Scary Story too Close to Home

[Barbara L]

Our pastor's wife is a high school teacher in our county. One of the seniors at her school (I think she said one of her students) was just arrested. His parents were worried because he had received some pipe bomb making materials in the mail, so they turned him in. Apparently he was planning to use them tomorrow (I think he had already put at least one together), on the anniversary of the Columbine tragedy. According to the TV news, he evidently had been planning this for at least a year.

Barbara

 

[expatgirl]

You're right---that's a little too close for comfort and to have planned it for so long......I'd like to know who the company was so they could be taken out of business

 

[Maverick2272]

Yikes! Darn things are too easy to make and use too many common components to effectively track, that is why they are so popular.
Kudos to his parents for doing the right thing, hopefully the next step will include getting him some help because he obviously has some serious issues going on.

 

[quicksilver]

YIKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The question that's so scary is, at so young an age how do you form such rage when you've experienced so little in life yet?)
(And not enough experience to know how to properly vent it.)
Life these days are "in the moment" even for parents. I think the "this too shall pass" , and the "good things come to those who wait" lessons we so detested hearing are forgotten to be taught. And not enough examples are being shown.
This kid needs attention and even negative is better than none. And clearly he appears creative and needs guidance on how to use it positively.
I'll say a prayer we all get the third hand we need today.

Just for today, turn off the T.V.
Just for today, live as though your life depended on it.

 

[Bilby]

Very scary!

 

[Wart]

We use to build pipe bombs when I was in HS. 35 or so years ago.

Used them to blow holes in the ground, on ground hog dens, closest thing to value was a rusted out abandoned car.

Today? Today children make these things to use on people. What the heck has happened to our society?

Far as the question what could have happened in a life so young to cause such rage?

I think that anger and rage has been in youngsters since before I was born, it's nothing new. It's that now I think they feel entitled to act on it.

Look at the parents.

 

[Maverick2272]

Well, as for the anger and the rage, I think some of those You Tube videos of a bunch of kids beating the heck out of another kid may help answer some of that. I keep hearing parents say it is better their child be the bully than the one being picked on, so they don't discourage the behavior.
The girls on the north side of Chicago that beat the crap out of a bunch of freshman girls?? Their parents think their records should remain clear so as not to 'ruin their lives for no reason'. No reason? They are called consequences, and sounds like a valid reason to me. Once upon a time we held people responsible for the things they did, now we just find excuses why its never their fault.
I think the more it is allowed, the worse it gets, and the worse the consequences on everyone. Especially when people seem to want to blame the one being bullied instead of the one doing the bullying.

 

[Barbara L]

On the news today they said that he bought 10 pounds of explosive stuff (the fertilizer they use) from ebay. He kept journals and audio recordings of all his plans. He is 18.

Barbara

 

[auntdot]

When I was a kid, before the wheel was invented, we would mess around. Nothing serious, and nothing to hurt anyone.That was decades before Columbine and Virginia Tech. An 18 year old who orders ten pounds of explosives and the stuff to make pipe bombs is troubled, but is also a felon who could kill someone's children, and who apparently intended to do so.Don't know the answer but don't believe that a few sessions with a shrink will cure such a kid. We first have to protect ourselves, and secondly take mercy upon those who want to harm ourselves and our children.

 

[Katie H]

Oh, Barbara, I'm so sorry to hear that. I can't imagine the mindset that needs to come up with such a plan. This youngster is definitely troubled and needs some serious help.

 

[luvs]

why don't they intervene with these angry students!

 

[Maverick2272]

Everyone keeps saying he needs help, but also that he needs to be locked up to keep us safe. I agree, but unfortunately our system only allows for one or the other. Maybe someday we can lock him away while he gets the help he needs instead of locking him away in a place that will undoubtedly make him worse.
I think we also should be interested in how this 18 year old arrived at this place so we can better understand what was going on in his mind and maybe help prevent others from following his example.
It happened at Columbine as well, everyone was quick to identify troubled teens that had been bullied and whisk them away from everyone else. But, no one seemed to stop and say hey, what would happen if we just stopped the bullying to begin with? Or actually punished our kids if found to be bullies so they stopped?