Letters: Apr. 9, 2001

The Columbine Legacy

"What if someone slapped or tripped you and called you names? Harassment is a crime in the workplace. Why not at school?" SEAN W. FOSTER-NOLAN North Weymouth, Mass.

As long as parents are absent and firearms are present in the homes of troubled adolescents, tragedies like the shootings at Santana and Columbine high schools will happen [SOCIETY, March 19]. Young Andy Williams, who fired on his classmates, should not be the only one on trial. There is room in the court for negligent parents, anonymous suburban society and the N.R.A. too. FABIO POELHEKKE Oegstgeest, the Netherlands

When will we stop making excuses for the poor choices of youngsters? Williams' decision to hang with the pot smokers and thugs was his own. He could have chosen counseling and faith, but instead he picked the mind-numbing substances preferred by the lost souls of his generation. But for every Williams, there are hundreds of other young adults in this town and around the country who have made the right choices. CARL A. BOECK Santee, Calif.

I ask all those normal, well-adjusted students of Santee, Calif.: Where the hell are you when you see a classmate being beaten up physically or emotionally because he's fat or wears thick glasses? Why aren't you rising up in wrath and getting in the face of the bullies and demanding that they stop it? Unless you show the misfits and outcasts that you care enough to protect them, you are as guilty as those doing the bullying. EDWARD HUBER Philadelphia

I was raised in South Dakota, where we had the same percentage of bullies and nasty young people as anywhere else. We also had easy access to guns. My family had four or five firearms in the house, including a pistol. Yet no one thought of using these guns to kill or maim a fellow student. There are some new factors at play, and until we understand them, we will be contributing to the continuation of these terrible events by providing a straw man for the politicians to pontificate against. ED HALLENBECK Murrieta, Calif.

Perhaps we need to acknowledge that we are bringing up kids so sheltered from failure, disappointment and consequences that they have no coping skills. JANET MASTERS Madison, Wis.

We are awash in a sea of guns. Williams' father had eight of them. The father of Elizabeth Burns, the eighth-grader who shot a classmate in Williamsport, Pa., had 12 guns. Add to this the fact that we are a culture that has abrogated decent parenting and is addicted to violent media trash. The consequence is tragedies waiting to happen. RUTH ROSEN Santa Monica, Calif.

In the round of finger pointing after the Santana shooting spree, many of you felt that we in the news business share some of the blame for school violence. "Instant fame is one 'Columbine effect,' and TIME bestowed it on the shooters," wrote a Californian, who added, "You may inspire more killing." Echoing the point, a reader from Charlotte, N.C., declared, "A better headline for your cover would have been 'The Media Effect.' The relentless coverage of these tragedies provides a blueprint for every disillusioned kid in America to exact revenge." And a New York City reader urged us to "stop publishing the names and photos of the perpetrators; you should signal that school violence leads only to certain punishment and scorn."

An Education in Ethics