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Really complex problems tempt us to favor solutions that are simple, straightforward, and don't, won't and can't work.
We label schoolchildren thugs. (Remember super predators?)
We never ask how our economy, schools and politics, somehow combine to create so many desparate kids who don't value their own lives (or anyone else's).
I live on the streets where these kids die. They go to schools in my neighborhood. I'm 59, almost 60. I had jobs after school. They don't even have the memory of after school jobs. These kids have post traumatic stress.
Society at large wishes they would disappear, and they know it.
Their teachers don't believe they can learn, and they know it.
They're viewed as criminals, whether or not they've ever committed a crime, and they know it.
We've taught them some lessons well.
Adult's can't be counted on.
Don't expect help.
We'll record their trouble, upload it to YouTube, shake our heads in disgust, but never even try to stop the fights.
There were plenty of adults there when Derrion Albert died.
Police were there, before Derrion Albert died.
That honor student, that good kid looked too much like the kids they labled thugs. So nobody bothered to stop them from killing him.
If he hadn't been an honor student, he';d have never made the news.
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