I think parents of ALL kids need to make sure that their children's schools are safe -- metal detectors on all doors and locked doors -- NO ONE gets in without going through the metal detector and without being escorted to their appointment with a teacher or a principal or assistant principal.

In this day and age, you can't just have people walking into buildings and wandering around without someone knowing that they're there.

All parents that have kids in school now should get together with the kids and the teachers at the schools several times a year and have discussions about "differences".

I was teased because I was shy and wore glasses. It's affected my whole life. My Brother was teased because he was gay. He's dead.

I've seen in the past 10 years or so that our teenage boys and young men are walking around with a lot of anger and rage. I wonder sometimes if their hormones are screwed up because of the environmental pollution.

If parents and kids and teachers got together maybe quarterly and discussed the ways that you should and should not treat people that are 'different'. Discussed what to do if you overhear something 'scary' that someone says. Discussed ways to bring everyone into feeling that they BELONG. I think it would go a long way toward making sure that this doesn't happen again.

I remember when my son was 11, his Grandmother (my Mother) was dying from cancer. I was overwhelmed. Working 10 hours a day. Supervising home care. Single parent. Outside and shoveling up a blizzard to get the car out so I could go to work. My son wanted to come out and shovel snow. I said "no, you need to feed Grandma". He whined, "I don't know HOW". It hadn't dawned on me that I hadn't shown him how to do that. I just assumed. I showed him how to feed her and give her her pills. He had a big grin on his face 'cause he felt useful.

How many kids know what to do when they face crisis?? How many kids know how to include others in their world or at least not harass others because they're different??

That's what our kids need to me taught HOW TO DO -- make everyone around them feel useful and necessary and WANTED. It'd be a much better planet.

Hugs.

Barb