Disillusioned youth identify with killers who went from victim to victimizer; their desire for revenge is formidable.  Kip Kinkel, serving 112-year term for killing his parents and then two students in his Oregon high school in 1998, has received money in the mail from strangers.  Charles Williams, in prison on charges of killing two students in Santee, California, gets more than forty letters a week; several different online clubs and homemade Web sites are dedicated to him.  The Youth Violence Project devoted a portion of their Web sites to the following question:  “My teenager saw all the news stories about the latest school shooting, and to my surprise, he said that the kids who did it were ‘cool’ and ‘really brave.’  What should I do?”

After analyzing thirty-seven school shootings, the Secret Service found that “many of these children saw the killing as a way to solve a problem, such as to stop bullying by other children.”  (That is to say, school shooters don’t snap; they plan, often as they’re haunted by depression and desperation.)  The Service also warned against over-reliance on metal detectors, SWAT teams, profiles, zero-tolerance policies, and software.  Researchers believe that [the answer] lies more in listening to children, dealing fairly with grievances such as bullying, improving the climate of communication in schools, keeping guns away from children, and investigating promptly and thoroughly when a student raises a concern

More than three-fourths of the killers were known to hold grievances, real or imagined, against the target and/or others.  Two-thirds described feeling persecuted, bullied, or threatened—not teasing, but torment.  In most cases, their retaliation was the first violent act against the target.

School killer Luke Woodham wrote in his journal: “I am not insane.  I am angry.  I am not spoiled or lazy….I killed because people like me are mistreated every day….I am malicious because I am miserable.”

James Alan Kearbey, fourteen, murdered his principal and wounded three others in his junior high.  He said he was bullied and beaten by students for years.

Nathan Faris, twelve, was harangued about his chubbiness.  He shot a classmate, then killed himself.

John McMahan, fourteen, was bullied by other boys.  He shot two students.

Joseph Todd, fourteen, shot two students who he said humiliated him.

This ledger of tragedy will continue until others—the estimated 85 percent who are neither bully nor victim—end their conspiracy of apathetic silence and confront bullying.

Barbara Coloroso, teacher and author in Littleton, Colorado, says she would handle her son’s problems with bullies differently today.

I took bullying seriously, but I didn’t know how to deal with it effectively.  My youngest child was targeted in grade school….On top of it, he was a loudmouth, so his teacher didn’t offer any help.  Back then, we were livid, but we didn’t know what to do.  Now I’d go to the teachers and the other parents and make sure they dealt with the boys who were bullying my son.  We would also work harder at helping him develop social skills, such as how to enter a group successfully.  He was artistic and liked to do things by himself, but any small kid who is on the playground alone is an easy target.  I wish I had worked harder to debunk the myth that bullying is normal.