It's Time to Save Our Teenagers and Young People

Whether you care to admit it or not, our children are under siege in America and it is not abating, but only getting worst. I cannot remember a time when I was growing up that children entertained the thought of getting a gun and spraying as many people with bullets as they possibly can. This latest kid, Hawkins, who was obviously troubled for a long time, lost his job, his girlfriend dumped him, he was kicked out or left his home, so he decides to go out in a "blaze of glory." He said that he would be famous by killing these innocent people and then himself. I suspect that the media has some fault in this narcissistic attitude of these young murderers, but that's another commentary. I am sure I can aver that many people have lost a job, have been dumped by a significant other and have had bouts of depression, but have never resorted to handling one's problem like a chump and a lunatic.

Do I feel sympathy for this kid? No, not really. You see, his parents failed him and so did the court system. Much like Seung Hui Cho, who massacred 32 students and injured 25 at Virginia Tech, he was a ticking time-bomb, who it was quite obvious needed some mental counseling or some type of intervention, but the system failed him. The same is true for the young African American men who murdered Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor. They are stark examples of a terrible breakdown in the family and being caught up in a life of poverty. The problem runs deeper than we can ever imagine, but for those of us with kids, we must take our role as parents seriously. The root of the problems all started during the formative years of the children.

Early intervention is paramount, or we will continue to pay the price as evidenced from the massacre at the Omaha mall, Virginia Tech, Sean Taylor, Columbine High School, and so on. We can blame the explosion of violence by teenagers and young adults on a wide spectrum of reasons including the breakdown of families, absence of fathers in the home, unstable family lives, video games, lax security to violent music. We need to implement grassroots programs in schools, in the inner cities and other high crime areas where these young people are at the greatest risk. There should be more transparency and a greater availability of facilities to treat mental illness, which is often ignored. We need to teach our kids that solving their problems do not involve hurting themselves and others.

I did not realize that youth violence of untold magnitudes could rocket into the forefront of American consciousness until in 1999, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 12 of their fellow students at Columbine High School and a teacher before committing suicide. They gained much of their information from the Internet, which has become almost like a necessary albatross without which we can never function.

"A large number of people over the Internet ... idolize Klebold and Harris and consider them to be heroes," Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, District Attorney Bruce Castor said last month. Castor was detailing a case in which a 14-year-old was arrested and accused of plotting to launch a Columbine-style attack at his former high school. The youth, Dillon Cossey, had contact via the Internet with Finnish teenager Pekka-Eric Auvinen, who on November 7 killed eight people at his high school outside Helsinki before committing suicide. The two had discussed their admiration for Klebold and Harris, as well as their interest in violent role-playing computer games, Castor said. Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho also revered the Columbine killers, which was noted in his middle and high school records.

There is also another position that we must visit-many times, these rampage killers have felt that they were victimized, bullied or humiliated over a long period of time. Or they may also feel rejected, as echoed by Debora Maruca-Kovac, who let Hawkins live with her after he experienced problems at home. She said that the teen was "kind of like a pound puppy nobody wanted." This does not excuse the behavior, but it reinforces the point that parents must take their role a lot more seriously than they have, specifically parents such as these who failed this young man.

There are often warning signs that are quite obvious, but many times people turn their heads to the other side and ignore a brewing problem. We have to save our children before they become lost and embark on a path of destruction from which they can never return.