stabbing at PA high school

[JFSinIL]

oh no, not another tragedy :-(

 

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/09/justice/pennsylvania-school-stabbing/index.html?hpt=hp_

[Ethel Mertz]

Parents shouldn't have to worry about their kids being injured or killed at school. I wonder how many people homeschool for that reason.

[Seasider]

Parents shouldn't have to worry about their kids being injured or killed at school. I wonder how many people homeschool for that reason.

We began homeschooling before school tragedies like this started happening - I'm sure there were incidents before, but in my mind it started with Colombine - so it wasn't a consideration then. But now, in 2014? Yes, it would likely be a factor in my decision to homeschool (and I am typically not a knee-jerk reactor to things like this).

[chiguirre]

Well, I'm totally freaked out. That's the high school I went to. Murrysville is a quiet little suburb and FRHS is a relatively small, academically solid school. If you aren't safe there, you really aren't safe anywhere.

[Spryte]

:(

 

[Xuzi]

Ugh. :( I'm getting so sick of this... Prayers for the victims and their families.

[peachskittles]

I read that right after I woke up.  I hate reading stories like this so early in the morning.  They stick with me all day.  I hope that all the students and the adult that were injured survive.

 

 

Parents shouldn't have to worry about their kids being injured or killed at school. I wonder how many people homeschool for that reason.

 

It factors into my decision now.  Last night I was talking with my mother about my older sons and their school.  She was praising the school's security system.  I politely told her that you shouldn't need a security system at school.  If I had a chance, I would pull them out of school and homeschool them as well.

[Ethel Mertz]

While school violence wasn't on my radar screen when we first start homeschooling in 2006, it is now one among the (many) reasons we homeschool.

[ThisIsTheDay]

Well, I'm totally freaked out. That's the high school I went to. Murrysville is a quiet little suburb and FRHS is a relatively small, academically solid school. If you aren't safe there, you really aren't safe anywhere.

 

 

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

I'm not sure that anyone can truly understand this statement unless you've had it happen.

 

We lived in Littleton when Columbine happened. At the time, I read something from an Oklahoma City resident following the bombing of the Federal building.  It was along the lines of, your city will be changed forever. You'll heal, but you'll be scarred underneath, and life will never be the same.

 

How true I've found that to be.

 

We began hsing a couple of years after Columbine.  It had no effect on our decision.  I did have someone ask me that year, and I found it a bizarre question. 

 

Last December, there was another school shooting at Arapahoe High School, also in Littleton.  We had lived in the school boundary that was directly in the middle, adjacent to both Columbine and Arapahoe.  :crying:  My husband called to tell me while I was at the grocery store, and I literally sank to my knees in shock and grief. We know kids there.

 

You are right, you really aren't safe anywhere. I'm pretty good at pretending that isn't true, because I can't live my life fearfully. (Works for me.)

 

Chiguirre, take care of yourself today and in the next several weeks.  I wish I could offer some words of comfort, but I do understand.

:grouphug: :grouphug:

[Guest]

An incident at the school my kids would have gone to totally swung us from being anti-homeschool to now homeschooling. It does factor into our decision.

 

My heart broke when I read this this morning. :(

[jennynd]

There are pictures of him in the car. He looks so young and small. I wonder what drove him to do this. My first guess is he was bullied

[Rebel Yell]

Well, I'm totally freaked out. That's the high school I went to. Murrysville is a quiet little suburb and FRHS is a relatively small, academically solid school. If you aren't safe there, you really aren't safe anywhere.

 

:grouphug:  to you, my "neighbor"

 

This school district is in my backyard...  literally.  If you walk off my property that's the school district you enter.  Their high school is closer to us than our own.

 

So sad...  many area churches are open- hosting extra meetings for the teens and community.

[swellmomma]

Scary, I heard about it on the radio on my way to work today.  Freaked me out because tonight we have an interview at the high school to see about enrolling my teens for next year.  While this stuff has never happened around here, I am sure the parents and students of that school said the same thing about that school.

[Moxie]

We have a boy crisis in this country.  IDK if it is the lack of physical labor, or the impact of the media, or so many without fathers or just what. 

