Denver Schools Close Due to 'Columbine-obsessed' Woman

[blues]

"The only thing we have to fear...is fear itself."

[the Schwartz]

It seems that we have no middle as a nation and as a society. Everything we do is an extreme. Is there no middle ground available to folks?

Y'know, TAZ, I contemplate that question daily. There is plenty of middle ground left. However, with the greater connectivity offered by the internet there also comes a disconnect; isolation. With the isolation that comes from the human-device-human interface (the internet), it is easy to forget that we are communicating with another living, breathing human being who has feelings and value. That isolation also makes it easier to respond angrily to those things that we disagree with or that offend us and, in some cases, even to denigrate and devalue others because there are usually no significant consequences. In the aggregate, imagine an entire national population subjected to that sort of thing day after day who then go out into the 'real world' having experienced those things and their interaction(s) with others. It is not hard to imagine that people carry these experiences with them for quite some time afterwards (in the form of anger, resentment, mistrust, etc.) and that it probably has an effect upon how they socialize with others. We see evidence of those effects everyday on the news.

Just like anyone/everyone else here, I've experienced those things. There really is no way of knowing what motivates each specific instance of these behaviors. Maybe that person is just having a ''bad day''. Maybe they've just lost their job or suffered a personal injustice or loss of some sort and they're pissed at the world. The only solution that I have to offer for this is that ''we'' (in the collective sense) need to find a way to set those experiences aside. For me, it comes in the form of forgiveness. Forgiveness is a powerful tool. Whenever these events happen to me, I simply resolve to forgive it immediately and without condition. Hopefully―and it is a very big ''hope''―we can get there as a nation someday.

[RJ]

That's a rough 18.

[Chance]

After watching the Parkland SRO do nothing to protect the students in his purview, I'm reluctant to call this an over reaction. Even if they deployed more officers to those schools, any kids therein would have been distracted by the increased police presence, and teachers probably would have spent more time on rumor control than instruction.

And if the news had broken with kids in school, many parents would have bum rushed the schools to get their kids home, which would have been a nightmare for administrators. Buses taking kids home would have probably wanted some increased security, too.

Easiest solution: everybody stays home while the cops find the crazy lady.

[Casual Friday]

She looks(ed) like one of my 37-year old colleagues.

But then, she came from Florida? The number of Florida girls I've seen who are 30, but look 50 is disturbing. Apparently sun-screen hasn't made it to the Sunshine State yet, but vape pens and meth sure have.

Also, not sure when it became standard for men and women everywhere to not take an active effort in maintaining their skin health. A bottle of rubbing alcohol and a bag of cotton balls is 3 bucks at CVS. Take a shower, and use some alcohol and a cotton ball on that acne. Acne is primarily caused by clogged pores and bacteria and alcohol lyses the bacteria cells and is great at degreasing.

Point being, there is no reason to be 18 going on 40.

Hell, there is no reason to be 35 going on 40. If I shaved off my beard right now, I'd be a baby-faced 23-year old, instead of the sensual beard-having 33-year old I am.

You can call me Mr 18 going on 40. Not from hard living though, just genetics. By the time I was 17 I could grow a full beard and buy alcohol most places. Shave the beard, back to the baby face.

I hope I'd still have the boyish good looks, but my face hasn't seen the sun since 2006 when I shaved for a job interview.

[breakingtime91]

As someone who works in schools, I think this was probably a risk vs reward reaction. They had credible information that they acted on.. kids got sent home and no one died. Was it perfect? No. But it had a high success rate and no one lost their son or daughter.


Is it a perfect response? No, but please tell me what would be?

[mmc45414]

Even if they deployed more officers to those schools, any kids therein would have been distracted by the increased police presence, and teachers probably would have spent more time on rumor control than instruction.

A lotta cops off the street at the same time.

[TAZ]

As someone who works in schools, I think this was probably a risk vs reward reaction. They had credible information that they acted on.. kids got sent home and no one died. Was it perfect? No. But it had a high success rate and no one lost their son or daughter.


Is it a perfect response? No, but please tell me what would be?

Agree to a degree. I don’t have access to the info the FBI passed out to the locals. For all we know they have more and for once there is no anonymous source to leak stuff.

However, it highlights the potential issue that our two responses to possible threats are to bury our heads in the sand or run away. Makes you want to trust your kids school and the amount of control they have over the safety of your child don’t it?

[breakingtime91]

Agree to a degree. I don’t have access to the info the FBI passed out to the locals. For all we know they have more and for once there is no anonymous source to leak stuff.

However, it highlights the potential issue that our two responses to possible threats are to bury our heads in the sand or run away. Makes you want to trust your kids school and the amount of control they have over the safety of your child don’t it?

So I am looking at it from the position of the person who made that decision for the schools. If they had credible evidence from the FBI, there choice was rely on resource officers or increased police presence to stop the threat with the risk of a student and officers getting hurt or missing one day of instruction. They chose to miss the one day and complete get rid of the risk of losing a student. Imagine if she did attack a school and got the drop on the SRO and killed students and it came out that they had credible evidence of a threat before hand and it matched her. Damned if you, damned if you dont.

[TGS]

Imagine if she did attack a school and got the drop on the SRO and killed students and it came out that they had credible evidence of a threat before hand and it matched her. Damned if you, damned if you dont.

For real.

This thread would be awash with criticism for the FBI failing to act on "someone known to them" and the school administrators having prioritized other matters over student safety, because we all know that school teachers are leeches on the system and could care less about the students safety and didn't want to cut a day into their summer if they closed school.

As always, everyone else is right except the people actually involved, with the full information set, and making decisions based off of such.