A specter...and as you read this research you must remember that the magnitude of this problem
did not just start, but has been going on in this country for several decades now. I have been
researching and concerned about the problem for thirty plus years, and each year it shocks
me that it gets worse...and president after president...congress after congress does virtually
nothing. It is in fact covered up, and people like me that want to expose the can of worms are
portrayed as trouble makers and not good Americans (period)COLUMBINE and gun-toting teen video robots April 1999...4:20...
Is art a reflection of society? Or, is society a reflection of art? Monkey see...monkey do...The medium is
the message? German techno-sound and gun-toting teens...Gothic and black trench coats. Pipe bombs
and sawed-off shot guns. It is scary that they did this on impulse, it is even more frightening that they
planned the massacre for a year. That mind set gives them a robotics like behavior. And that no one saw
it coming at the same time sends a chill ... these are just the first of many many violent outbreaks that we
will be seeing over the next few (if not more) years...re-bell-ion. The school bell rings for the youth as they
become candles in the wind. The bell rings its toll. The toll is our future."Violent images warp young perceptions," President Clinton said. Kathryn Montgomery, from the
Center for Media Education said, "We, as a society, have to ask, "What is the impact of a steady diet of
violent media content on a growing child." The Governor is having a hard time talking with out breaking
down in tears. His wife standing next to him looks so in shock they may have to set her down, much less
talk, as she stands there holding the arm of her husband like she is afraid the shooting might start again at
any moment. The Chief of Police was broken with emotion every time he had to try and talk."Tragedy beyond words." Tipper Gore looked as if she had been crying and would again soon, and The
Vice President voice was trembling as he talked. He looked as if he would cry any minute. I thought
back to the early seventies when I was talking with various Senators and Representatives and other "political"
types regarding the state and fate of our children and they would start to cry. Four days later I am still crying
several times a day after I see news. I watch Dan Rather almost break down and cry...and I start crying again.I am from Oklahoma City...I did not cry this much when all the good American men, women and children died
there...Three days later, I cry again when Peter Jennings almost breaks down when his voice is quavering after
a piece called "The Children of Columbine High"...camera cuts away...the sadness and anger wells up in-
side of me...I am so angry at my culture for not somehow showing enough concern that this did not happen...Approximately 70% of students (grades 1-8) in an online poll conducted by
Scholastic publications say they don't feel safe in school. Of 45,000 students
who responded, 77% of boys and 52% of girls say they feel unsafe. 3/15/03Among minority youth, particularly African Americans, violence has struck with unique force in recent
years. Homicide has been the leading cause of death among African American males & females between
the ages of 15-24 for more than ten years. Hey, lets look for the figures of how many have been injured
and scared by this living in the gutter. Someone look up the stats on injuries and productive lives lost to
this tragedy and add to those that have actually died. The total anguish has to be enormous and takes a toll.
The actions that we are seeing from our youth are knee-jerk reactions to the abuse that have fallen upon
them. They are going to pay us back for what we have not done over and over again in their times of need.In recent years, weapon carrying by students in schools has become a growing source of violence and threat
of violence. A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1995) found that nearly one-fourth
of students nationwide had carried a weapon to school during the month preceding the survey. Stop a minute
folks and think about this fact from our own governmental agency. And you can bet your bottom dollar that
they are much higher now...the gang and cult behavior has made little robots out of more of our youth than I
even want to think about.
The foundations of civilization are no stronger and now more enduring
than the corporate integrity of the homes on which they rest.
If the
home deteriorates, civilization will crumble and fall.
Billy Graham
FLASH TO APRIL 2006
5 Face Charges In Columbine-Style Plot
RIVERTON, Kan., April 21, 2006
(CBS/AP) The five teenage boys accused of plotting a Columbine-style massacre at their Kansas high school are still being held by police. Authorities say the boys fully intended to go on a shooting spree at their high school but were stopped after one of them discussed the plot on a Web site. The boys, ranging in age from 16 to 18, were arrested Thursday, the anniversary of the Columbine massacre, just hours before they planned to shoot fellow students and school employees, authorities said.
Even as the numbers of such Columbine-style shootings increase, many parents are still not ready to believe that it could happen in their own school districts. The four who were younger than 18 were being held Thursday at a juvenile detention center in Girard. The 18-year-old was in the Cherokee County Jail. No decision has been made on whether to charge the four juveniles as adults, Kline said.
The teens planned to wear black trench coats and disable the school's camera system before starting the attack between noon and 1 p.m. Thursday, Norman said. Sheriff's deputies found guns, ammunition, knives and coded messages in the bedroom of one suspect and documents about firearms and references to Armageddon in two suspects' school lockers.
Apparently, they had been plotting since the beginning of the school year. Norman said school officials began investigating Tuesday after learning a threatening message had been posted on MySpace.com. "The message, it was brief, but it stated that there was going to be a shooting at the Riverton school and that people should wear bulletproof vests and flak jackets," Norman said.
The message also discussed the significance of April 20 as Adolf Hitler's birthday and the anniversary of the 1999 Columbine High School attack in Colorado, in which two students wearing trench coats killed 13 people before committing suicide.
