Opinion
School shootings leave unanswered questions
October 6, 2006
With the recent breakout of shootings and killings at schools across the country, I question what would prompt a person to commit such a horrific act, especially in an educational setting.
It especially hit home when a student killed a principle in a Wisconsin school. The town is located southwest of Wisconsin Dells. This definitely puts not only the state, but Cazenovia on the map for the undivided attention of the media.
Now the reporters, cameras, television screens and anchors turn to the deadly shooting in Pennsylvania at an Amish school, marking the third school to have violence occur within a week of each incident. And another shooting happened in Colorado this week.
What reasons would lead someone to make a decision to kill? The answers are now left in the hands of the investigators, who will find solutions, or should I say justifications, for the killers.
Everyone wants answers. Everyone wants justice, but it has disappeared with the suicide of the killer. The death of a person inflicting that devastation to friends and family members of the ones killed shows a sign of desperation or a second-guessing of their actions.
And it leaves the police, investigators, friends and families searching for the answers that will never be found. It will be all assumptions, describing what they may have been thinking or what may have gone through their mind.
Even though the theories may console the loved ones of the fallen, it will only find a justification for the perpetrator. The clues and reasons as to why the incident happened will only make excuses. Excuses that would never had to be made if someone would have made the right decision in the first place.
Other incidents happen in all of our lives that are frustrating, but what makes this the excuse to explain the action?
Investigators in the Amish school shooting point to a grudge held by the man, who enters an educational facility to take revenge on something of the past. Something that has nothing to do with the innocent people he killed.
Shalena Janis is a student at UW-River Falls.