This is so sad

Yahoo! News - Ten Dead in Minnesota School Shooting

The paper today said the boy, 15 by some accounts, 17 by others, had lost his father to suicide several years ago and his mother is in a nursing home after sustaining brain injuries in a car accident. He was apparently a loner who dressed in black and was mocked by his peers. Evidently he was in a great deal of pain and lashed out, killing a security officer and at least one teacher, his grandfather, his grandfather's girlfriend, several students, and finally himself.

I am not in any way condoning what he did, but he obviously needed a great amount of help, help that apparently was either not forthcoming or not enough. New details indicate he may have ascribed to neo-Nazi principles, surprising, I suppose for a member of an Indian nation. Neo-Nazism, unfortunately, attracts those who feel powerless and transforms them into haters. I can't imagine dealing with those sorts of tragedies in such a young life, or that kind of hatred. I do understand what it's like to be mocked, beaten up, and fear for your life in school. Bullying is a terrible thing and I think it's far more prevalent than most parents realise. I would hope things are getting better in school with these high-profile cases, but unfortunately there are always cracks to slip through, and this seems to be a tragic case of that. My thoughts are with the community, the families of the dead, and of the wounded, and of a teenager who in one moment threw his life away and forever changed the course of others' lives, too.