But Riverton school district Superintendent David Walters said the significance of the threat did not become clear until Wednesday night, after a woman in North Carolina who had chatted with one of the suspects on Myspace.com notified authorities there would be about a dozen potential victims, at least one of them a staff member.
Back in January, one of the teen suspects had talked about Columbine, but "we thought he was joking because he was always joking about stuff like that," Ferneau told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Friday. Ferneau and otherstudents described the teen as a class clown who was often in trouble with the teachers. He was an "oddball," student Trenton Berry told ABC. "Everybody picked on him and everything." Norman also mentioned bullying and said investigators had learned the suspects liked violent video games. Four of the suspects were arrested at their homes Thursday; the fifth was taken into custody at the school.
Flash to Alaska days later...Police arrest 6 boys in plot
NORTH POLE: School was target for alleged murder conspiracy.
By TATABOLINE BRANT
Anchorage Daily News
(Published: April 23, 2006)Six seventh-grade boys, whom police said may have been out for revenge because they were being picked on, were in custody Saturday in North Pole on suspicion they plotted to bring guns and knives to school and kill teachers and students they didn't like.
The boys -- not named because of their ages -- were taken to a Fairbanks Youth Facility and face first-degree conspiracy to commit murder charges, authorities said.
The arrests culminate a tense, weeklong investigation that involved a number of police agencies and that gripped the small town of 1,600. Events during the week stirred numerous parents to keep their children home from North Pole Middle School, school officials said.
"I think all of us were horrified that anybody would be thinking to kill someone else," said the town's mayor, Jeff Jacobson, who also teaches sixth-graders at the school. "This is a wake-up call for all of us that we need to keep the channels of communication open with our kids."
The investigation began with a tip to North Pole police Monday from a concerned parent, who had heard about the murder plot from a child. Police immediately notified school officials and by that evening, 12 students were suspended.
The plot was to be executed the following day, according to a statement released Saturday by North Pole Police Chief Paul Lindhag.
Police speculated the boys were driven by motives ranging from being picked on by other students to disliking staff and students, according to the statement.
"This plan included the disabling of the school's telephone and power system, setting an allotted amount of time to remain in the school to kill their victims, and their escape route from the school and North Pole area," the statement said.
He said news of the murder plot has been understandably unnerving for parents, students and faculty. In order to further calm fears, a police officer will be stationed at the middle school for the remaining four weeks of classes, Manzie said. An extra safety monitor has also been added to the school.
The North Pole arrests came just days after five Kansas teenagers suspected of planning a shooting rampage at their high school were arrested Thursday, the seventh anniversary of the Columbine massacre. But North Pole police said their investigation revealed no connection to any other school tragedy.
In the late 1990s, it seemed like an epidemic had hit American schools: Children were acquiring guns and bombs, and then going to school to kill teachers and classmates. Various cultural influences were targeted for blame, such as Stephen King’s novel, Rage, a film, The Basketball Diaries, and the Pearl Jam video, “Jeremy.” Violent videogames also entered the discussions, as did the influences of cults like Satanism. Yet a look back reveals some of the earlier incidents as well. The following is a timeline of school violence that grabbed national attention: Katherine Ramsland www.katherineramsland.com
Visit her site and read her book
Child prostitution and child sex rings exist in all countries and in all the major cities in North America. Even in some smaller communities there can be highly active and organized child sex rings.
www.irvingstudios.com/child_abuse_survivor_monument/SexRings.htm
===========================================
Today: April 24, 2006 at 20:31:40 PDT
Wash. Student Arrested in Shooting Plot
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUYALLUP, Wash. (AP) - A 16-year-old student accused of plotting to shoot people at Rogers High School, then kill himself "to finally go out in a blaze of hatred and fury" was charged Monday with first-degree attempted assault, Pierce County authorities said.
Another student passed along word of the alleged plot to the school's ROTC commander, court papers said.
Investigators searched Brian Michael Evans' home Sunday and found two rifles, two handguns, ammunition, a homemade bomb and a CD copy of "The Anarchist Cookbook," which includes directions to make explosives, sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said.
Sheriff's investigators believe the boy didn't plan to target specific people.
The boy wanted people to "feel his pain, and he wanted to be hated, not having earned respect in the past," Troyer said.
Charging papers said the teen shared specifics of his plan with deputies when they arrived at his house, including plans to use bolt cutters to cut the locks on his stepfather's gun cabinet, which contained two rifles and two handguns.
The boy told authorities he planned to take a .22 caliber rifle and a handgun with 15 rounds because it was easy to conceal. He said he planned to "take people out and save the last round for himself," - only taking one magazine "because that is all that he needed," an affidavit filed with charging papers said.
April 24...also report from Pearl, Mississippi that a school attack was abborted...back in 1997 Luke Woodham, a student went on a killin g rampage that saw his mother and tow school girls murdered.
Teen Killed In Shooting At Venice High School
POSTED: 4:01 pm PDT June 5, 2006UPDATED: 5:59 pm PDT June 5, 2006
A teenage boy was shot and killed in the Venice High School parking lot. The shooting occurred at 3:10 p.m., police said.
