Nevada student who swung knife at classmates before being shot by police 'was bullied for days'

a reply to: everyone

Thee only thing i did was think about beating up the leader of that group one day.

And for good reason.

I knew this would be enough but somehow it was hard to get me to do so. The fear of getting into trouble at home or at school also played a part.

This should have played no part. It's a crying shame that you even felt this way, but I understand that defending one's self is discouraged these days -- if not punished.

Until one day i beat the living daylights out of the pack leader in front of his buddies. It ended right there.

Not surprised. Bullies thrive when they are unchallenged. And that's exactly what happens when a kid isn't allowed to defend himself, and the adults who won't let him defend himself won't defend him either.

originally posted by: dreamingawake

You think it's that easy to avoid bullies if confident?
Sad and happy fatties? Where I grew up there was maybe one to two overweight kids in school. Guess what? They were teased no matter if happy or not being the minority.

Fair enough, from such a small sample size I can see how it would be difficult to get my point.

Through my schooling I met a heap of fatties. And the level of teasing didn't rise and fall with the belt size.

a reply to: imjack

Good question about the taser. Isn´t it made for such situations? Seems the gap it was supposed to fill is still empty.

a reply to: amazing

It's really sad. Obviously that kid snapped. That's the bottom line.

He's been painted in this thread as a hooligan/brat/whatever, but swinging knives and ignoring a police officer with a gun pointed at you is a whole other area. He snapped.

He may have been mentally I'll or had devastating ( to him) situation at home or some catastrophe. The bullying was the tipping point that put him over the edge.

That's what I'm seeing. I'd like to know more from the one poster who read his FB page and considered him a delinquent. But something definitely happened to make him go this route, very likely whatever specific threats were made to him about that day.

In the pics I've seen of him with the knives, he doesn't appear to be acting aggressively or actually threatening anyone. More like simply brandishing them -- as a warning? I don't know. I haven't watched any videos. Just seen still pics.

a reply to: everyone

Now this kid gets bullied for a few days. Im sorry but i cant muster up to much sympathy for that.

I have heard my kids use the term "...for days" to mean an indefinite but prolonged period of time. So I'm not sure that should be taken literally.

However, if it was literally days, it probably wasn't true bullying so much as a specific conflict between them. And that may be, since some kind of specific threat was reported.

originally posted by: verschickter
Does it come to your mind, that one person can rile up others against one?

Of course it does.
I'm curious why you were unable to rile up others to help your cause.

But this isn't productive.
Gonna have to be an agree to disagree moment here.

a reply to: Krahzeef_Ukhar
Apparently it did not. I´m curious why you´re so fixiated on your theory, that only touches the surface of the subject. You realized your main argument does not fit to my case so you´re now clutching on straws. I know you will follow up with another question but I´ll give you the answer:

Fear.

Agreed to disagree.

Edit: Let me take the wind out of your sails upfront and dismiss your following theory how fear is the product of low self esteem. Not everything is low self esteem.

a reply to: verschickter

I still think it does fit your case.

I think the bully had more friends and lower self esteem.

If that's not the case then I'm happy to say I'm wrong and I'm painting with too broad a brush.

a reply to: Boadicea

About 15 minutes after the story broke the dad got on facebook to post about bullying and to decry the police for protecting other kids from him.

It's a pass the buck situation where he tried to blame the police for how the situation turned out.

The incident was caught on video where the kid lunged at other students with a 6 inch blade.

Look, I feel for the kid if he's been bullied. God knows I hate bullies.

But this behavior is beyond the pale and the response by his father was disgusting.

a reply to: Krahzeef_Ukhar
It was more like the paragime "if you don´t play with me, you´re against me". Not friends. And that loops right back to the complexity of the whole thing. Certainly can´t explained away with the single "low self esteem" argument. Actually I think bullys have a great self esteem, because they always get their (false) "respect". I would put them into the sadistic section.

originally posted by: Boadicea
a reply to: everyone

Now this kid gets bullied for a few days. Im sorry but i cant muster up to much sympathy for that.