[hillfarm]

I think the problem is that we are in the midst of a terrible mental health crisis in America these days. If an outsider took a look at our media, our social communications, our entertainments, it would be easy to see that we have allowed selfishness, greed and instant gratification to crowd out less exciting but much more sustaining and enduring things like family relationships, friendships and contentment.

 

IMO, the endless debate about guns is mostly a red herring. The reality is that if a person is either so despairing or so angry that they wish to harm others, they will do so with whatever means that attract their attention. The most deadly school attack was in the 1930's and involved the use of explosives, many others have involved guns, this one and others have involved knives. Tighter security measures have not proven able to stop these tragedies.

 

We need to stop fighting about the tools that the attackers have used and focus on the harder to define but more crucial issue of the attackers themselves. Why they attack, what causes them to lash out in such a terrible way, how to identify them and successfully intervene before the attacks happen? I think that strengthening families and ceasing to glorify violence and depravity would go a long way toward building better mental health, in both the young and old.

 

In the mean time, although it is certainly not fool proof, I feel a little better knowing that my dd has received excellent training in self defense, which includes dealing with knife wielding attackers. I know that many of the public schools offer ALICE training, which helps teach students how to deal with active shooter/aggressor situations. I don't have any sure answers and I know self defense is little use against a bomb, but I still can't imagine sending my dd out into the world to be a sitting duck when some other poor child snaps and begins to seek victims.

[ChocolateReignRemix]

I think the problem is that we are in the midst of a terrible mental health crisis in America these days. If an outsider took a look at our media, our social communications, our entertainments, it would be easy to see that we have allowed selfishness, greed and instant gratification to crowd out less exciting but much more sustaining and enduring things like family relationships, friendships and contentment.

 

IMO, the endless debate about guns is mostly a red herring. The reality is that if a person is either so despairing or so angry that they wish to harm others, they will do so with whatever means that attract their attention. The most deadly school attack was in the 1930's and involved the use of explosives, many others have involved guns, this one and others have involved knives. Tighter security measures have not proven able to stop these tragedies.

 

We need to stop fighting about the tools that the attackers have used and focus on the harder to define but more crucial issue of the attackers themselves. Why they attack, what causes them to lash out in such a terrible way, how to identify them and successfully intervene before the attacks happen? I think that strengthening families and ceasing to glorify violence and depravity would go a long way toward building better mental health, in both the young and old.

 

In the mean time, although it is certainly not fool proof, I feel a little better knowing that my dd has received excellent training in self defense, which includes dealing with knife wielding attackers. I know that many of the public schools offer ALICE training, which helps teach students how to deal with active shooter/aggressor situations. I don't have any sure answers and I know self defense is little use against a bomb, but I still can't imagine sending my dd out into the world to be a sitting duck when some other poor child snaps and begins to seek victims.

 

Except this incident proves that the tool used DOES matter.

[Joker]

I think the problem is that we are in the midst of a terrible mental health crisis in America these days. If an outsider took a look at our media, our social communications, our entertainments, it would be easy to see that we have allowed selfishness, greed and instant gratification to crowd out less exciting but much more sustaining and enduring things like family relationships, friendships and contentment.

 

IMO, the endless debate about guns is mostly a red herring. The reality is that if a person is either so despairing or so angry that they wish to harm others, they will do so with whatever means that attract their attention. The most deadly school attack was in the 1930's and involved the use of explosives, many others have involved guns, this one and others have involved knives. Tighter security measures have not proven able to stop these tragedies.

 

We need to stop fighting about the tools that the attackers have used and focus on the harder to define but more crucial issue of the attackers themselves. Why they attack, what causes them to lash out in such a terrible way, how to identify them and successfully intervene before the attacks happen? I think that strengthening families and ceasing to glorify violence and depravity would go a long way toward building better mental health, in both the young and old.

 

In the mean time, although it is certainly not fool proof, I feel a little better knowing that my dd has received excellent training in self defense, which includes dealing with knife wielding attackers. I know that many of the public schools offer ALICE training, which helps teach students how to deal with active shooter/aggressor situations. I don't have any sure answers and I know self defense is little use against a bomb, but I still can't imagine sending my dd out into the world to be a sitting duck when some other poor child snaps and begins to seek victims.