The boy was taken to the hospital in critical condition and later was pronounced dead, said Officer Mike Lopez, a police spokesman.The victim was a 17-year-old junior at Venice High but no other details were available, said Susan Cox, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Teen Shot by Police Brain Dead
By KELLI KENNEDY, Associated Press Writer Jan 2006The 15-year-old boy shot by police while brandishing a pellet gun in a middle school bathroom was clinically brain
dead Saturday but was being kept alive to harvest his organs, his family's attorney said. Christopher Penley was
expected to die Saturday night, said family attorney Mark Nation.
"His organs are in the process of being harvested," Nation told reporters outside a hospital. Earlier, Kelly Swofford,
a family spokeswoman and neighbor of the boy's parents Ralph and Donna Penley, said the boy had died and that
the family was "devastated."
Penley, of Winter Springs, was accused of pulling the pellet gun in a classroom Friday and pointing it at other students
before forcing one into a closet, then leading deputies and SWAT team members on a chase that ended in a school bathroom.
When he raised the gun at a deputy, a SWAT team member shot him, authorities said.
Officers who had responded to the 1,100-student school in suburban Orlando believed the gun was a Beretta 9mm, and
didn't learn until after the shooting that it was a pellet gun.
Police had said Friday night that the boy was on "advanced life support." The hospital refused to release any information Saturday.
"Everybody in the whole neighborhood is really upset," Paul Cavallini, who lives across the street from the Penleys, said
Saturday. "He was a quiet kid — polite and everything. He was just a normal teenager." However, friends and investigators say
he was also bullied and emotionally distraught, and went to school that day expecting to die.
With Americans spending an average of 40 percent of their free time watching television, the
negative effects of excessive TV-watching are taking a toll:· More than 2,000 studies link TV-violence to real life violence.
· Twelve major medical studies link excessive TV watching to increased obesity.
· By the age of 65, the average American spends nine full years watching TV."We have the most sedentary generation of young people in American history…reducing the
amount of television our children watch is one way to encourage more healthful activity," U.S.
Surgeon General David Satcher said."When kids are parked in front of the TV, they're not engaged in the activities essential to the
formation of healthy bones and muscles," American Public Health Association executive
director Mohammad Akhter said.According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches three hours and 46 minutes
of TV every day, that's more than 52 days of nonstop TV watching per year.Unfortunately, some negative statistics show Americans rent more videos on a daily basis, six
million, than the number of books checked out of public libraries, only three million.The average American child, ages two to 11, watches television 1,197 minutes (almost 20
hours) per week, whereas the same children only spend 38 minutes per week in meaningful
conversation with their parents.Other discouraging statistics compiled by TV-Free America include:
· Only one in 12 parents require their children to do homework before watching television.
· 25: percentage of teens who can name the city where the U.S. Constitution was written: Philadelphia.
· 75: percentage of teens who know where to find the zip code 90210: Beverly Hills.
· 200,000: number of violent acts the average American child sees on TV by age 18.
· 16,000: number of murders witnessed by children on television by age 18.
· 10: percentage of youth violence directly attributable to TV viewing.
· 73: percentage of Americans who believe TV and movies are responsible for juvenile crime.
· 80: percentage of Hollywood executives who think there is a link between TV violence and real-life violence.
· 91: percentage of children polled who said they felt upset or scared by violence on television.
· 721: percent increase in network news coverage of homicides between 1993 and 1996.
· 41: percent increase in number of violent scenes per hour on 10 major channels from 1992 to 1994.
· 12: number of medical studies since 1985 linking excessive television-watching to increasing rates of obesity.
· 4: percentage of American children, ages six to 11, seriously overweight in 1963.
· 14: percentage of American children, ages six to 11, seriously overweight in 1993.
· 202: number of junk food ads aired during four hours of Saturday morning programming.TV-Free America is a national, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization encouraging Americans to
voluntarily and dramatically reduce the amount of television they watch in order to promote
richer, healthier and more connected lives, families and communities.According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the years between 1985 and 1995 saw a
249 percent increase in gun-related murders committed by juveniles. (By the year 1992, when
murder became the second leading cause of death among males 15-24 in the United States,
three-quarters of the killings already involved guns.) Indeed, for black and white older adolescents,
firearm murders are the most rapidly increasing cause of death.After review of hundreds of research findings,
three major national studies have concluded
that heavy exposure to televised violence
is one of the significant causes of violence
in society:
The Surgeon Generals Commission Report (1972).
The National Institute of Mental Health Ten-Year Follow-up (1982).
The report of the American Psychological Association's Task Force on
Television in Society (1992).Causes of Death in Schools
Of all the deaths that have occurred in American schools since 1992, 77% have resulted from shootings
The number of deaths by various causes in public shootings, 1992 through April 1999, including deaths
from the Littleton, Colo., massacre in April 1999. Reported by The National School Safety Center.“In some areas of the country, it is now more likely for a black male between 15 and
25 to die from homicide than it was for a United States soldier to be killed on a tour
of duty in Vietnam. ” New York Times, December 7, 1990.
