I am just numb with it all. I chatted with Pat (spaw)in person, about Michael just last week. It was so frustrating not to have anything helpful to say....and Pat & Karen are aware and working to keep something bad from happening, as best they can. Think of all the other troubled kids who are largely ignored UNTIL they explode.

I am hearing now that this boy, as with many others, made threats and gave indications to other students thay he WOULD do something serious. If we can't solve their problems, we could at LEAST encourage all students to report threats they hear from other students!!! And before you tell me that 'snitching' will just cause dissention and that 'most' threats are just idle noise, ask yourself whether it's worth it to head off just one incident like this.

There's so much to say about why this is happening more these days, and why we need security guards in high schools, but for now let's just focus on the kids we know, and trying to prevent problems before they get this far.