SHOOTING OFF
There's news today of another school shooting in the States. This time it was a 17 year old kid who first killed his grandparents then brought two handguns and a shotgun to school and went on a killing spree before he took his own life.
Aside from saying a prayer for the kids who lost their lives, as well as their families, one has to think about what could have driven a kid like this to do such a horrible act. The article in Yahoo said that the kid was teased a lot but they didn't want to speculate if that was the motive for the shootings.
It makes me think back to high school. I remember Ramon Salvosa who suffered a mental breakdown of sorts after the incessant teasing of the other kids in the honors class. I remember Felix Gulfin who, despite his hulking size, was often reduced to tears in Bro. Dunne's office due to the bad treatment he got from the A-boys. Obviously, it wasn't enough to drive them over the edge (relatively speaking) but it makes you thank the higher powers that none of us went to such extremes.
I remember our fourth year retreat, when we had that candle exercise where we could say "I'm sorry" or "Thank you" to certain people in class. It's still as clear as day that I recall that R-jay put a candle in front of me and apologized for being so mean...even admitting that "Budoy" was supposed to be a slur on my part.
I remember being taken aback by this, not because R-jay was actually sorry for something but that I had been the target of teasing in the class...and I hadn't even felt or realized it. Maybe I had been desensitized by my years in A...we'll never really know.
Of course, I remember the stories you'd all tell me. The teasing of Tini. The constant infighting and insulting. It's a wonder we (at least you guys) didn't end up shooting each other between the eyes.
Paintball and Super Soakers don't count.
Aside from saying a prayer for the kids who lost their lives, as well as their families, one has to think about what could have driven a kid like this to do such a horrible act. The article in Yahoo said that the kid was teased a lot but they didn't want to speculate if that was the motive for the shootings.
It makes me think back to high school. I remember Ramon Salvosa who suffered a mental breakdown of sorts after the incessant teasing of the other kids in the honors class. I remember Felix Gulfin who, despite his hulking size, was often reduced to tears in Bro. Dunne's office due to the bad treatment he got from the A-boys. Obviously, it wasn't enough to drive them over the edge (relatively speaking) but it makes you thank the higher powers that none of us went to such extremes.
I remember our fourth year retreat, when we had that candle exercise where we could say "I'm sorry" or "Thank you" to certain people in class. It's still as clear as day that I recall that R-jay put a candle in front of me and apologized for being so mean...even admitting that "Budoy" was supposed to be a slur on my part.
I remember being taken aback by this, not because R-jay was actually sorry for something but that I had been the target of teasing in the class...and I hadn't even felt or realized it. Maybe I had been desensitized by my years in A...we'll never really know.
Of course, I remember the stories you'd all tell me. The teasing of Tini. The constant infighting and insulting. It's a wonder we (at least you guys) didn't end up shooting each other between the eyes.
Paintball and Super Soakers don't count.
posted by Jay at 4:49 PM
8 Comments:
ha! I remember that "apology" session. Certain people just lit candles to each other all night. Kumbaga, sila-sila lang din. It's no surprise, then, that we haven't seen a number of them since high school. I guess they just weren't ready to grow up then...
On a more serious note, I think some of the meanness and cruelty, while not necessarily deliberate, were definitely real, and it is a good thing we were all pretty well-adjusted to begin with, because none of us went off the deep end.
In retrospect, I'm glad that my original class, 1I, got disbanded and I wound up with you guys. As I keep telling my cousin Ianco (who was also in 1I), had our class not been disbanded, someone in 1I would have surely wound up dead by early third year. That was how bad we were.
It was nice that R-Jay actually apologized to you for calling you "Budoy", Jay. And I'm glad that you took it in the spirit of good fun and weren't insulted. None of us actually ever meant it as an insult.
As for the differences between those kids in the U.S. and the kids here, we simply don't have access to firearms the way those NRA crazies in America do. I believe we Filipinos are more sensible in the belief that guns are just too dangerous to be kept in a house full of kids. Of course, that's just in general. There are quite a lot of NRA wanna-be crazies right here in the RP too.
Go see Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine." It's a great commentary on the disturbing phenomenon that is school shootings.
Well, I figured the J (or K) boys wasn't such a bad group to start the high school when the first class president they elected was Jay Arteficio, a La Sallite. That meant that all bets were off and everything was starting with a clean slate.
And on a funny note, the weirdo we had in class was you, Jim, and you weren't into wearing black and calling yourself 'The Angel of Death'. ;-)
You know, it's a funny thing about being the class weirdo; I'm actually glad I was because in retrospect, setting oneself up as an easy target for derision actually makes people lose the taste for it. Rarely, if at all, did anyone actually say or do anything to me that was especially hurtful.
by the way, why do you sometimes appear as "banzai cat" and at other times "biblioholic cat?" I realized you've changed your moniker, but why does it revert every now and then?
hehe. actually i always had more respect for jim than most anybody else in 4j.
here are examples:
#1 the principal's car is parked at a no u-turn zone but he flagrantly disregards this all the time. jim came up with the idea of running up to his car while he was doing this and telling him off. i don't think he ever actually did this but i supported it.
#2 macayan was always a self-absorped misguided soul who reveled in being perceived as a hardcase. Jim had the balls to call him "your worship" hehe.
hmm. waitaminit, han solo said that to leia.
YOU'RE THE COOLEST JIM!
Jim: When the votes came in, I changed my name back. ;) As for setting oneself up for derision, it's true that it's kind of hard to mock a person who's always mocking himself.
banzai is better
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