Franklin Regional Stabbing (neighborhoods, suburbs, station)

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by okaydorothy

I will go out on a limb here. Last night, I won't give details of where or what, but overheard by someone close to the school ; the child who did the stabbing had tried out for many sports ; soccer, football, etc and didn't get on the team. Many of the kids that were stabbed were sports players.

Repost:

Originally Posted by BarqCider

ive been hearing reports the attacker was peed on in the bathroom? i would really hope that isnt true. i would want those kids who did it and those who watched pay the price for such a humiliation they placed upon the kid. set the example PA if this is true.

[villageidiot1]

Originally Posted by okaydorothy

I will go out on a limb here. Last night, I won't give details of where or what, but overheard by someone close to the school ; the child who did the stabbing had tried out for many sports ; soccer, football, etc and didn't get on the team. Many of the kids that were stabbed were sports players.

It may be true that he had tried out for many sports but I doubt that was the real reason behind what he did. I think people are grasping for straws with these type of comments. First of all, from the pictures of him in a hospital gown, he is very small. This would put him a disadvantage for sports like football and basketball.

Originally Posted by Hopes

That could be speculation simply because the victims were athletes. It's no secret that jocks have the biggest bullies among them. He might not have even tried out for teams and attacked kids who bullied him.

If he did try out and didn't get on any team, that's a shame. What about second string, etc. Sports should be for everyone to play. But just imagine if he had gotten on a team. He might have killed the whole school after he experienced the treatment teammates give the players who aren't as good. That's worse than the crap they do to random kids in the hallways.

I'm not dissing sports. My son played almost every sport. He's a professional athlete. That's why I know what I say about jocks is true---from my personal experience as a student decades ago to watching it happen as an involved mother who served on the boards for a few of the sports.

It's sort of unsettling if this rumor exists because jocks with big egos are thinking people are jealous of them.

I don't buy into the idea that "jocks have the biggest bullies among them." I think this is a stereotype from movies and television shows. I sub in different schools and coach, and my children all played various sports. I don't see or hear the bullying that is talked about. What I see is the athletes tend to hang out together in the cafeteria and in the halls because of their common interests.

Some teams such as basketball and baseball can't take every person who tries out. There is only so much court or field time available. If you keep a kid on a team today, you can't leave them on the bench like coaches used to do.

Kids today are in a much different situation than when I graduated from high school in the 1970s. Schools in Western PA were larger then and had less numbers of sports. I graduated with 600 students in my class. We didn't have soccer, lacrosse, volleyball or ice hockey or any girls' sports.

While there are less kids and more opportunities, many kids today are much more focused on sports. They start playing t-ball and soccer when they are 4 or 5 years old. They are on travel teams a few years later. Girls are taking dance and gymnastics. Parents are hiring coaches and private tutors to work with their children in elementary and middle school. Keep in mind that kids don't learn sports today from pick up games in the neighborhood. Kids in a neighborhood like Murrysville, Mt. Lebanon, Upper St. Clair, Wexford, etc. are not paying pickup games in the street or backyard. They are on travel soccer, baseball, swimming, hockey, and basketball teams, or taking private golf or tennis lessons.

A kid with below average athletic ability who has been given instruction and opportunities to participate in sports since kindergarten has had a chance to develop some athletic skills and also social skills from constantly being around peers.

What happens to the small boy with below average athletic ability who decides he now wants to participate in sports because it's the cool thing to do? I have no idea if this is what occurred in this situation but it is possible. The kids who have not grown up with sports tend to go in a different direction and steer clear of any type of sports involvement. I've seen it when I've taught physical education classes where many of the girls are much better athletes than the boys when we play basketball, softball or volleyball.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by villageidiot1

I don't buy into the idea that "jocks have the biggest bullies among them." I think this is a stereotype from movies and television shows. I sub in different schools and coach, and my children all played various sports. I don't see or hear the bullying that is talked about. What I see is the athletes tend to hang out together in the cafeteria and in the halls because of their common interests.

It wasn't yesteryear or TV when the football and lacrosse teams formed gang mentality and jumped four on one when a member of the opposing teams were alone. Baseball had a similar rivalry but I can't remember with which opposing sport. The school district was unaware of this "healthy" rivalry for months until a war with a mass scheduled facedown between the two teams. I think I was the only parent who heard about it ahead of time. If I hadn't called the police, they might not have shown up before the preassembled riot was a bloodbath. And, no, my kid wasn't there. He didn't approve, and that's why he told me what was happening. There are good coaches and bad coaches. Those team's coaches knew about this. The football coach actually instigated it because he was upset he was loosing players to the lacrosse team. He didn't outright say beat the **** out of the lacrosse team. I'm sure that wasn't his intent. But he made disparaging remarks and planted the seeds of hatred. Kids gain great confidence from their accomplishments in sports and that can be a good thing or a bad thing if not guided properly.

