"I Was Kind to Nikolas Cruz. He Still Killed My Friends."

[ehrnst]

I am not writing this piece to malign Nikolas Cruz any more than he already has been. I have faith that history will condemn him for his crimes. I am writing this because of the disturbing amount of comments I’ve read that go something like this: Maybe if Cruz’s classmates and peers had been a little nicer to him, this tragedy would never have occurred.

This deeply dangerous sentiment, expressed under the #WalkUpNotOut hashtag, implies that acts of school violence can be stopped if students befriend disturbed and potentially dangerous classmates. The idea that we are to blame, even implicitly, for the murders of our friends and teacher, is a slap in the face to all Marjory Stoneman Douglas victims and survivors.

A year after I was assaulted by Cruz, I was assigned to tutor him through my school’s peer counseling program. Being a peer counselor was the first real responsibility I had ever had, my first glimpse of adulthood, and I took it very seriously.

Despite my increasing discomfort, I sat down with him, alone. I was forced to endure his cursing me out and ogling my chest until the hourlong class period was up. When I was done, I felt a surge of pride for having organized his binder and helped him with his homework.
........................................................................................

This is not to say that children should reject their more socially awkward or isolated peers — not at all. As a former peer counselor and current teacher’s assistant, I strongly believe in and have seen the benefits of reaching out to those who need kindness most. But students should not be expected to cure the ills of our genuinely troubled classmates, or even our friends, because we first and foremost go to school to learn. The implication that Cruz’s mental health issues could have been solved if only he had been loved more by his fellow students is both a gross misunderstanding of how these diseases work and a dangerous suggestion that puts children on the front line.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/opinion/nikolas-cruz-shooting-florida.html

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Doesnt do SHIT to anybody without those guns.

NONE of those kids die, without those guns.

As horrible as that nightmare was, GREATNESS will come from it and this IS the beginning of the end of both the NRA and the GOP as we know it.

And for ME to say that, the most pessimistic asshole alive

well, ya know

[tazkcmo]

4. You're not pessimistic.

As for the rest I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.















Just joshing you couldn't resist.

[Eliot Rosewater]

5. My glass is not half empty, it is I BEEN ROBBED LOOK AT MY GLASS

[tazkcmo]

9. Lol

Mind if I use that? That's funny!

[thucythucy]

2. An amazing article.

I'm glad she wrote this article, and glad it was posted here.

[dameatball]

3. Holy cow. This poor girl was supposed to assuage this rage somehow?

Every damn cent (and more) that these disconnected, self-centered a-holes want to build a stupid wall needs to go to better mental health care, so some poor adolescent is not left to try and temper the rage of a twisted person.....not her pay grade.

[yardwork]

6. Great response to incredibly uninformed victim blaming.

[BigmanPigman]

7. People are mentally ill all over the world...YET...

The American, white, male has the desire and access to purchase and use guns more than any other group on the planet. Go to the source. ..the guns. Stop their availability. Then tackle the real problem that has been 100 years in the making (American male bravado and mental, cultural and sociological problem).

[SunSeeker]

19. THIS. SO THIS.

[Hekate]

8. Oh, my gods, no. This just makes me want to cry.

[DallasNE]

11. Early Diagnosis Needed

Cruz was too far gone by the time a peer counselor came on the scene. He needed to be in a program probably 8-10 years before this. There are warning signs but often parents and teachers are not trained to read those signs so treatment is seriously delayed. And there can be extenuating circumstances that further delays diagnosis. Then there are the guns that are so deadly and easy to get.

[LisaL]

13. He was diagnosed, all right, from what I can tell.

Not sure what makes you think he wasn't? What do you expect the diagnosis to do?

[DallasNE]

16. He Was Probably Showing Clear Signs By 5th Grade

But people made excuses for the behavior and treatment was delayed.

[mountain grammy]

10. This is a beautiful article

I'm so glad she wrote it. Blaming victims must end.

[lunasun]

12. Good first person answer to all the arm chair victim blamers protecting thier guns and more guns

[BobTheSubgenius]

14. The whole idea that schoolkids are responsible for picking up the slack that parents, teachers,

police, you-name-it have let hit the ground is disingenuous at best. Horribly irresponsible and cynical, to say the least.

[Drahthaardogs]

15. No offense, but it should not be the school's responsibility

To "cure" mentally I'll students either. Help identify them? Yes. Accommodate special requirements? Yes. Fix them? No.

We need services to help these kids. Sadly these are the programs cut under Republican rule since Reagan.

[ecstatic]

17. I had forgotten his name

We should go back to calling him the shooter/killer.

[SunSeeker]

18. Yes, the right wing loves to blame the victims. nt