Some days in this job you just shake your head and wonder.
At the same time the horror of still another mass school shooting was unfolding in Germany, a school plot was thwarted a lot closer to home.
Like in Drexel Hill.
And the suspect who was hauled out of school, who police believe hatched a plan to take over the school and shoot anybody who got in the way? He’s 13 years old. He can’t yet drive a car, but he can apparently be driven to what once would be unthinkable: A plot against his own school.
When police arrived at St. Andrew’s in the Drexel Hill section of Upper Darby, the teen had already been pulled out of class. Officers found two pellet guns in his backpack.
I was tempted to say bookbag, but then I guess that would date me as en even bigger dinosaur than I already am.
We carried bookbags 40 years ago. We didn’t know what a backpack was. We also lived for the most part in mortal fear of the good sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary who ran our parochial school.
Fidgeting in class would usually draw a withering stare from one of the sisters or mother superior. It was about as far as we dared to push that envelope.
Take over the school? Sure. Survive it is more likely. Looking back on it I am always astounded at what the nuns were able to get away with. And I’m not the least bit unsure that most of the people who went through that trial by fire are not better for it.
I guess things are different today.
Kids now apparently routinely entertain notions of such things as plotting against their schools, their teachers, even their schoolmates. What once was settled in a wrestling match after school now too often involves a gun, even if only a pellet gun.
There is one good thing to come out of what happened the past couple of days at St. Andrew’s. School officials as well as mental health officials are to be commended for taking quick action once they learned of the plot from another student.
Apparently the ringleader was looking for some henchmen. Along the way one of them blabbed to a counselor. The school and police were quickly notified. The student had already been pulled from the classroom when officers arrived.
I guess rapping his knuckles with a brass ruler is out of the question.
Things change. And all too often not for the better.
At the same time the horror of still another mass school shooting was unfolding in Germany, a school plot was thwarted a lot closer to home.
Like in Drexel Hill.
And the suspect who was hauled out of school, who police believe hatched a plan to take over the school and shoot anybody who got in the way? He’s 13 years old. He can’t yet drive a car, but he can apparently be driven to what once would be unthinkable: A plot against his own school.
When police arrived at St. Andrew’s in the Drexel Hill section of Upper Darby, the teen had already been pulled out of class. Officers found two pellet guns in his backpack.
I was tempted to say bookbag, but then I guess that would date me as en even bigger dinosaur than I already am.
We carried bookbags 40 years ago. We didn’t know what a backpack was. We also lived for the most part in mortal fear of the good sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary who ran our parochial school.
Fidgeting in class would usually draw a withering stare from one of the sisters or mother superior. It was about as far as we dared to push that envelope.
Take over the school? Sure. Survive it is more likely. Looking back on it I am always astounded at what the nuns were able to get away with. And I’m not the least bit unsure that most of the people who went through that trial by fire are not better for it.
I guess things are different today.
Kids now apparently routinely entertain notions of such things as plotting against their schools, their teachers, even their schoolmates. What once was settled in a wrestling match after school now too often involves a gun, even if only a pellet gun.
There is one good thing to come out of what happened the past couple of days at St. Andrew’s. School officials as well as mental health officials are to be commended for taking quick action once they learned of the plot from another student.
Apparently the ringleader was looking for some henchmen. Along the way one of them blabbed to a counselor. The school and police were quickly notified. The student had already been pulled from the classroom when officers arrived.
I guess rapping his knuckles with a brass ruler is out of the question.
Things change. And all too often not for the better.
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