 

It doesn't sound like this would have helped anyone in this instance from what I've read, though. They say most of those stabbed didn't even realize what had happened; they just felt pain and were bleeding. It sounds like it was a very crowded hallway and he wasn't even noticed until he had already done most of the damage.

[Vera]

 

IMO, the endless debate about guns is mostly a red herring. The reality is that if a person is either so despairing or so angry that they wish to harm others, they will do so with whatever means that attract their attention. The most deadly school attack was in the 1930's and involved the use of explosives, many others have involved guns, this one and others have involved knives. Tighter security measures have not proven able to stop these tragedies.

 

We need to stop fighting about the tools that the attackers have used and focus on the harder to define but more crucial issue of the attackers themselves. Why they attack, what causes them to lash out in such a terrible way, how to identify them and successfully intervene before the attacks happen? I think that strengthening families and ceasing to glorify violence and depravity would go a long way toward building better mental health, in both the young and old.

The difference in tools means that the PA kids are all injured and the Sandy Hook kids are all dead.

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

The difference in tools means that the PA kids are all injured and the Sandy Hook kids are all dead.

This was my thought this morning when I heard the news, thankful it wasn't a gun.

[JustEm]

It doesn't sound like this would have helped anyone in this instance from what I've read, though. They say most of those stabbed didn't even realize what had happened; they just felt pain and were bleeding. It sounds like it was a very crowded hallway and he wasn't even noticed until he had already done most of the damage.

 

 

As someone trained in self defense who's dh is a martial arts instructor it may have helped.  My natural instinct when attacked is to immediately look at/identify the attacker. So its likely that someone skilled in self defense if they got stabbed in the stomach, instead of reacting to the pain, would focus on who caused the pain in order to access if they needed to run or fight that person. Now that is someone who has had extensive self defense training because it takes a lot of training to change your natural tendency to focus on the pain first. But I know teenagers who would have certainly been able to defend themselves even after being stabbed.

[poppy]

The difference in tools means that the PA kids are all injured and the Sandy Hook kids are all dead.

 

Adding my voice as another whose first thought was "thank God he didn't have a gun".

[school17777]

I haven't read any articles or seen any coverage on TV yet about, other than hearing that it happened. I don't understand how he was able to stab so many people. Wouldn't the first victim's screaming, assuming he/she screamed, scare everyone one away? I was shocked at how many people he was able to stab.

[QuirkyKapers]

I haven't read any articles or seen any coverage on TV yet about, other than hearing that it happened. I don't understand how he was able to stab so many people. Wouldn't the first victim's screaming, assuming he/she screamed, scare everyone one away? I was shocked at how many people he was able to stab.

Apparently the kids who were stabbed didn't realize that it had happened.  They just saw the blood.  This is so sad.  We used to live 20 minutes from there.

[busymama7]

Apparently the kids who were stabbed didn't realize that it had happened. They just saw the blood.

And it was a crowded hallway. He moved fast :(

[gaillardia]

I started home schooling because my son was bullied in school at the age of 6 while in the bathroom. His nature: quiet, shy but friendly. I agree that the level of our entertainment in America fuels violence and bullying. It is a two way street and eventually someone will snap.

[Rai B.]

Wouldn't the first victim's screaming, assuming he/she screamed, scare everyone one away? I was shocked at how many people he was able to stab.

I think it would take people a minute to realize what was happening because of how little stabbing in real life is like it is in movies. When people are stabbed, they don't scream. (At least not immediately.) I remember hearing someone in law enforcement who described seeing someone stabbed from behind. He said he didn't realize at first they were stabbed because all he saw was someone behind the victim moving their hands and a moment later the victim just collapsed--silently. And last night dh bought the just-out Hobbit movie and we actually talked about remembering a LOTR interview where Christopher Lee says stabbing victims shouldn't scream, but sort of gasp.

[Audrey]

I haven't read any articles or seen any coverage on TV yet about, other than hearing that it happened. I don't understand how he was able to stab so many people. Wouldn't the first victim's screaming, assuming he/she screamed, scare everyone one away? I was shocked at how many people he was able to stab.

 

Don't overestimate the human mind.  It can only process based on the information it is given.

