Post Punk Kitchen Forum

This describes my high school experience...we actually had a real fire my senior year due to arson. Bomb threats and fights all.the.time.

The lockdown drills are new to my knowledge. The newtown school just started the drills (according to the reports I've heard) and my school introduced this policy just this year. We haven't actually practiced it yet because we have to teach some sensitivity lessons first, so the kids don't freak out. That's going to be harder now.

I feel very safe at the elementary school in which I work, but today was difficult for me. I see the kids and I visualize the violence. How could anyone do such a thing? As a parent, I'm hugging my little one extra tight. I worry about copycats.

I'm sorry you've been through that Interrobang. I understand what you mean. Actually, even a lockdown drill at school puts me into a bad headspace for the whole day. I have to really force myself to hold it together.

I remember having a real lockdown in my middle school in 2001, because someone had called in a bomb threat to the high school down the road. I don't think we started having lockdown drills until 2007, though.

God help us. The killer is being identified as a vegan.

Cereal?

Yup. Google Adam Lanza vegan.

I've already read on some boards that this could be the cause of his instability because you need animal fat for your brain to work properly.

No. way.

Oh yes; I just saw the words, "meat deficiency."

this. this is not good.

shiitake.

Well, that's stupid. What about the other people responsible for mass shootings? Did we care about what they ate? I hate the fact that US media feels they need to "connect the dots" and blame whatever thing that makes a person different (being autistic, being vegan).

My friend pointed out it's not really reputable (not that any of them are reputable right now) sources reporting he was vegan. Mostly just blog posts reposting the same thing over and over. As what happened when it was supposedly his brother and his mother's school, and all the other false information.


*and I don't think any of the media is connecting these vegan dots, just commenters on forums and articles and such.

I think this is a good illustration of what it means to be part of a marginalized group. You have to worry that the actions of a single one of your members will affect the way all of you are treated.

Every Muslim probably breathed a sigh of relief that the shooter wasn't Muslim. Because if he had been, it would have touched off hate crimes and discrimination, like post-9-11. But no one will ever say "most mass murderer are white men, so let's put special restrictions on all of them."

except for tim wise almost 12 years ago.
http://www.timwise.org/2001/03/school-s ... te-denial/

this x100.

That was tongue in cheek, and used to ironically point out that no one really puts special restrictions on white males.

That's a great article. I'm really tired of hearing the media talk about how safe and wealthy the community is, as if that has fork all to do with a single event like this.

It might be tongue in cheek, but he is right that these generally happen in suburbs.

This is definitely true. But when these things go on the ballot, it's not a religious issue even if the voters are religiously motivated. Not much we can do about that.

Lanza was a white guy from a middle class family (from all accounts)...The media and online nuts are going to pull out anything to make him seem off including veganisim. if this was a POC they would leave it to the color of his skin and get on with more details...

I think right now speculation is going to bring out some stupid crepe that I just want to distance myself from. The news I am following is how certain stores are pulling down/taking off their shelves assault rifles and gun control.

Oh and I asked the boyfriend who graduated in 2005 if they had lock downs in his high school. He said yes, that they consisted of getting under your desk and having the teacher lock the door.

Well, I think it has to do with the fact that violence happens in non-white neighborhoods and is largely ignored but then again, you aren't having mass murders. Like a 13 your old boy that was shot point blank in my old neighborhood where many of my family still live, there was a small blurb in a san diego newspaper about it but that was it. The killer was never found. It wasn't a shock to the community because these aren't lone incidents.

Then you get a mass shooting in a predominantly rich white neighborhood and people are shocked. You aren't safe no matter where you live but the dangers are different.

I graduated in 1999 (Columbine was in April of my senior year) and we never had lockdowns. I do remember, though, that after Columbine, all of the "weird" and "antisocial" kids who didn't have many friends got called down to the guidance counselor's office, one at a time, "just to check in," and make sure that none of us were planning anything.

Oh, you know what they all had in common? Air! They all breathed air. Quick everyone, stop breathing!




Oh, wait, that's silly.

Another good piece about race and murder and perceptions of safety and stuff:

Nice White Boys Next Door and Mass Murder

I graduated in 2000; no lock down drills, but our school did ban black trench coats. We had a bomb threat once, but it turned out to be nothing.