It's not a maybe that this could have prevented by the school. It's a certainty.
You dont just ignore the kind of shit this kid was doing. When it's so obvious other students knew to stay home.....come the fuck on.
He was in the wrong kind of school for condition.
The point is the school has a job and obligation to the kids.
And because they failed this, 4 other students are dead.
My husband stayed after work last night making arrangements for the 4th victim and putting a digital album together for the family. All he wanted to do after that was come home. But it was late and he had to be up at 4am to go back. (Its a few hours drive). We know people in this school district. My oldest has friends who go there. HER school received copy cat threats and closed down Thursday and stayed closed and we are not sure if school will be open Monday.
This kid may as well have stated his intentions with a megaphone, there was so obviously a problem. All they did was an email and meeting with the parents. That same day the kid murdered classmates.
I've posted before that Michigan schools do not do anything if a student or students are having a serious crisis at the school or being ghoulishly bullied. One of my daughters was so intensely sexually harrassed by a group older boys that she broke down. I was in that school multiple times over it. They "talked" to the boys but that was IT. It didnt change. They were NEVER disciplined. If she went to the office they would just have HER sit in there until next class. Like she was the problem.
And Joe this was not run of the mill "kids are mean" bullying. My daughter was so distressed she was throwing up at school from anxiety and her grades were dropping. She was afraid of them and they were humiliating her on a daily basis and it was all sexual. I'm SURE the ring leader is going to become rapist if he hasnt already.
It wasnt just my daughter targetted either. They harrassed a handful of girls and would grab the girls hands and put them on the crotch of their pants. I really wished my daughter would have squeezed and twisted....but they scared her too much. They just escalated their disgusting behavior. It was so bad I took her to the police station and I pulled her out. It certainly wasnt just me that was in there telling the staff. There were other moms as well.
These schools need to be much more involved in the safety of the students. They dont have to hover and fix every conflict, but when another student is behaving in ways that would get them arrested as an adult.....it need to be dealt with. Even if they have to REMOVE the student from the school and require the parents to put the child into some program. We have some really good ones for troubled kids here. Acting on the plethora of warning signs they knew about from this kid would have prevented this from happening.
If they cannot manage something so basic or are not equipped to handle problems that are very blatantly a threat to the other students safety, they should NOT be a school.
Absolutely no one can say they didnt see this coming because they DID. So much so that some other students chose not to go to school that day due to that countdown and the threats. If THEY can see it, the adults have no excuse.
If the school was wrong for this condition, SOMEONES job to know that and get the kid in the appropriate place. And by someone I mean the school.
It's sad and frustrating that this just becomes another partisan narrative and political fight.