No less an authority on American life than the New York Times says, in part:
He is said to have worn a trench coat and listened to Marilyn Manson, the Goth icon. He expressed his admiration for Hitler on a neo-Nazi Web site. And in the midst of a murderous rampage at his high school, Jeff Weise asked a classmate if he believed in God, then shot him, one student recounted in a local newspaper.
As details begin to emerge about Mr. Weise's shooting spree on an Indian reservation in northern Minnesota, there are eerie echoes of the nation's most infamous school tragedy, six years ago at Columbine High School near Littleton, Colo.
At Columbine, the killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, belonged to the "Trench Coat Mafia" and loved all things Goth. They sometimes did a Nazi salute while bowling and planned their attack for Hitler's birthday. Before killing one student, witnesses said, one of them held a gun to her temple and asked if she believed in God.
I want to scream. Just scream.
Let's stereotype every kid who wears unusual clothes or draws unusual pictures or is a "loner."
Some of the best kids I have taught dress in all black. (Heck, evilnicola does on occasion, and while she is pyschotic by genetics, she is a good kidd and I do not believe she will bring a gun into school and shoot people.)
Once you stop and talk to these kids -- like you would any other kidsa -- and get to know them, you lose the fear of the unknown. They are kids just like all the other kids.
The connection between these two cases is so tenuous that the Times makes be want to barf.
I usually defend reporters, but God's Teeth, these people are not in school on a day-to-day basis.
The Goth kids don't scare me nearly as much as the drug dealers do.
This is insane. Absolutely insane.
OK, feeling a little better.
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