School Violence: The View of Students

These comments appeared on CNN's message boards in the aftermath of the Springfield, Oregon school shooting:

I'm 17 years old. I've seen lots of violence in my time. I've watched TV. My parents own guns. I know how to shoot them cause I learned when I was six. I can load them. Shoot them and clean them. That doesn't mean I have some dumb notion in my head to go out and take another life. Guns are to be respected not slung around like a toy.

You want to know what to do with us when we go out and take the lives of our peers? Try discipline because this slapping us on the wrist and saying no-no. It just isn't working. Stop making excuses for us -- we know right from wrong. Were not stupid. The only one who is at fault here is US, not our parents, not our teachers, US.

I want to be a teacher when I grow up. I want them to want to go out into the world thinking they can do something. I don't want to be shot. I would actually like to survive my teaching career.

I am a sophomore at Danville high school in Danville, Arkansas and after what happened in Jonesboro you would think that the media would realize that until they stop glamorizing these copycat school murders they will continue due to the effect of the publicity!

I am 15. I am the same age as (Kip Kinkel). I think that if people wouldn't pay so much attention to these kids then other kids wouldn't try to copy them!

They are all doing it for attention and obviously you would have to have a problem to be able to do this kind of stuff. I think these kids should be taken more seriously and I know some kids that are a lot like these kids. America DOES have way too many freedoms and they should be changed or something.

I think someone needs to stop the violence somehow. There needs to be a reaction to these sad string of events. I'm confused at the thinking of the these young kids. I'm 16 and would never ever have thought about anything of this sort. To kill somebody, shows that there is definitely something wrong with these people. I think that these kids need some psychiatric help.