Shooting 193Stabbing 35
Beating 11
Asphyxiation 4
Hanging 1
Jumping 1
Unknown 3Suicides...add this to the fire
Guns used in suicides have a very high "completion rate" -- 78% of such attempts
are fatal.[Source: Annest JL, Mercy JA, Gibson DR, Ryan GW. National estimates
of nonfatal firearmrelated injuries: beyond the tip of the iceberg. JAMA 1995This is one of the saddest and horrible affects/effects that our ignoring our children and
youth all these years has befallen upon our culture...when a youth takes their own life,
humanity is that much less human.A suicide is a death that is caused by a self-inflicted, intentional action or behavior. Across all
age groups in the United States, firearms consistently account for nearly 60% of all suicide
deaths. It is the method of CHOICE.Each year in the United States, thousands of teenagers commit suicide. Again, over the
past two decades automobile accidents kill most of the nations adolecents. It has been re-
ported that over a million kids are in auto wrecks in a years time. I honestly believe that
tens of thousands of the kids killed and badly hurt in automobile accidents are suicide
attempts. Consciously and on the robotic unconscious level...there are many forms of
behavior that suicide can hide.Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death for 15-to-24 years olds, & the 6th leading
cause of death for 5-to-14 years olds. This fact alone brings tears to my already red eyes. Between
1950 and 1992, suicide among adolescents and young adults has nearly tripled, according to the CDC.
From 1980 to 1992, suicide among American teens 15-to-19 years old rose 28.3%. During that same
period the suicide rate for children 10-to-14 has grown 120%. These statistics are scary, but the worst
part of it is what these numbers don't tell. The numbers we have are based on SUCCESSFUL suicides.
The scary thought is that only 7 to 10 percent of attempters die by suicide. That means that to get an
adequate picture of who tries to commit suicide.....you have to multiply the numbers by at least 10.
That means that there are more people that attempt suicide between the ages of 5-to-14 then are killed
by the top ten causes of death. To put it simply....it is an epidemic......We NEED to start paying attention
to the problems that are causing our youth to behave in such sad sad ways. This is what I know for sure.So...while I am working on this page after the Columbine tragedy this yet another
tragedy comes to my heart reading this in USA TODAY. My fellow Americans...this
is happening in the United States of America...not China or Russia. We know what
is going on and if you look back just years ago in some of the research below you
see that we have had the stories and the "research" to know a terrible trend has
begun, and that as a Nation, a culture and a country we should stop as humans,
congressmen, parents and presidents and do something to stem the tide...Murder tops the causes of death among infants
When an infant dies of an injury, murder is the most common cause, says the first large-scale
study of injury deaths in the first year of life. "We were very surprised when we first looked at
the numbers to see this (murder) happening so much in infants," says Mary Overpeck, a
researcher at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development...after murder,
which accounted for 23% of the deaths, the leading causes were suffocation, 18%; car
accidents, 15%; fires 9%; drowning, 7%; choking on food, 7%; choking on objects, 6%;
other unintentional injuries, 11%; and injuries of undetermined intent, 4%.
USA TODAY 5/5/99
Study results to date show that there were 173 incidents between 7/1/94
and June 30, 1998. The majority of these incidents were homicides and
involved the use of firearms. The total number of events has decreased
steadily since the 1992-1993 school year. However, the total number of
multiple victim events appears to have increased. During the past 3 school
years, August 1995 through June 1998, there were an average of 5 multiple
victims events per year. This is compared to an average of one multiple
victim event per year in the three years from August 1992 through July
1995. Thus, while the total number of events of school associated violent
deaths have decreased, the total number of multiple-victim events appears
to have increased. Data collection ended with the completion of the 1997-
1998 academic year.Over the 5-year period from 1992 to 1996, teachers were victims of 1,581,000
nonfatal crimes at school, including 962,000 thefts and 619,000 violent
crimes (rape or sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated and simple assault) (Indicator 9).
This translates into about 316,000 nonfatal crimes per year over this time
period.
CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), is a school-based survey
designed to produce nationally representative sample of risk behaviors
among students in grades 9-12.In 1997, law enforcement agencies made an estimated 2.8 million
arrests of persons under the age of 18
The 1997 YRBS reported that:8.3% of high school students carried a weapon (e.g., gun, knife, or club)
during the 30 days preceding the survey, down from 26.1% in 199
5.9% of high school students carried a gun during the 30 days preceding
the study. 8.5% of high school students carried a weapon on school property
during the 30 days preceding the survey 7.4% of high school students were
threatened or injured with a weapon on school property during the 12 months
preceding the survey.Other facts from the 1997 YRBS report included:
Nationwide, 4% of students had missed 1 or more days of school during
the 30 days preceding the survey because they had felt unsafe at school
or when traveling to or from school.The prevalence of weapon carrying on school property on 1 or more of
the 30 days preceding the survey was 8.5% nationwide. Overall, male
students (12.5%) were significantly more likely than female students
(3.7%) to have carried a weapon on school property.Nationwide, the prevalence of students who had been threatened or
injured with a weapon on school property one or more times during the
12 months preceding the survey was 7.4%. Overall, male students
(10.2%) were significantly more likely than female students (4%) to have
been threatened or injured with a weapon on school property.Nationwide, 14.8% of students had been in a physical fight on school
property one or more times during the 12 months preceding the survey.
