeed. We didn’t run around killing people when these life trials took place. Lately, something doesn’t go the way someone thinks it should and the ensuing temper tantrum is often deadly. We’re going to have to get a handle on this kind of thing one way or the other.

If we get an indication that someone might harm themselves or someone else, we can have them “Baker Acted,” locked up for up to 72 hours and mentally evaluated. This procedure is generally completely ineffective. Many unstable people don’t want help fixing a problem they don’t think they have. Many unstable people are great manipulaters and manage easily to persuade underpaid, less than enthusiastic state mental health professionals that they are perfectly fit to exist in society. They’re released and, more often than not, something bad happens to them or someone else who crosses their path. It’s a joke.

America’s a melting pot. We’re a society of societies–many different cultures, none without it’s shortcomings, thrown into a blender set on puree. We all come to the table with our positive and negative contributions. It’s the foundation of our nation but, without a cohesive element for neutralizing cultural differences, it’s bound to crack. People who come to this country following their formative years may bear burdens we can’t fathom and those burdens may mushroom into unfathomable acts. That’s not to say that people who’ve been here their entire lives don’t have powder kegs sitting on go too. The point is we need to pay attention and address issues as they become apparent.

A friend of mine is a teacher and she’s spent this entire school year walking on eggshells around a scarily disruptive fifth grade student. For years he was in foster homes. He’s been adopted by an older couple who probably simply wanted a child to love. It’s obvious to my friend, who’s spent six hours a day, five days a week for nine months with this student, that major problems are brewing. The adoptive parents don’t see it? The social workers haven’t seen it? Maybe if everyone ignores the behavior–the PROBLEM–it’ll just go away. Or, lives will be lost. That’s a very real possibility today.

It seems like it should be as simple as setting boundaries. If you want to act crazy, you’ll be treated as crazy–detained and treated for your own safety and the safety of others. These kinds of things didn’t happen when the parameters were that simple. The longer I live the more I feel we do need to go back to some of the old ways of dealing with any behavior that presents like insanity. Protecting the rights of a few while sacrificing the rights of many isn’t working. Just ask 66 parents tonight.