 

You would be amazed at how slow the mind is to comprehend a blindsided attack.  I was bitten and did not realize what had happen until after I had gotten back up on my surfboard, ridden the wave in and started walking out of the water.  My hip hurt, yes, but I figured my board whacked it hard when I fell off.  It wasn't until my friends told me not to look down, and I did and saw blood that my brain put 2 and 2 together.  I didn't scream though.  I just blacked out. 

 

So, I can completely understand how someone just casually walking down the hall would not register that they'd been stabbed if they didn't really see anything coming, nor expect anything.  There is a lot of jostling in halls.  Maybe their mind said "pain," and the first conclusion was "someone bumped me hard," or something like that.

[Spryte]

Don't overestimate the human mind. It can only process based on the information it is given.

 

You would be amazed at how slow the mind is to comprehend a blindsided attack. I was bitten and did not realize what had happen until after I had gotten back up on my surfboard, ridden the wave in and started walking out of the water. My hip hurt, yes, but I figured my board whacked it hard when I fell off. It wasn't until my friends told me not to look down, and I did and saw blood that my brain put 2 and 2 together. I didn't scream though. I just blacked out.

 

So, I can completely understand how someone just casually walking down the hall would not register that they'd been stabbed if they didn't really see anything coming, nor expect anything. There is a lot of jostling in halls. Maybe their mind said "pain," and the first conclusion was "someone bumped me hard," or something like that.

Totally agree.

 

And ... Yikes.

[poppy]

Bitten by ...........a shark?!!??!

 

I got hit by a car once and broke my hip. It didn't hurt at all at first. I just thought "I think I should sit down. No, lie down". I remember lying down, looking around, wondering why everyone around me was panicking.

[Audrey]

Bitten by ...........a shark?!!??!

 

I got hit by a car once and broke my hip. It didn't hurt at all at first. I just thought "I think I should sit down. No, lie down". I remember lying down, looking around, wondering why everyone around me was panicking.

 

Yes.  I've told that story before on these boards somewhere -- or maybe it was the old boards?  Anyway...   I was 17 at the time. It was just like that -- didn't hurt at first -- except I didn't know what hit me, of course.  I remember thinking, "geez, what idiot falls off a board paddling out?"  I was embarrassed more than anything. 

[ThisIsTheDay]

Yes.  I've told that story before on these boards somewhere -- or maybe it was the old boards?  Anyway...   I was 17 at the time. It was just like that -- didn't hurt at first -- except I didn't know what hit me, of course.  I remember thinking, "geez, what idiot falls off a board paddling out?"  I was embarrassed more than anything. 

 

Not to derail the thread, but OH MY GOSH, Audrey.  I've been on these boards for years (a decade or more!), and I guess I missed this.  That is crazy.  You poor thing, being more embarrassed. I can see that though, especially for a 17 yo.  Who in the world gets bitten by a shark?  That must have been shortly after Jaws; I think you are a few years younger than me.

 

[shawthorne44]

Yes.  I've told that story before on these boards somewhere -- or maybe it was the old boards?  Anyway...   I was 17 at the time. It was just like that -- didn't hurt at first -- except I didn't know what hit me, of course.  I remember thinking, "geez, what idiot falls off a board paddling out?"  I was embarrassed more than anything. 

 

My grandfather was shot in the face while in Germany during WWII.  It was at the end of the war and he was sitting on top of a bunker eating a sandwich.  He thought he had bitten his cheek until people looking at him freaked out.  

 

My theory is the mind receives the signals and then applies what it knows.  People generally do not have experience with shark bites, being shot in the face and stabbed with a knife.  So the mind applied what it knows which is bumps and falls.  

[Audrey]

Not to derail the thread, but OH MY GOSH, Audrey.  I've been on these boards for years (a decade or more!), and I guess I missed this.  That is crazy.  You poor thing, being more embarrassed. I can see that though, especially for a 17 yo.  Who in the world gets bitten by a shark?  That must have been shortly after Jaws; I think you are a few years younger than me.

 

 

Jan. 1986.  IIRC, in the hospital they told me there were over 30 people bitten in the previous year in S FL. Not all of those survived.  I look at it as a "could have been so much worse" thing.