Overall, male students (20%) were significantly more likely than female
students (8.6%) to have been in a physical fight on school property. This
significant difference was identified for white and Hispanic students and
all grade subgroups.Approximately one third (32.9%) of students nationwide had property
(car, clothing, or books) stolen or deliberately damaged on school
property one or more times during the 12 months preceding the survey.Over 108,700 juveniles were in detention, correctional, or shelter facilities on
February 15, 1995. (Ojjpd) People you must realize that this is on one day....
and you can bet your life on it that if you add numbers like this every day year
after year...you haveIn 1996, one-fifth of all juveniles were living below the poverty level, 27% above
the 1977 level but 8% below the 1992 level. (OJJPD) 69.5 million Americans –
or more than one in four – were under the age of 18 in 1997.Over 108,700 juveniles were in detention, correctional, or shelter facilities on
February 15, 1995. the average length of stay for juveniles released from
custody in 1994 varied by facility type and custody status ranging from a few
days to several months.In 1995 courts with juvenile jurisdiction disposed more than 1.7 millionWhile the government, churches, communities, school boards and individual parents worry and wonder at
delinquency cases.
what can be done. Now, after ignoring the problem for a few decades... we are seeing the flash points of a
very pervasive and historic situation in our Nation and with the youth, who are said to be the future of the
nation itself.I ask again where is all this lottery money going...tax the guns Mr. Heston and give some of the money the
arms merchants are selling out of their pursuit to make the all mighty buck...the same guys that are
manufacturing the guns that our kids are taking to school, shooting each other with, shooting themselves
and their parents with, the same guns that the gangs are shooting up the streets and neighborhoods with in
cities across this entire nation are the same guys that are selling guns to the various countries that are in
war like Kosovo, the guns...What reminds me of Gore Vadal's Hollywood?The gun owners stick up their hands and say it is not the guns, or our Second Amendment Right that the
forefathers gave us, of course never imagining that the kids would be blowing the heads off of their parents,
their peers, teachers and cops in the street, and corner grocery store clerks away with simi automatic rifles.
Hey Charlton Moses did you carry a gun to Denver? The school says it is not our fault we had no idea,
besides we do not have the funds needed to teach much less control the ills of society that come to school
each day called students. Our youth are a mess, and we put more money into football gear than we do the
counselors to help them. Irony that it was the jocks that they were after. We need to look at the sports
win win win thing.The little boy says with a quivering lip...trying not to break down and "be like a man"...when he tells the new
camera how he saw his his friend Mat laying on the floor in the school library, smoking from the side where
they had shot him. Some tough swat team guy breaks down crying saying, "You feel like your stomach is
grabbing you and your heart is at your feet...there were bodies laying all over the floor. It was a mess."
Another Swat team member on the scene says, "I feel like I am empty living in a fog. When I saw that first
dead girl laying there I saw my daughters face in hers."
National Threat Assessment Center
Secret Service Safe School Initiative from their website in Jan of 2006
In 2002, the U.S. Secret Service completed the Safe School Initiative, a study of school shootings and other school-based attacks that was conducted in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education. The study examined school shootings in the United States as far back as 1974, through the end of the school year in 2000, analyzing a total of 37 incidents involving 41 student attackers. The study involved extensive review of police records, school records, court documents, and other source materials, and included interviews with 10 school shooters. The focus of the study was on developing information about the school shooters's pre-attack behaviors and communications. The goal was to identify information about a school shooting that may be identifiable or noticeable before the shooting occurs, to help inform efforts to prevent school-based attacks.
SEE MORE FROM THEIR WEBSITE...http://www.secretservice.gov/ntac_ssi.shtml
After review of hundreds of research findings,
three major national studies have concluded
that heavy exposure to televised violence
is one of the significant causes of violence
in society:
The Surgeon Generals Commission Report (1972).
The National Institute of Mental Health Ten-Year Follow-up (1982).
The report of the American Psychological Association's Task Force on
Television in Society (1992).Col. David Grossman ...The Psychology of Killing talked of simulated murder. How they use
simulate the cops, swats teams etc. in these simulators. Your are learning to do it and live it...
it give you the practice in this virtual world simulated...These tools are used in the military and
police departments to help them overcome the fear to kill. To make killing inour soldiers a
conditioned response...ding!!!! There goes the bell again..
The guys that made the game Mortal Combat says, hey its just a game. Just because the military, cops and
swat teams use the same simulated games and many times this game itself has no relativity here. (Hey guys,
call me late to dinner, but don't call me stupid.) The guys at Fox, CBS, ABC, NBC, MTV, Warner Brothers say,
"Hey this stuff don't affect/effect younger children and youth when they see the mindless repetition of guns, sex,
violence, drugs over and over for more than two decades on the boob tube and at the big silver screen. Hey,
and what about art and my God given talents says Marlyn Manson...who also says I didn't do it, it is just art and
rock n' roll man. The Grunge movement say hey man...we ain't preaching that violent stuff...what? Oh, this tattoo
of a swastaca on my neck? Hitler, wasn't he a World War hero? Yes, these are army boots and military fatigues
I am wearing with my spiked hair and 10 pounds of chains around my neck... and metal stuck through my lip, noes,
ear, belly button and places I won't say right now, cause my parents might be watching TV.Acting the dumbest of all was the principal and the superintendent and school officials. I think Alfred E. Newman
for president, what do you say boys? Or, maybe Wavey Gravey will run "Nobody" again for president. And I ask
you guys, did you ever wonder where all the lottery money is going. Why do I remember something about schools
and children when the system ran that game down our collective throats. And how much is the Littleton school
system spending on administration. Check out the disparity in the budge for administration and actual programs
that are designed to give teenagers some help and balance in these kids troubled lives.Remember this is the 100th Monkey. And didn't a guy named Pavlov have a dog that liked bells...Rebellion...
