ever wander why?

[granny2young]

Dear God:
Why didn't you save the school children at ?.
Moses Lake, Washington 2/2/96
Bethel, Alaska 2/19/97
Pearl, Mississippi 10/1/97
West Paducah, Kentucky 12/1/97
Stamps, Arkansas 12/15/97
Jonesboro, Arkansas 3/24/98
Edinboro, Pennsylvania 4/24/98
Fayetteville, Tennessee 5/19/98
Springfield, Oregon 5/21/98
Richmond, Virginia 6/15/98
Littleton, Colorado 4/20/99
Taber, Alberta, Canada 5/28/99
Conyers, Georgia 5/20/99
Deming, New Mexico 11/19/99
Fort Gibson, Oklahoma 12/6/99
Santee, California 3/5/01 and
El Cajon, California 3/22/01
Red Lake,Minn. 3/21/05

Sincerely,
Concerned Student

Reply:
Dear Concerned Student:
I am not allowed in schools.
Sincerely,
God
How did this get started?...Let's see, I think it started when Madeline Murray O'Hare complained she didn't want any prayer in our schools. And we said, OK...
Then, someone said you better not read the Bible in school, the Bible that says "thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbors as yourself," And we said, OK...
Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem.
And we said, an expert should know what he's talking about so we won't spank them anymore..
Then someone said teachers and principals better not discipline our children when they misbehave. And the school administrators said no faculty member in this school better touch a student when they misbehave because we don't want any bad publicity, and we surely don't want to be sued. And we accepted their reasoning...
Then someone said, let's let our daughters have abortions if they want, and they won't even have to tell their parents. And we said, that's a grand idea...
Then some wise school board member said, since boys will be boys and they're going to do it anyway, let's give our sons all the condoms they want, so they can have all the fun they desire, and we won't have to tell their parents they got them at school.
And we said, that's another great idea...
Then some of our top elected officials said it doesn't matter what we do in private as long as we do our jobs. And we said, it doesn't matter what anybody, including the President, does in private as long as we have jobs and the economy is good...
And someone else took that appreciation a step further and published pictures of nude children and then stepped further still by making them available on the Internet.
And we said, everyone's entitled to free speech....
And the entertainment industry said, let's make TV shows and movies that promote profanity, violence and illicit sex...
And let's record music that encourages rape, drugs, murder, suicide, and satanic themes... And we said, it's just entertainment and it has no adverse effect and nobody takes it seriously anyway, so go right ahead...
Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, classmates or even themselves. Undoubtedly, if we thought about it long and hard enough, we could figure it out. I'm sure it has a great deal to do with... "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW,"

[wittzo]

Too many parents not acting like parents. One of the kids from the Columbine shooting saw a chunk of shotgun barrel that their kid sawed off but she didn't want to "intrude" on her son's right to privacy.

Kids are physically maturing faster, but they are mentally maturing slower, they are taught that they are all winners or they are all special so at the first sign of adversity arises they over-react and do something stupid like this. Unfortunately this is their first cry for help or the first one that gets noticed because they have a sucky home life.

My kids will understand that life is not like a cartoon or episode of "The Cosby Show" but they will also know that I love them and they can tell me about anything that's bugging them.

[taxed]

I agree that taking God out of our schools is the number one cause of school age violence.

Another item to look at is prescription drugs. I heard one night on talk radio (don't know who said it, and I can't confirm its truth) that every gun crime by school age children was gang related, family related, or the child was on anti-depressants (Prozac, etc.).

[wittzo]

taxed said:

Another item to look at is prescription drugs. I heard one night on talk radio (don't know who said it, and I can't confirm its truth) that every gun crime by school age children was gang related, family related, or the child was on anti-depressants (Prozac, etc.).

I think it's a combination of; Parental inattentiveness: Both parents are working more hours outside of the home. The teachers and day care providers are spending more time with the kids than the parents. It's not their responsibility to be the parents, they are just worried that the kid survives to get home educated. If the parents aren't there to make sure they do their homework or get a hot meal or talk, they're not going to get any religious foundation, either. Chruch attendance is down everywhere, people are wiped out from working 40+ hours to spend the three hours it takes to go to church, they would rather sleep in to catch up with their sleep.

Lack of responsibility and accountability: When kids figure out that their slate is clean when they turn 18 for misdemeanors and they will get a slap on the wrist for committing felonies they'll go hog wild if they weren't raised to know or care about right or wrong
Traditionally kids think they're immortal: They don't think about the consequences of their actions.

The misuse of prescription drugs: Two of our kids are ADHD, one is on the hypo end and the other is on the hyper end. The hypoactive child went through medication after medication before they figured out what was right, but it required us and her teachers to observe her behavior. Luckily she's not 10 yet, if she was a teenager of driving age, there's no telling what she would have done if they were playing medicine tag. If the teachers and parents aren't paying attention to their kids' behavior, the child will be over medicated or under medicated or given the totally wrong medicines and their behavior will get worse.

In the case of my brother, he was "on" medication when he shot himself, but while we were cleaning out his apartment, we found several full bottles of pills that he hadn't been taking. Medicine like that is nothing to play with, you can't self-medicate and the doctor has to have the correct information to make the proper decision.

Gangs, drugs, alcohol, peer pressure, there are all sorts of factors, religion is only one. There are lots of problem kids in Catholic schools, they get plenty of religion there, plus they wear uniforms.

Society is becoming a less caring place, people just don't respect other people like they used to and the kids are picking it up little by little, generation after generation.