The suspect in the deadly shooting in Florida earlier this week told police his rampage commenced by shooting students he encountered in the hallways and on school grounds.
Toting a black duffel bag and backpack in which he concealed loaded magazines, the 19-year-old former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland unveiled a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle and fired repeatedly into five classrooms. He eventually ditched the gear, blended in with frantic students and fled the premises.
He stopped at a Subway inside a Walmart and then at a McDonald’s before he was apprehended while walking through a residential neighborhood. The young man currently faces 17 counts of premeditated murder and is detained at the county jail where he has been placed on a suicide watch.
To this point, most conversations about this despicable act have focused on “the how.” How can it be so easy for a young man to obtain — legally — a weapon capable of creating such carnage?
But, more disturbing is “the why.” Why would a young man feel compelled to fire indiscriminately at students and faculty, wasting so many precious lives and, subsequently, squandering his own?
What inspires someone to imagine and undertake such an atrocious act of violence?
According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, up to 20 percent of children residing in the United States experience a mental disorder in any given year.
How can a generation in a nation so bountifully blessed suffer such distress?
Most of us, at one time or another, cope with some form of alienation or swoon in self-esteem. It’s part of the maturation process. During the 1960s, the average age of an individual first diagnosed with depression was about 30. Today, it ranges somewhere between 14 and 15.
So many downcast, dispirited kids. Some pout. Some rebel. A few strike out with frightening fury that shakes our society to its foundation.
Then again, what is our foundation in 2018?
Pope John Paul II once observed, “As the family goes, so goes the nation.”
Too many young, disenfranchised individuals with self-destructive tendencies are wreaking havoc within our communities. Some, apparently alienated and overwhelmed with a sense of exclusion, feel obliged to make their presence known in a horrifying fashion that simply cannot be ignored.
How does one become so unhinged, so susceptible to self-doubt, anxiety, isolation, fear and stress? How do they fall into such a dismal, frustrating funk with no way out but ... self-implosion?
Make no mistake, families matter. Mothers, fathers, siblings and loved ones play vital roles in our development as human beings. They make lasting impacts on a child’s learning and, ultimately, his or her development. Study after study confirm youngsters are happier and achieve more when parents are involved.
They yearn for self-esteem and that critical sense of belonging.
While our nation proclaims its commitment that no child be left behind, that lofty goal has not been met. There are children among us suffering from low self-esteem, lack of trust, suppression of emotions, poor impulse control and addictive and potentially destructive behavior.
For their sake ... and ours, can we afford to ignore them?