Rebell...The swat team said all the blood and the eire feeling of the bells and the fire alarms going off in the
building rang of the disaster. Our school bells ring their toll, while the church bells are silent in the schools.
ACLU and somebody ran Jesus and God out years ago. Hey, ask B.F. Skinner about monkey see, monkey do.
Speaking of monkeys on our back...I am reminded of the three that had their hands over their eyes, ears, and
mouth. Well this is what our kids see us as when they need help or answers to what is real and what is not.
They are not just monkeying around, they are holding on to the dear survival of their mind set...for the world
around them is going ape raping mad...like some monkey bite in the jungle of Africa where a behavioral type
virus begins to spread aAids sets in and babys begin to die from some viral strain in the culture.Oh, God. Dear God...what have we done to the youth that is our culture. Sad vulnerable little boys and they
take on the dark side of our culture.
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES
from: www.now.org/The NationalOrganizationforWomenMURDER . Every day four women die in this country as a result of domestic violence, the euphemism for murders and
assaults by husbands and boyfriends. That's approximately 1,400 women a year, according to the FBI. The number of
women who have been murdered by their intimate partners is greater than the number of soldiers killed in the Vietnam War.BATTERING . Although only 572,000 reports of assault by intimates are officially reported to federal officials each year,
the most conservative estimates indicate two to four million women of all races and classes are battered each year. At
least 170,000 of those violent incidents are serious enough to require hospitalization, emergency room care or a doctor's
attention.SEXUAL ASSAULT . Every year approximately 132,000 women report that they have been victims of rape or attempted rape,
and more than half of them knew their attackers. It's estimated that two to six times that many women are raped, but do not
report it. Every year 1.2 million women are forcibly raped by their current or former male partners, some more than once.THE TARGETS . Women are 10 times more likely than men to be victimized by an intimate. Young women, women who are
separated, divorced or single, low- income women and African-American women are disproportionately victims of assault and
rape. Domestic violence rates are five times higher among families below poverty levels, and severe spouse abuse is twice as
likely to be committed by unemployed men as by those working full time. Violent attacks on lesbians and gay men have
become two to three times more common than they were prior to 1988.IMPACT ON CHILDREN . Violent juvenile offenders are four times more likely to have grown up in homes where they saw
violence. Children who have witnessed violence at home are also five times more likely to commit or suffer violence when
they become adults.
"Rap artists aren't rapping about things they made up. It's not glorifying it. It's just real life.
It is what it is," said Gabrielle Peluso, director of publicity for Def Jam Records in New York.According to the latest Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) statistics, juveniles are responsible
for 34% of all pipe bombings in the nation. Instructions for making pipe bombs are widely available on the
Internet, at book stores, at libraries and at gun shows. From 1993 through 1997, there were 3,578 pipe
bombings nation wide, according to ATF stats. In addition, Juveniles have stolen a total of 780 ds of high
explosives, such as dynamite, in the past two years. "The magnitude of this is incomprehensible to me," said
Jeff Roehm, an investigator with the ATF who has 22 years experience. " have two high-school age daughters.
I woke up a couple times last night in cold sweats, literally."I could not help but wonder why the swat team seemed so reluctant to go in...it is all so hard to imagine the
dilemma that those trained men had to go through...but, who is the world is trained for anything like this...who
could know? Who could judge? Just because they are trained Swat teams and are trained cops does not
mean they know how to deal with a tragedy such as this. You can see that these tough men will never be the
same. Men that are trained to kill and be tough and strong, were seen on the news with tears in their eyes
after the event. They all seemed to be not so tough up against the situation that existed at Columbine High in
Colorado that tragic day.Death as an award to them
Social outcasts
Neo-Natzi Germany punk, march pits, black, steel and chains. Warner Brothers and
a Matrix of trench coat crime and gangster type 2000 kid violence...WASHINGTON--President Clinton today invited representatives of the entertainment, Internet, and gun industries
to a May 10 White House summit to debate ways to cut youth violence after the Colorado school massacre. "As
we have united in grief, now we should unite in action," Clinton said, cautioning, however, that "we should
recognize the simple truth that there is no simple, single answer." Clinton said he wants to invite to his national
strategy session representatives from the movie industry and the Internet, government and religious leaders,
those who produce explosives and weapons, and police force leaders.The objective is to create a national grassroots campaign against youth violence on the scale of past efforts to,
for example, fight drunk driving. "If citizens, parents, and children alike, working together in their communities,
can reduce teen pregnancy, reduce drunk driving, make seat belt use nearly universal--then working together we
can protect our children," Clinton said. is a natural place where many of them will break. That treadmill they are
on is running pretty fast.I am very mad at my culture for the blood that our children bath in...Colarado and the streets of L.A. The kids at
Waco and the kids in the nursery in the Oklahoma building, the children in Kosovo, the kids in the sweat shops
and factories around the world working for dimes, the runaway and homeless children and the kids in the streets
of Rio and New York. I pray for all the hundreds of thousands of kids who have attempted and contemplated
suicide. I pray for the millions that have been and are now locked in adult jails, detention centers, foster homes,
single parent families.The news the day of the carnage at the High School in Colorado went from the blood and guns of that story to the
blood and buildings burning in Belgrade after the NATO attacks. Thought then I could probable flip over to Fox
and see some of their typical afternoon blow up violence that they program each afternoon for your children...
