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Saturday, April 21, 2007

Kevin Jennings - When Will We Learn? The call for anti-bullying laws and policies 

A further insight into Cho's background comes from high school classmates in suburban Washington who say he was bullied and laughed at over his Korean accent and shyness. When called on in class, they say, he would hang his head in silence. -MSNBC report

Leave it to a cabbie to single out an important facet of the Virginia Tech tragedy and other school shootings that has been largely overlooked.

During my cab on the way to my partner's 46th birthday party last night, Friday, April 20th, the driver turned to me and asked, "Why do you think that boy killed all those people?"

A bit surprised to be engaged on the topic, I replied, "Well, for starters, I think the fact that he could just walk into a store in Virginia and walk out with a gun has something to do with it."

"NO!" the cabbie thundered back, making me jump a bit. "It is because of all the others. The ones filled with hate. The ones who mocked him and filled him with hate. They are the murderers."

The cabbie had zeroed in on something about the school shootings tragedy that has been rarely mentioned in the wall-to-wall coverage that has dominated the airwaves this week: the fact that nearly every one of these tragedies has been perpetrated by boys who have been bullied and harassed.

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