Guest post: Enough with this being totally bewildered again and again and again

Guest post by Maureen Brian, originally commenting on a Facebook posting of mine of Trump tweeting:

So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!

If the behaviour of young Mr Cruz was so bad that he had to be expelled from school then clearly he had problems. He had had problems for some time.

Was he offered any sort of support long ago? Was that support even available? Did anyone offer support to his family?

Before we rush to station a brigade of psychiatrists in every school or fall for the “of course, he was just crazy” line let’s just get real.

Many teens go through rough patches. Many are hard to live with: I know I was. But there are low tech, cost-effective, proven interventions which will help most of them sort themselves out – counselling, a sports club, a change of school even.

Instead the situation was allowed to escalate and he seems to have fallen faut de mieux into the hands of some white supremacist nutters.

Somebody failed him. Quite a few people, probably. Mass shootings are not inevitable but you do have to be ready to foresee and prevent them.

Enough with this being totally bewildered again and again and again.

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