School shootings always are. <\/p>\n
15 year old Ryan McDonald<\/a> got up this morning, kidded with his grandmother, caught the bus and went to school — where he was supposed to be, doing what he was supposed to be doing. Somewhere along the line, he got crosswise with Jamar Siler<\/a> in the cafeteria. Jamar pulled a gun from his backpack and shot Ryan in the chest. Ryan died within the hour, at UT hospital.<\/p>\n For a few months, Central High School parents have been expressing concerns about discipline at the school, or lack thereof. But school officials seem to have dismissed it as trivial stuff, like shoving in the lunch lines. I have to admit, it’s a long leap from shoving in the lunch line to shooting a classmate over breakfast.<\/p>\n Not so many years ago, teenage machismo was settled with bare knuckles after school. More often than not, the parties ended up friends afterward, their differences settled. What has changed in the psychological makeup of teenagers, that permits one to take a gun to school, kill another child, and calmly walk away?<\/p>\n Did Jamar look at Ryan’s bald head (due to a medical condition that left him completely hairless) and see racism? Did he think that the taking of Ryan’s life would improve his own?<\/p>\n There is no sense to be made of this. <\/p>\n UPDATE: Murder runs in the family?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" School shootings always are. 15 year old Ryan McDonald got up this morning, kidded with his grandmother, caught the bus and went to school — where he was supposed to be, doing what he was supposed to be doing. Somewhere … Continue reading