Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss High School Stabbing in PA

Well, Mabros, this happened in my town, and in my kids' school district.

Granted, my kids are in elementary school, and were not at school yet when this happened, but there are several schools on this campus, and my kids' school is one of them. My daughter has softball pitching lessons in the high school during the winter.

I do know kids in this high school, Franklin Regional, in Murrysville, PA. I've supported their guitar program by donating electric guitars to the school for the students to use.

As I was made aware of this on the way to work this morning, I detoured towards the high school. It was eerie to see the ambulances blowing by away from the school and towards the surrounding hospitals.

No fatalities, it seems.

Scary!

Very good that your children were not involved. However think about , as I know you are , the mental impact from being around the situation. Hug those babies and keep them busy the next few weeks !!

Sorry Sunil - that's creepy, but glad all is ok your way. My wife is a counselor in a middle school my oldest daughter attends and every day a little part of me worries.

Very scary...

Glad they're OK, Sunil!

Sunil, I'm glad you're there for your kids. It's got to be a very traumatic and confusing time for them.

I'm not sure my kids no about it yet (they're 7 and 9 yrs. old), and I think my wife has been keeping it from them. My niece and nephew are both the same ages and go to the same school, and they know about it; my brother said they're miffed.

From what I see on the news, one child is on life support.

Sorry to hear this sunil.. just another reason I no longer read or watch the news.. This stuff makes me sick and the news glamorizes it a way I can't stand..

It really hits home when it's in your backyard. Very tragic incident! I am not sure the exact cause(s) of our children turning to mass murder, but I sure hope we figure out what is going wrong...

Gone are the days we could bring a hunting knife in for show and tell. I remember a kid had his dad bring in a shoulder mount bighorn sheep. Probably can't do that anymore either at the risk of offending someone.

Kids are missing out on a lot thanks to a few nutcases and the media that gives them notoriety.

Heck when I was in high school 20 some odd years ago ALL the boys had pocket knives in our pockets year round, and more than half of us had hunting rifles or shotguns in our cars/trucks in the fall - for when we got off school and headed to the woods/fields. Admittedly I'm from a small rural town but still...it wasn't that long ago.

I don't know what's changed....but something certainly has. And it's most definitely not for the better.

I got out of high school in '87. There was never a thought of bringing a weapon to school. If you couldn't resolve a conflict with another student, fighting was the absolute last resort. At that point, you were going to be able to defend yourself, or get your ass beat.

Seems this kid is getting charged with (4) counts of attempted murder, and being charged as an adult.

I got into a fight almost every time I moved to a new school, as it was time to check out the new kid. And I moved a lot with my dad in the military. I attended 4 high schools and lost track of how many grade schools. But it was all fists and never any thought of using a knife or gun.

If the no tolerance rules were in effect when I was in school I probably would never have graduated. I think no tolerance rules wirh no regard to the circumstances are wrong. I think a person should have the prerogative to fight back without being thrown out of school.

I almost wonder if the steam can't get blown off with a fist fight maybe things get to a point where things get really bad as in the use of a weapon?

On a side note 87 is the first year I started kindergarten lol

I personally believe if the news department labelled these attackers as scum or coward instead of making their name famous we would get a lot less of these attacks.

How about 1978 when I got out of high school?

If you had a conflict with someone, it was a wrestling match until someone said Uncle!

I think that's spot on.

Yep!, but they have to make money...

I agree, but there is the over-saturation of news nowadays, and I think that notoriety given tends to create a surreal "I'm bigger than my life if I just..." mentality. Some blame the impersonal killing in video games and film media, some blame single-parent homes, and some say that it is the result of pharmaceuticals. I have my thoughts as do so many: maybe it is a result of all the above, maybe it can be broken down to a single yet-unfound factor. Regardless, we are seeing a rise in this type behavior predominately in areas that people are prohibited from adequate means of self-defense...

It's a terrible thing, but law-makers set the scenario, whether in response to constituent demand or some other, more diabolical reason.

It is scary how things have changed. I graduated from high school 22 years before Sunil. Challenge fights in the alley behind the school were always there, but rather infrequent.

We brought weapons to school all the time. From my preschool days, until today, except when I must commercially fly somewhere, I've never been without a knife in my pocket. I still have my 1952-53 Davy Crockett knife. I remember kids bringing rifles and knives to speech class, showing how to properly care for them. Most who drove themselves to school always had rifles, shotguns, and big knives in their cars during the various hunting seasons.

I don't know where we went so far off the tracks. In the six years of my Navy days, over 40 years ago, weapons were pretty well constrained everywhere on the military bases -- but nobody ever checked us, nor did anyone feel it was necessary.

It is so difficult to understand these situations.

Sunil -- I sure hope this situation doesn't affect your children in the long run.

Ken

Where did we go off the tracks? In grade school in the 1940's we throw rocks and had some fist fights. We all had pen knives and to even see a pistol in those days was very rare. Also in the early 50's we were all required to serve in the military. I don't know but my thinking is being around all kinds of weapons in the military reduced the feeling for needing buck rogers looking assault guns. I had grown men (trespassing) in my woods playing paint gun war. What the hell is that all about. When all my high school buddies came home from the service we never wanted to go out and play army. We all did have our shotguns and hunting rifles.

Wandering thoughts.

I'm 71 yoa and guns have always been a part of my life. By some accounts I have too many. All of them are useable, some collectable grade($$$$), but I rarely mess with most of them. I don't figure to have to shoot anybody. I don't have a CHL and don't figure to get one. I have an obscene amount of $ in reloading gear but no longer shoot a whole lot. Excluding kitchen stuff, I probably have 25 to 30 pocket and hunting knives. I don't figure to cut anybody.

I remember settling differences with fists. I also remember some of us having to take up for the kids that couldn't take care of themselves.

And there are many millions of people like me.

I don't think that we now have a culture of violence. That's media stuff. Lots of people blame violent video games but there are untold numbers of people that are addicted to them who will never hurt anybody.

Reality check.

Add up all of the numbers of incidents, school kids included, that you can remember where somebody went out and used deadly violence on a group of others. As a % of the total population, you will have a dot with a whole of of zeroes before you get to a number greater than that zero. There will be some that say even one is too many and I agree with that.

Now take a look at crime statistics. I don't have them but have talked to cops, criminologists and insurance professionals who tell me that way over 90% of the crimes against persons, burglary, armed robberies, murder during commission of a felony, etc. are committed by those addicted to illegal drugs. If your house gets burglarized today, if you are robbed at gun or knife point, the druggie has to go out and do it again the next day. OK, run the stats on that. I don't know how to get the numbers on this but I'll bet that you would find a whole lot less zeroes.

So why do "we" publicize and obsess over one number and not the other? What is the real problem? I have my own thoughts but would have to get political and on this site, we don't go there.

My kids will be fine, as far as I can tell.

Although, the parents of this kid are wondering how they didn't see something like this coming.

So many parents are now thinking: What DON'T I know about my kids?

Big silver lining over here is that nobody had died....yet. Due to that, the 'story' is dying quickly.