Now this is just WRONG...

[Aurora Black]

Sometimes we have ideas, we're think they're good ideas or we get so biter, so twisted that we think they are good ideas when they're not.

She could have killed someone with that shit.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

I don't think blame is necessary in the case of external factors... but I think it can help to look at where she came from...

as for this:

The only solution is for the parents to step up and insist that their children actually learn something in school, in return for the time said children are forced to spend in school.

that's not the only solution. parents don't necessarily need to rely on schools to teach their children.

 

[English Lady]

She could have killed someone with that shit.

Exactly! Dfinitely not a good idea, and she'll need some kind of councelling, obviously.

 

[zeb1094]

I don't see the school system as being at fault for this.

Shouldn't her parents have started to instill the beginnings of ethics long before she got to school? Shouldn't other role models have helped in this?

In a society which has a very strong undercurrent of 'do what you must to succeed. Only losers fail.' running through it, should we be surprised if some people do such things?

The role models for todays children, not all of them (there are great parents out there), is the television. What they see there is most likely, not all the time, to dictate their behavior.

The likes of Barry Bonds, George Bush, Dick Cheney, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton to name a few. If they can get away with it why can't they?

 

[neonlyte]

...
that's not the only solution. parents don't necessarily need to rely on schools to teach their children.

Yes... many of the problems within schools in UK, and I imagine the USA, stem from a lack of parental responsibility, this not something that can be taught, imposed or that legislation can control. It is a problem of 'culture' and will take generations to fix. Some of the posts above indicate just how serious the problem is within the US culture, the education this girl was receiving within a public school is just one facet of the culture that may have influenced her to do the deed.

 

[R. Richard]

that's not the only solution. parents don't necessarily need to rely on schools to teach their children.

Of course not! I myself learned mostly from books I had to "steal" from the library. [You can't get a card unless you have a permanet address.] After I felt that I had mastered a concept, I would find a way to test myself to see if I could use what I had learned. If I failed the test, I put in more time until I could use the knowledge I had acquired. [By use, I don't refer to rote memorization. I mean the ability to use learned techniques to manipulate learned data.]

However, most parents are the products of "memory factories" and are not really capable of teaching children. [I invented a method of teaching people useful things. I was able to teach students from high school dropouts to PhD holders to program computers. Not only could they pass my classes, they could do useful work immediately after they returned to work. I know how learning works and I can tell you that most people did not learn, they memorized.]

 

[Liar]

Oh, yes... exactly.

The system itself is flawed, and makes it easy for people to slip right through... whether it's this or the Texas cheerleader or Columbine...

believe me, I'm sure there WERE signs... in the case of this girl, I would bet you the signs were simply ego syntonic... so people praised her for her pathology rather than helping her...

Yes, there WERE always signs. Were. In retrospect. As you know, hindsight is always 20/20.

But to go from "there were signs" to "they should have predicted this" is a common and very incorrect assumption. The same characteristics that in this case lead the girl over the edge will in 99% of the cases lead to nothing but high ambition and good forward momentum.