A Critical Lesson for Parents to Learn from the Kentucky High School Shooting?

{{{The two kind and bright young people killed in the recent Kentucky shooting. It's enough to break your heart forever.}}}

A 15 year-old young man shot 16 other young people at a Kentucky high school, killing the two teenagers pictured above.

It seems that the young man came from a home where his father was abusive. His father once had to spend 90 days in jail for hitting his mother and someone described the father as a 'bully'. A bully is a strong person who enjoys attacking or abusing people weaker than himself. The father was also described as having a "short fuse". This means that he lost his temper and became angry very quickly.

So it seems to me that the young man who shot the 16 young people came from a home where his father was abusive. The young man must have endured, I am guessing, abuse himself, and he lived in an environment that was more negative than positive. He must have lived under a great amount of stress. I am guessing that his negative and abusive environment was a big cause for him to 'snap' and to violently express his anger, hatred and rage at innocent people. People are not "born" to do this. They are pushed to do this.

I wish that our popular culture actually expressed some messages of humanity and goodness. Parents in the USA are not getting the message that if they have children they must elevate their own behavior. There is no strong message being sent in America that parents must demonstrate good and humane values in their homes, because their children are going to pick up the negative values that they demonstrate. 

I think the message that has to be sent out now is that we have to begin challenging our parents in this country to elevate their behavior and to look at the types of people that they are and to change their behavior, if necessary, so that they do not harmfully influence their children. Nobody should bring other people into the world just to cause them so much pain that they may become violent. We, as Americans, have to begin sending out more humane messages to each other and working toward more humane relationships. 

An article about the Kentucky shooting:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/suspect-ky-school-shooting-identified-journalist-son-article-1.3782243

Vocabulary to help you understand the article:

a suspect - someone thought to have committed a crime. The young man has not been given a trial yet, so they have to refer to him as a suspect.

gunfire had broken out - this is a useful idiom. A fight broke out. Gunfire broke out. A riot broke out. Often times something violent 'breaks out'.

to remain in custody - he is being held by the police

to support trying him as an adult - this shooting was so terrible that they do not want this young man to go to a juvenile court (a place where young people are put on trial). They want to treat him as an adult even though he is only 15. If he were to go to a juvenile court, his punishment would not be very severe. If they try him as an adult, he might be placed in jail for his entire life.

to barge into - to enter a place forcefully

unleashing a hail of bullets - shooting many bullets. If you have a dog and you are walking the dog publicly, you have to have the dog on a leash. A leash is a long piece of material attached to the dog's collar. To unleash a dog is to let it run wild. So if you unleash bullets, you let them fly all over the place.

chaos - confusion, a lack of order

he peered into - he looked into, he stared into

to flee - to run away from

he kept to himself - he didn't talk to other people that much

he was charged with 4th degree assault - to be charged means to be formally accused by the police. 4th degree assault indicates how severe the assault was. Assault is when one person attacks another.

disorderly conduct - it means that he was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge than assault. Sometimes if a person does not have a criminal record, or if the person is well-educated or has a good job, the judge will show mercy and drop the charges to something lesser. Disorderly conduct means acting badly. 

controlling - he liked to have his way, he wanted things to be done his way.

a petition for a domestic violence order - if a woman is afraid of her husband, she can ask a judge to offer her protection through an order to the husband that he must not hurt his wife. If the judge provides or issues this order and the husband violates it, he has now committed a very serious crime and he will be punished even more severely.