I have heard my kids use the term "...for days" to mean an indefinite but prolonged period of time. So I'm not sure that should be taken literally.

However, if it was literally days, it probably wasn't true bullying so much as a specific conflict between them. And that may be, since some kind of specific threat was reported.

Kids aren't very good at giving an accurate timeframe in my experience. "For days" can actually mean months and "forever" can mean hours or days.

a reply to: WUNK22

Teenage boys, particularly those who are bullied, do not follow logic. Thus logically, he was in the wrong, and should not have done this. In his mind, he felt this was the correct action.

This is why kids his age are not allowed drive, drink, etc.

He took it to far, and has learned a lesson. However the School should have stomped hard on the bullying as well, adn the bullies should face consequences.

a reply to: TinySickTears

He's 14, he had no way of knowing this. That is the problem. Fourteen year old boys are not equipped to deal with things as an adult .... because they are not adults.

originally posted by: Boadicea
a reply to: everyone

Thee only thing i did was think about beating up the leader of that group one day.

And for good reason.

I knew this would be enough but somehow it was hard to get me to do so. The fear of getting into trouble at home or at school also played a part.

This should have played no part. It's a crying shame that you even felt this way, but I understand that defending one's self is discouraged these days -- if not punished.

Until one day i beat the living daylights out of the pack leader in front of his buddies. It ended right there.

Not surprised. Bullies thrive when they are unchallenged. And that's exactly what happens when a kid isn't allowed to defend himself, and the adults who won't let him defend himself won't defend him either.

Well i do agree with you on that what i just bolded, at this point in time anyway. But being in that position at that time those are concerns that definitely prohibited me from acting on a whim( also reasons like deciding to beat him up but fear of failing at it for everyone to see). Now while i agree with you also keep in mind that those same reasons prohibit most others from deciding to bully people in the first place

originally posted by: Noinden
a reply to: TinySickTears

He's 14, he had no way of knowing this. That is the problem. Fourteen year old boys are not equipped to deal with things as an adult .... because they are not adults.

He was only "Bullied" for a few days. There was not that much to "deal" with. And at 14 you are far from new at social behavior in schools. Or at least he should have been unless he was attending one of those "safe spaces everywhere" schools before he ended up on this one.

a reply to: everyone

No it was reported that he was "only" bullied for a few days, there is actually no evidence either way.

If you read what I've written, I am not condoning what he did, I am say that at 14 he is not an adult. If you have spent any time around teenage boys, the phrase adult is not applicable to most of them, again this is why they do not let them drive, or drink.

a reply to: verschickter

Nice, leaning more towards productive now.

I think the targets of the bullies shows where they see themselves. High self esteem bullies would pick the top rung of the ladder (ie. football captains or cheerleaders) to tease as that would give the greater (false) respect.

I actually see the bullies as the greater victims overall. Most kids grow out of their social awkwardness eventually.

a reply to: Krahzeef_Ukhar

I go out on a limb and say that most bullies maybe learned in their family that you can get your will with force / inflicting pain on someone. The difference is, do you pass it on or not.

a reply to: projectvxn

Look, I feel for the kid if he's been bullied. God knows I hate bullies.

But this behavior is beyond the pale and the response by his father was disgusting.

Well, garbage in and garbage out. The kid sure didn't seem to have much of a role model to learn from.

I had a horrible thought the first time I read the article that the father actually told his son to take those knives to school and use to defend himself. I don't know why I thought that... but it recurs as I read your comments. Especially because I can't imagine any father in that situation even thinking about going on FB! It feels like he was defending his son in order to defend himself -- if that makes sense.

a reply to: Khaleesi

Kids aren't very good at giving an accurate timeframe in my experience. "For days" can actually mean months and "forever" can mean hours or days.

Exactly! That's been my experience too.