Monkey Diaries Archive

Last night I caught Bang, Bang You're Dead on Showtime. Based on the play of the same name by William Mastrosimone, the story explores the inner thoughts of a student who shoots and kills his parents and classmates. Pre-dating the Columbine tragedy, this play was first performed in April 1999 by students who actually witnessed and survived a school shooting at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon. What makes this film important is that it actually places the blame exactly where it belongs... in the hands of the kids themselves. These incidents are not about the media creating violent content, nor can these incidents be blamed completely on poor parenting, although that plays a major role. No, the truth is that these incidents begin and end with kids. High school can be a ruthless place, filled with the kind of alienation and animosity that no one really ever speaks of until it's too late. The fact that the media covering the Columbine shootings (and every other school shooting for that matter) completely ignored the events that pushed Harris & Klebold to open fire on their fellow students. While reports surrounding examinations of Harris & Klebold often labeled them misfits and outcasts, these kids at one point were part of the group. They were ostracized because of how they dressed, spoke or socialized. Everyday must have been torture for these kids and finally, the only solution they found was to take revenge on everyone who bullied them. Of course, they weren't too picky in so much as they attacked pretty much at random once the ball started rolling. The one thing that I found disheartening upon reading the details of the events in the news, was that everyone immediately sympathized with the kids who were injured or with the families who lost a child to the tragedy but nothing but contempt for the shooters was expressed. Aside from the perfunctory question of "why?" there really wasn't any attempt to gain insight into how much responsibility lay within the social structure of the school. Where they bullied? Attacked? Shunned? Laughed at? Ridiculed? Sure, everyone experiences these things in school right? But why do we put up with it? Is it a right of passage? Is any lesson really being learned? I don't think there really is a reason for it other than to create a social structure between the have's and have not's. Truth be told, it starts in high school but continues on into college where your social validity is highly suspect if you don't conform to the norm. Succumbing to the lure of the Greek system is just one of the way's kids set themselves apart from the pack. Joining a fraternity for many people is the only way they could function in the anonymous world of collegiate life. Consequently, they place an incredibly high value onto the group, thereby ensuring an elitist view of their social group. Hopefully, by the time you reach college, you realize that just because you happen to have the qualities that are attractive to a fraternity or sorority, a human being's worth can not be measured by who you know. But when you're between the ages of 13 and 18, that's not the case. Every little slight against you IS the end of the world. Not being part of the IN CROWD is a death knell and these kids are made to feel worthless and alone. The cheerleaders call you a nerd or the captain of the football team makes fun of you in public and immediately you look for the opportunity to prove them wrong, sometimes fantasizing about how to do it in the most public way possible. No, the bottom line about school shootings is that they are caused by the very people who are the victims. Just my .02 cents though.