chambers92

Jeff, I think those boys would have gone on the killing spree regardless of being on meds or not. They were two really disturbed young men who were in a school climate where teachers and school admin ignored that fact they were being bullied on a regular basis. Not that the bullying justified their actions but it factored into their own rational for killing.

I think if more people including their parents had paid attention and tried to intervene then perhaps this incident might have been prevented. It's not like they were normal kids who just snapped one day, they were acting weird and bizarre weeks before, there were huge red flags which were ignored. .

JeffinCO

Here we respectfully disagree, chambers. True, I dont know what the boys' exact psychosis was, but the fact is that there are thousands of cases of the exact same type of bullying, and stressful high school climate, same type of anger in teen boys....but the one mitigating factor, the thing that tipped them to the point of ACTING, and the one thing that ALL of these shootings seem to have in common is the prescription medication.

My belief is, no antidepressants, no Columbine.

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PursuitOfHappinessParty

Unless these kids had physical deformities (say a brain tumor) then this behavior is a result of mental anguishes that must have happened before school age, IMHO. My guess is the parents should be investigated, as I believe there isn't such a thing as bad kids only bad parents. Betcha there was some abuse, probably sexual.

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" Tie two birds together and though they have four wings they cannot fly " Blind Master in 'Circle Of Iron'

chambers92

Thanks for respectfully disagreeing with me.

First, I just want to say that I'm not a huge fan of medication. I used to be a child/ adolescent therapist and I always felt many of my clients were over medicated. In many cases I advocated for less or for no meds to be used. I also have had my own experience of almost dying from a bad reaction to Dilatin which I was prescibed after having brain surgery. Took doctors weeks to recognize that it was the drug making me so sick.

That said, I don't think it's black or white all or nothing situation. I think some meds including psychtropic have a place and can be helpful.

IMO, the increase in school shootings is a result of several things. We're a more violent society in general, there's easier access to weapons and kids are more stessed than when I was younger. Plus there's been a decrease in mental health funding, meaning less services are being provided. More short term treatment without proper follow up. Drugs being prescribed without therapy. Or in some cases, no services at all.

Ptech

I agree with Jeff on this. The big question is, whatever their diagnoses later in life, was that condition caused by the use of chemicals?

I think one is jumping to conclusions about sociopath qualities.

They went bonkers for 30 minutes. Or 5 minutes, whatever.

Did the drug do that, or was that their fate?

Jonesy

The guy was on anti-depressants... these things are truly evil. People thinking fighting pain = fighting evil, but in the case of anti-depression, it only compounds the problem.

Let me take a stab... the guy was depressed because leaving school caused a massive drop in plant-usage. The pain caused by this droppage was falsely interpreted as 'depression', which led to the use of anti-depressants. When he stopped taking the drugs, the plants continued along their natural path of deterioration. He somehow attributed the depression to school... which is strangely accurate. His internal pain then externally manifested itself in the form of a school shooting (a truly karmic occurrence).

ThetaBurst

Thank you, Dr. Zelig.