Today, more than 100 pages of documentation were released from the files of the Columbine Killing Spree, including journals from the two boys who killed so many and then themselves during the attack on Columbine High.
The entries were chilling. In the papers, the boys talked about wanting everyone in the school dead, except maybe 100 people or so. They created an exact time line. Next to the time they planned to attack, they wrote simply, “Haha.”
Their yearbooks contained foreshadowing statements, pictures of guns, words of violence. Even one of the boys’ fathers kept a journal, which outlined his son’s problems but discounted them while laying blame on others.
It has become frightening to send our children to school Children as young as first grade have been known to take guns to school. My question is, where are the parents? Have we really become a society that places such little value on family that we don’t even know what our kids are doing anymore?
I know most parents feel they know more about their children than this, but do you? Do you really take the time to know what your child is doing, who they are hanging out with? Are you so afraid of preserving their “privacy” that you too may be overlooking hidden problems?
Likely your teenager’s problems are nowhere near the extent of these boys, but the teenage years are some of the toughest. Don’t be afraid to practice some tough love yourself. Teenagers, independent as they may be, need parental guidance, and yes, discipline.
So be there. Be attentive. Be the parent. And hopefully, some of the senseless violence going on in the world today can be eliminated.