Topic : 10/12 Homecoming Shooting

I have to respond to this story feeling some confusion and sadness for the family. I get upset when I hear its the families fault, its lack of supervison, its divorced parents, its an unstable household, and so on. There has been way too many, killings, shootings, suicides amongst out teens but we can not say it's always a dysfunctional family or blame the parents. That is unfair to the families. Not only do the family members have to grieve, they have to live the embarrassment and confusion as to why. Some families may never know.

I hope that these stories open the eyes to many parents, students, teacher and law enforcement. Warning signs are not always there but maybe Dr. Phil can help his viewers understand and help open some of those closed doors that some kids may have (which drives them to do violent crimes).

May we all take a  few minutes and be thankful and pray for all families invloved.

 

I too am concerned about the reference that was made about Borderline Personality Disorder on this show. I was absolutely mortified when the criminal profiler Pat Brown said so adamantly that ALL these shooters are "borderline personality disordered and psychotic". Whenever there is an unfathomable killing, such as a school shooting spree or when a mother kills her children, the blame is often placed on the murderer having BPD. It has become so common place to equate BPD with murder that I knew BPD would be brought up even before the show aired.

 

Borderline Personality Disorder is THE most stigmatized mental illness out there, even more so the schizophrenia. Even many mental health "professionals" are ignorant when it comes to understanding and treating this devastating disorder. Having people like this criminal profiler continue the stigmatization of those suffering from BPD, as you clearly stated, "is not helping people become informed about the truth". BPD is a treatable ILLNESS. We don't criminalize those with cancer, diabetes or other illnesses, we have to stop criminalizing the mentally ill.

 

I was so happy to hear Dr. Phil say that most people with Schizophrenia or Borderline Personality Disorder DO NOT COMMIT MURDER. Happy that he is against having psych records opened because there is no way to determine who will kill and who won't by reading those records. I hope his words keep getting repeated. The reality is that someone who is mentally ill is no more likely to commit murder than someone who isn't.

 My son, who is now in his 4th year of college, was, along with at least two other friends, was put on a "hit" list " when he was in high school.  The student who did this was clearly, in my opinion, disturbed.  I am so grateful that one of the students (my son's friend who was also on the list) reported it to the school administration.  While I didn't totally agree with their response, I believe that it was sufficient enough to deter this student from carrying out his plans.  The student who was responsible for making the "hit list" of other students he wanted to kill was evaluated at our local hospital and, eventually, allowed to go back to school.  He chose to finish out high school at a different school and, I understand, is doing fine now.  I do believe, though, that if he were not stopped when he was, he may have escalated to the point of carrying out his plan.  When our school administration was first advised of the problem and investigated, they found several students who had heard of this kid's "hit list".  It is important to talk to all our kids and try to get it through to them to tell someone if they hear things like this.

Dr. Phil,

 

Why has it not been brought out that Peterson did not go there to kill anyone. He just wanted the love of his life back in his life.

 

It as after the "kids" started taunting him and calling him names such as "PIG" and worse. Then Peterson went back to his vehicle and got the gun.  So--o-o-o  I feel that more than one factor caused the deaths of the 7 young people. I realize name calling does not make it right to kill people, but it can really make a man that is already hurting inside to lose his faith in his young friends. 

 

Let's tell both sides of this story, Please!!!!

I was bullied all throughout my school years. I'm 61 years old, almost didn't graduate, but I did with the help of a caring principle in 1965. I was picked on, teased, called names, pushed into fights (I'm a female) but I survived without shooting anybody.  The principle helped me graduate but no one protected me from the bullies. It was horrible and I still suffer from emotional disorders but I didn't kill myself or anyone else. What pushes these kids over the edge. It's not only in todays world. It happened years ago, also. Look in newspaper achives. It's there. My uncle was born in 1929.  At the age of 16 he shot and killed his best friend with someone else's shot gun and was about to shoot himself but was stopped. He went to jail for it. I have no idea what was going on in his mind when he did it, but I do know that the gun wasn't his and there was no TV or video grames. Why? That was 1945.  What was so different.  Perhaps today's news media.  It's a lot easier to hear about these things then it was years ago.

I am just wondering.....why is this happening here in the US so often???
I am from Sweden, I moved here in 1995 and now have a family and 2 lovely children who are american, going to american schools, and I am baffled by this 'phenomenon'.

I think there is a certain level of 'hypocrecy' within the 'american family' where

parts of life is hidden from our children. There is too much rush, too little time and no explanation for when things go bad, no real time to expplain death, birth , sex, or anything, meanwhile violence ( movies, games etc ) is not 'so bad'..... I also think so called organized religion make it worse by cutting  off the 'normal' path of getting tings explained by making everyone feel odd, guilty and outside.

It is a sheltering lifestyle.

I will not say that this is the explanation of this weird phenomenon of young kids killling each other in shools, but to me it signals distress and a sense that there is noone to talk to, no one will even understand it they would try and I beleive in the end the family is to blame. The show today was looking for some sign to tell if a child is a potential killer. well, if you had this person in your family and you still did not see it, how can you expect that anyone else would see it it the family did not see it??

I think the truth is that there are screwed up people and they most oftenly come from screwed up families where they would not be spotted, and that is why these things happen without any warning....

The question still remain, why is this more common in America? Not sure...

 

I agree. sometimes people are just screwed up and do what they have to do and it is no-ones fault.

End of story. No-one to blame but the person who comitted the crime. Why do we even feel like we have to understand it......

    i just wanted to say that i appreciate dr. phil said that most of the time children with  personality disorders are not the ones doing this.  people hear that you have bipolar, or other diseases,  and assume you are going to hurt them,  and that is usually not true.

While your efforts to try to identify problem kids is noble, the real problem is the availability of guns today.  Kids have always had emotional problems -- I am now 50 years old and I remember kids in high school and middles school who looked like trouble.  Thing is, they did not have easy access to guns as today.  If we really want to be safe, let's take guns out of the equation. Then we can deal with the issues kids have today in a safe and supportive way.

I didn't hear anyone say anything about kids who are made fun of and abused by other kids. That is, in my opinion, the reason for what all these kids did. Each one seemed to be treated badly by other kids and no one did anything about it. When my children were in school, the administration would say that there was a pecking order. Great. Then why did some, including my son, think of killing himself when no one would help. These kids don't kill themselves. They kill others. All teachers and staff should be aware of this problem at all times. It is definitely the cause of many, many problems. Please let me hear you say it. You have had programs about bullies. After the program, it stops being a problem? I think not and hope that this problem can be addressed and addressed and addressed. I can't be the only person who knows about it.