A Matter of Life, Death and Children

This is a live chat taken from TalkCity Parent on Dec. 5 after 14-year-old Michael Carneal shot into a prayer group at his Kentucky high school, killing three fellow students.

FUTURESH: It is all a snowball effect. What goes in comes out and shows its quality in our lives and actions. Kids today do not understand the value of life; some don’t even value their own lives. Many of them believe they might not make it to adulthood. Is it any wonder that a kid who lives in a world where problems are solved with killing would try to solve his problem the same way? With killings.

tara567: There seems to be an epidemic in the past decade of kids killing kids. I live in Stockton and back in 1989 five children were killed and 29 more were injured at a nearby elementary school. In ’92 four students were killed and nine injured when a former student opened fire at a high school.

SUESUE: GR8. It seems we have a bunch of kids in a culture without direction.

FUTURESH: Maybe he was just acting out the training he received by watching some of the movies released by the gutters of Hollywood.

Vondertc: Yeh, like the movie “Basketball Diaries.” You see Leonardo DiCaprio displaying a killing rampage of his classmates and teacher.

TomTom: He was only 14 years old. The sheriff thinks he may have had some help from others in planning the massacre. Doesn’t change much. Still we have three young girls dead and five wounded.

tara567: Children being assassinated while in prayer should send a chill up the spine of every human being.

ViewFolly: We’re seeing far too many youths amused that they have the ability to kill someone and not be punished for it. In my day we knew it was wrong to kill. The only thing we can do for today’s youth is to hold each individual responsible for his/her own actions.

Vondertc: This brings us to the issue of gun control again. He brought five guns that he stole from his neighbor’s house. Five firearms easily stolen. In my opinion far too many guns for any one household to have.

TSAINT: With so many other problems facing our education system--drugs, gangs, lack of funds for books--students going on shooting sprees leaves little hope for generations to come. Where does all this it end???

--Compiled by Aaron Davis