"I just cannot believe it..."

-Darnisha Bristol, parent of classmates

3/6/00
    On February 29, 2000, a 6-yr-old boy came into his first grade classroom with a .32 caliber handgun.  During a class change, he pulled out the gun, pointed it at one boy, then turned around and shot a female classmate through the neck, killing her.

    I think my voice joins with millions of other's across the nation (and the globe) in saying "What the fuck?!"

    According to sources, he and the victim had an altercation on the playground.  See that?  An "altercation".  Folks, FIRST GRADERS do not have "altercations".  They have sissy fights.  Name calling.  Hair pulling.  That sort of stuff.  But taking a loaded gun to school and killing off a classmate?  My God.  I'll admit, I was uneasy when I learned that certain inner city school started using metal detectors.  Inner city HIGH school.  NO ONE would have ever though the school violence problem would trickle down to the elemetary shcool level.

    And of course, we can't go two seconds by mentioning the tragedy at Columbine High School last April.  All the papers specifically mention the two shooters and, oh yeah, the 12 students and teacher they killed on their destruction spree.  Allow me to take this space here to save the media a lot of time:  HEY KIDS!!! WANT GUARANTEED FAME, EVEN IN DEATH?!? KILL A WHOLE BUNCH OF PEOPLE IN YOUR SCHOOL WITH ILLEGALLY ACQUIRED GUNS!!!  CLAIM GOD'S ON YOUR SIDE, THAT'LL REALLY MESS WITH 'EM!!!  For the sake of those who are ready to land me a vacation in the guidance department, I'd like to point out that that last message was intentionally THICK with sarcasm.

    Apparently, this boy came from a severely broken home; his father was already serving jailtime for parole violations, his mother was a crack addict unfit to take care of herself, let alone her son, and his main residence was described as a " 'crack house' where loaded guns were within easy reach and drugs were traded for stolen weapons" (Reuters).  Oddly enough, this seemed to hark right back to an earlier article I had read in the satire newspaper, The Onion.  The headline read "FBI To Require Background Checks For Child-Care Providers.
Child-Havers Unaffected".  Things that make you go "hmph", but it raises a really interesting points.  Just about anyone can have a child, regardless of whether they are fit to be parents or not.  A bunch of crack-addict-gun-dealing deadbeats can "maintain" a 6-yr-old, at least enough to keep the social workers at bay.

    Speaking of which, where the hell WERE those social workers?  I mean, this wasn't an isolated incident, this kid had a history of trouble making and violent comments and "altercations" and such.  He claimed that he hated all of his classmates.  Same deal as Columbine, but on a lesser scale.  By now, you'd think that counselors and social workers would be taking EVERYTHING seriously.  I can't advocate that too strongly though, what with the BOLD RED COMMENTS above.

    I don't know what to do.  I don't have any insightful advice on a quick solution for this one.  Not even a snap judgement.  Is there anything I can do to prevent this from happening to me and my friends?  We can't even predict where the next one will occurr.  Are there definite signs of a killer, or are a lot of kids just out for the shock value.  I dunno.  All I know is that it terrifies me.

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