America is violent and we are obsessed with violence. We are a wash in violence on TV in the movies and in
the home. The shocking stats on the number of homicides of women being caused by their husbands and lovers,
child abuse a major killer of children, the top three killers of our youth are auto accidents, suicide and homicide.
Hitlers's birthday on 4/20...same month anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, 5th anniversary of the end of
the Waco tragedy...earlier school shootings in Jonesboro, Ark, West Pauduca, Ky, Springfield, ore, Fayetteville,
Tenn., Edinboro, Pa and Pearl, Miss. Juvenile crime on the rise.THEY ARE IMMERSED... IMMERSION-TYPE MEDIA, SUCH AS VIDEO GAMES AND COMPUTER OR
INTERNET GAMES... YOU WIN BY THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE THAT YOU KILL.
The homes are not safeSo media argues...media does not affect/effect the behavior of our children and youth. Basically they all say...The schools are not safe
The streets are not safe
Television filled with violence
News is all violent...if it bleeds it leads
Movies are full of violence
Video games filled with violence
Music filled with violence
Nearly all of the 200 most popular movies rented in 1996 and 1997
included the appearance of alcohol, tobacco or illegal drugs, a
Stanford University researchers found.And on and on and on...
hey, ART & Freedom of expression. Ah..why what they see on TV and in the movies does not effect them..etc.
etc.etc.etc. I always think when I hear the entertainment and media folks tell how what people watch on TV and
at the movies does not affect/effect children and youth. I can not help but ask...then what is the entire purpose
of advertising? So then where did Joe Camel go? Why are they taking down the adds for alcohol and tobacco.
The same guys that deny that what kids see on TV has and affect/effect on the childen are the same guys paying
millions upon millions of dollars showing advertising on TV to get people to change their behavior and do what
they want them to do...buy the advertisted products. THINK ABOUT THIS A SECOND FOLKS...THE PROBLEM
Thousands of scientific studies and case studies have shown the powerful influence that the
entertainment media has on people's cognitive development and behavior, especially children,
teenagers and young people, who represent the biggest audience. In fact, by the time they are
17-years-old, children will have spent at least 40,000 hours watching movies, videos and TV
programs, playing video games, listening to music, and reading popular books and news
stories, but only 11,000 hours in school, 2,000 hours with their parents, and 800 hours in church
if they regularly attend! That's about 2,353 hours of media consumption per year for the average
child. Of those 2,353 hours each year, our current figures indicate that up to 20 percent of them,
or about 471 hours, will feature a solid, strong or very strong moral worldview, and up to 7
percent, or about 165 hours, will feature a solid, strong or very strong redemptive or Christian
worldview.In 2001, the Surgeon General of the United States agreed with four top medical groups, the
American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American
Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, as
well as countless psychological experts, that violence in the mass media is contributing to
increasing violent behavior among children.1 Not only that, but many scientific studies from
other sources, such as education professor Diane Levin, author of REMOTE CONTROL
CHILDHOOD? COMBATING THE HAZARDS OF MEDIA CULTURE, 2 and psychologists like
Dr. Victor Cline, Dr. Stanley Rachman, and Dr. W. Marshall, 3 have found that viewing sexual
images in the media has led to increased sexual activity among children and teenagers and
increased deviant behavior, including rape. Furthermore, a recent Dartmouth Medical School
study of New England middle-school students, reported by the National Cancer Institute, found
that viewing drug use in movies and TV programs leads
THE SOLUTION - MEDIA WISDOM
By Dr. Ted Baehr and Dr. Tom Snyder
Special to ASSIST News ServiceA USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll taken Wednesday, the day after the Colorado high school shootings, shows
79% believe the incident indicates "there is something seriously wrong in the country today." Only 17% called
it "an isolated incident." The poll also shows that the easy availability of guns, lax or inattentive parents, and
violent media come in for the lion's share of the blame The poll shows a growing sense of public worry for their
own children's safety in school: More than half (55%) of parents with children in school fear for their safety, up
form 37% a year ago. Only 24% feared for their children in 1977. The poll shows 49% believe violent media
are a contributing factor, and 52% say "stricter regulation" of the content of movies and TV would help stem the
problem.It seemed interesting to me that Klebold had a black BMW. Been to the prom.
Lived is a very very nice house. Military father. Hey this was not some poor
deprived outcast that he was being painted to be...something is wrong with
this picture.CNN makes Headline News statement on the possibility that television and movie violence create a social
atmosphere that makes such horrors possible...stating usually, news media prefer to ignore this old story...
as in the case of tobacco, the health hazards of violent television were recognized by experts and even by
government agencies long before public awareness began to build.In 1972, there was a report by a surgeon general's committee: "Television and Growing Up: The Impact of
Televised Violence." By 1976, the case was so obvious that the American Medical Association's House of
Delegates passed this resolution: "The House declares TV violence threatens the health and welfare of young
Americans..."Denial...
