Bullying

One factor in the Littleton, Colo., killings has still not gotten enough attention: high school bullying. Young people are legally obliged to spend their time in a place where a social pecking order often singles out individuals and groups for verbal and physical abuse. The only remotely comparable environment is a prison.

If you are an adult and someone abuses you, you have options. If you are a teenager, you’re expected to suffer in silence, especially when the ones doing the tormenting are popular figures like jocks. To be targeted with such abuse must be especially degrading for teenage boys, who have been taught to identify with the heroic alpha males so prominently featured in the media. Throw in a few family problems and a weapon or two, and you have a recipe for disaster.

MICHAEL MONROE

Santa Monica