I'm not saying all jocks are bullies. I'm saying it's easy for them to fall into a gang mentality given the wrong influences within the group. My main point is it takes quite an ego to create the rumor that a mass stabbing was the result of being jealous of athletes who were attacked.

[DaisyDaisy]

I'd heard rumblings but here is an article confirming more details regarding bullying at FR and of the assailant, in particular...Franklin Regional parent had bullying concerns before knife rampage | TribLIVE Mobile

Sad situation all around.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by DaisyDaisy

I'd heard rumblings but here is an article confirming more details regarding bullying at FR and of the assailant, in particular...Franklin Regional parent had bullying concerns before knife rampage | TribLIVE Mobile

Sad situation all around.

Thank you for sharing. It's pathetic how many people are declining to comment. The school is only concerned about liability. It's perplexing is why the police are hiding bulling evidence that was provided to them. That indicates to me the police department doesn't have free reign to police in the township. Then again, maybe they were holding that evidence until discovery (if they didn't file 13 it) because they felt it helped the attacker's defense. Since the FBI is involved in this investigation, people should start providing evidence to the FBI instead of the police.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by Hopes

I'm not saying all jocks are bullies. I'm saying it's easy for them to fall into a gang mentality given the wrong influences within the group. My main point is it takes quite an ego to create the rumor that a mass stabbing was the result of being jealous of athletes who were attacked.

Back in the 60's, my era, the jocks would control the bullies. I never got hazed or threatened by the upper classmen on the b-ball team.

Bullies were taken care of by the jocks.

[BarqCider]

as a society we preach preventatives but in reality we only take action after and then wonder what,why,when it will happen again. we wont change ever. you can place all the metal detectors, 10 cops per school yet someone will find a way to keep acting out.

we will always be a reactive never a preventive society.

[villageidiot1]

If anyone read the long article in today's Post-Gazette Murrysville: Once near-perfect, now shaken, resilient - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, there are a few paragraphs that caught my attention because the following statements were made with no further comment by the reporter. There is no other mention of bullying in the article.

Gaby Lee could not sleep Tuesday night because of nightmares.

"Usually I only get them if something bad is going to happen," said Gaby, a
15-year-old freshman at Franklin Regional.

She just figured it was a harbinger of another day of being called names and
having rumors spread about her by classmates. Yes, getting through high school
is hard work, especially for someone like Gaby who just moved to Murrysville
before the start of this school year. Most mornings, she would rather stay home,
but she knows that won't solve anything.

To combat the negative energy in the halls, she and similarly ridiculed
friends have tried to reverse the tide this spring by hugging each other
whenever they greet or part ways.

"We hug hello and good-bye because we never know what's going to happen," she
said.

[Longtime_Lurker]

Originally Posted by villageidiot1

If anyone read the long article in today's Post-Gazette Murrysville: Once near-perfect, now shaken, resilient - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, there are a few paragraphs that caught my attention because the following statements were made with no further comment by the reporter. There is no other mention of bullying in the article.

So Gabby Lee has clairvoyant powers? Why didn't she report her "visions" to the proper authorities so this tragedy could have been avoided?

What I've noticed about this particular event is how some of the students are reveling in all the media attention. The one particular student who was stabbed taking a "selfie" with a smug look on his face and a girl being interviewed by a local news station retelling how she saw her male friend being stabbed while a big smile was plastered across her face.

Call me a cynic but helping another person that's in distress isn't being a hero. It's being a human being. The paramedics, first responders, and school security guards weren't heros. They were simply doing the job they were paid to do.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by Longtime_Lurker

Call me a cynic but helping another person that's in distress isn't being a hero. It's being a human being. The paramedics, first responders, and school security guards weren't heros. They were simply doing the job they were paid to do.

The majority of the students weren't being human beings then because they were running for their own lives. There was a girl quoted in an early article where she described a kid lifted his shirt to reveal he was stabbed and bleeding and asked her for help, and she said she ran away from him and out of the building. I'm not judging her. She obviously wasn't equipped emotionally to deal with it. But the girl who did stay and help her friend was a hero because the stabbing was still going on. She put her life at risk by staying there and helping. That wasn't her job. She wasn't paid to do it. She's a hero.

But I agree with you about the kid who is posting selfies. He doesn't look traumatized. He looks full of himself.