Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you'll look back and realize they were big things."
Article written for school newspaper class:
Mason Campbell
If you have seen the news, you all know the 12 year old boy, Mason Campbell, that took a gun to school in Roswell, NM with the intent to shoot his bully. Now if you’re like most people, your first thought is that Mason is a bad person. But lets look into this story a little deeper shall we?
Tuesday, February 14. 2014, the day the lifes of students at Berrendo Middle School changed forever. Mason Campbell, 12 years old, walked into a gym full of students before class and open fired, injuring two students, before putting his gun down. One student, who was labeled as the intended target, got shot in both the face and neck. A second student, unsure if she was a target as well or not, got shot in the arm. Now this is obviously traumatizing for everyone involved, and could have much worse. But was there a way this could have been prevented? Was there a way it could have never happened? Of course there is!
Lets look at some facts according to makebeatsnotbeatdowns.org. 90% of 4th though 8th grade students report being victims of bullying. That’s a lot right? Here’s another fact for you. Harassment and bullying have been linked to 75% of school shooting incidents. Do you see the problem? Heres a question for you, have you ever been bullied? Most of you would answer yes. Almost every kid who's gone to school has been bullied in one way or another. And what happens when you tell someone? Not a damn thing! Most of the time it just makes everything worse. Which leads to these school shootings that we all hate to hear about. But when you're stretched as far as you can go, when you feel like there’s nothing left to do, does shooting someone really sound all that bad? If you cant take it anymore, does that make you a bad person?
I guess the point I’m trying to make is, when there’s a school shooting, should the shooter be the only one at blame? Or should the person who pushed him/her to that point be blamed as well? If a rubber band snaps from all the pressure, is it the rubber bands fault? Or is it the fault of the pressure being put on it? We can’t sit around and do nothing about the kids being bullied, then be surprised when they break. We need to start doing something so these things wont happen. If we work together, handle it right, maybe we can prevent kids from getting to that point. No one should be stretched that thin.
If you have seen the news, you all know the 12 year old boy, Mason Campbell, that took a gun to school in Roswell, NM with the intent to shoot his bully. Now if you’re like most people, your first thought is that Mason is a bad person. But lets look into this story a little deeper shall we?
Tuesday, February 14. 2014, the day the lifes of students at Berrendo Middle School changed forever. Mason Campbell, 12 years old, walked into a gym full of students before class and open fired, injuring two students, before putting his gun down. One student, who was labeled as the intended target, got shot in both the face and neck. A second student, unsure if she was a target as well or not, got shot in the arm. Now this is obviously traumatizing for everyone involved, and could have much worse. But was there a way this could have been prevented? Was there a way it could have never happened? Of course there is!
Lets look at some facts according to makebeatsnotbeatdowns.org. 90% of 4th though 8th grade students report being victims of bullying. That’s a lot right? Here’s another fact for you. Harassment and bullying have been linked to 75% of school shooting incidents. Do you see the problem? Heres a question for you, have you ever been bullied? Most of you would answer yes. Almost every kid who's gone to school has been bullied in one way or another. And what happens when you tell someone? Not a damn thing! Most of the time it just makes everything worse. Which leads to these school shootings that we all hate to hear about. But when you're stretched as far as you can go, when you feel like there’s nothing left to do, does shooting someone really sound all that bad? If you cant take it anymore, does that make you a bad person?
I guess the point I’m trying to make is, when there’s a school shooting, should the shooter be the only one at blame? Or should the person who pushed him/her to that point be blamed as well? If a rubber band snaps from all the pressure, is it the rubber bands fault? Or is it the fault of the pressure being put on it? We can’t sit around and do nothing about the kids being bullied, then be surprised when they break. We need to start doing something so these things wont happen. If we work together, handle it right, maybe we can prevent kids from getting to that point. No one should be stretched that thin.