Ten years later, just as the first U.S. generation raised on television reached the vulnerable, crime-committing
years, the homicide rate began a steep climb. After 15 years, it had doubled. Canada had the same ex-
perience, as did other countries like Africa where TV was brought to the populations."Industry spokespersons have made innumbeable protestations of good intent," said Brandon Centerwall who
did the above research..."but nothing has happened. In over 20 years of monitoring television levels of violence,
there has been no downward movement."..CNN's Philip Meyer in article BELIEVE IT: TV Violence stalks streets of Littleton--your hometown.
Scott Poland of Houston, a nationally recognized expert on school psychology, has testified before Congress
twice in the last two years. He believes Washington missed an opportunity in the wake of school shootings in
Mississippi, Kentucky, Arkansas and Oregon...."We went back to sleep," Poland said. "It saddens me to say
that...We must do things differently."Some said they chose Tuesday because it was April 20, noting that it is Hitler's birth date and the some kids
refer to "420" as some kind of marijuana designation. In Los Angeles, California 420 is the number attached
to a marijuana charge in Los Angeles for anybody's information.LA Times....."Teachers, for their part, often feel squeezed between parents who abrogate their duties and
school systems that demand high test scores. If the parents and the teachers can't fill the need for affiliation
and guidance that teenagers by nature require, then gangs and cliques--"Trench Coat Mafia" or other wise--
are happy to step in. Outsiders who once were geeky loners now can band together."David Elkind, author of "All Grown Up and No Place to Go." says, "Once, not long ago, families were geared
toward protecting children: providing them with guidance and direction, and with recreation geared to their
developmental levels. But in the aftermath of the 1960s, where every other kind of social convention was
attacked from within, a false sense of family egalitarianism took over...At the turn of the century, we had the
development of pediatrics. Now we have the veneration of geriatrics, "Elkind said. "Now the needs of children
and adolescents are placed below the needs of adults. We have taken a lot away from kids, particularly from
adolescents. We used to see them as immature, in need of adult guidance. Now we see them a sophisticated,
ready for anything."It's really horrifying," said Arnett, a visiting professor at the Univ. of Maryland. "Some of it I think (music) is really
poisonous. Youth culture has existed for hundreds of years, but it is hard for me to think of anything before the
last 20 years that was oriented towards such violence."To John Cole, a professor of psychology at Duke University, the penchant for violence is the most alarming trait
in today's youth culture. "We haven't had this previously in our culture." he said, "where kids or teenagers bring
guns to schools and start shooting indiscriminately."Look at the stats on the numbers of children that have been raised by just their mothers over the past three
decades. Especially the past two where the stats exceed some 10 to 15 million children living with just their
mothers. Then add foster homes, adult jails, dent ion centers.The little TV Robots were going to go on and crash a plane into New York.
Folks...think about it!Four 8th graders were arrest in Wimberly, Texas days after Colorado, for a plot to
blow up the school. Wimberly, Texas? This town is smaller and more laid back than
Littleton, CO ever thought about being...It is a litttle hide-away paradise in the Texas
Hill Country out side of Austin, Texas...the deadly little I saw it on TV robots are going
be be going off like little candles in the wind all over the nation for the next few years...Five bombs thrown at a High School in Philadelphia
Threats in Dallas...
The little boy says with a quivering lip...trying not to break down and "be like a man"...when he tells the new
camera how he saw his his friend Mat laying on the floor in the school library, smoking from the side where they
had shot him. Some tough swat team guy breaks down crying saying, "You feel like your stomach is grabbing
you and your heart is at your feet...there were bodies laying all over the floor. It was a mess." Another Swat
team member on the scene says, "I feel like I am empty living in a fog. When I saw that first dead girl laying
there I saw my daughters face in hers."Col. David Grossman ...The Psychology of Killing talked of simulated murder. That they simulate
the cops, swats teams etc. in these simulators. Your are learning to do it and live it...it give you the
practice in this virtual world simulated...Talks about the video games that kids use being exactly
like the simulated murder games for professional killers. These tools are used in military and police
to help them overcome the fear to kill. To make killing in our soldiers a conditioned response...
ding!!!! There goes the bell again!And now we meet in the town halls, in the capitols and at our schools to see what can we do...NOW at this
late hour when we have to use military controls and swat teams to deal with our children. The bell rings
its toll...Searches
Suggestion Boxes in the schools to turn in your school mates
Uniforms
Lock lockers
Metal detectors
No trench coats or baggy clothes
No book bags or packs
Security cameras
More security
Close off most entrances
Phones in rooms
Get school to work on plans with local police
Secure science labs where chemicals are found
On the more mothering and nurturing side.
More counselors
More PTA involvement
Problem-solving
Stress management
Assertiveness
Anger control
Impulse control
Medicated straight jackets
SOME RAN EAST...SOME RAN WEST
CHAPTERS
"TRUTH IS LIKE A TORCH...
FROM IT WE SHIELD OUR EYES
FOR FEAR OF BEING BURNED"
in the sandIn Their Own Words
Poems and words from the streets
Down and out in L.A.
an ongoing saga of the homeless
