School Shooting in Oklahoma

Monday morning, as usual, I arrived early to my empty kindergarten classroom to prepare for the day. As usual, I switched on the radio for company while I worked.

I froze when I heard the words “school shooting.” No, there must be some mistake, I thought, my heart sinking. But the female disc jockey delivered her own impassioned plea over the air, as I listened, alone in my classroom. My own students would be arriving in an hour.

The next morning I discovered “13-Year-Old Shoots Four Schoolmates” (Dec. 7), relegated to A16. It didn’t even make the front page.

ERIN O’BRIEN

Redondo Beach

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When Roger Bannister became the first person to run a mile in less than four minutes soon others were doing it. An act of the possible.

School shootings by students are an act of the possible. The constant news reports show these youngsters that it is possible. These shooters are motivated by a distorted urge to be part of an ongoing national event that, while brutal and deadly, could still offer them some measure of peer-related fame and primitive ego satisfaction. Teenagers know the difference between right and wrong, but their brains can be operating on another level that is powered by nonadult motivations.

Who is at fault? Our society has created a climate where the act of the possible is possible. Some parents do not monitor the day-to-day actions of their children. Some adults do not properly control access to guns. Television, films and electronic games show that it is possible to mix fantasy and violence. The electronic news media have gone berserk with the “breaking news” mentality. And a tiny slice of teenagers are being teenagers when they act on the possible.

BRUCE NOLTE

Pasadena

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The 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not grant the right to movie studios and TV producers to desensitize children and marginal adults so they are comfortable with killing and injuring others with knives, guns, bombs, cars, poison, fists, dragging, etc.

HARVEY PASKOWITZ

Oxnard