When
gunfire
and
screams
no
longer
pierce
the
air,
and
the
glass
and
blood
are
cleaned
up
from
hallways,
classrooms
and
cafeterias,
mass
shootings
at
America’s
middle
and
high
schools
leave
the
agonizing
question
of
why
—
why
do
some
young
people
suddenly
snap
and
gun
down
their
classmates
and
teachers?
It
is
a
question
those
living
on
the
Red
Lake
Indian
Reservation
in
Minnesota
are
facing,
after
16-year-old
Jeff
Weise
killed
his
grandfather
and
grandfather’s
girlfriend,
then
went
on
a
shooting
rampage
at
his
high
school,
killing
five
students,
a
teacher,
a
security
guard
and
himself
on
March
21.
And
it
is
a
question
the
media
and
various
government
agencies
have
tried
to
tackle
over
the
past
decade
in
a
search
for
missed
clues
that
might
have
warned
about
the
tragedies,
or
helped
prevent
similar
episodes
of
school
violence
from
occurring.
There
is
no
exact
profile
for
the
young
people
who
have
entered
their
schools
and
opened
fire
in
the
last
10
years.
Weise
faced
unique
risk
factors
for
violent
behavior
coming
of
age
on
a
desolate
Indian
reservation
plagued
by
poverty,
drugs,
poor
education
and
crime.
He
also
endured
difficult
family
circumstances
after
his
father
committed
suicide
and
his
mother
suffered
brain
damage
in
a
car
accident.
But
the
Minnesota
youth
possessed
several
characteristics
considered
prototypical
to
teen
shooters.
Like
many,
Weise
was
described
as
a
misfit,
a
loner
and
a
troubled
youth
with
a
violent
imagination
that
manifested
itself
in
short
stories
and
animations.
Similar
to
America’s
most
lethal
school
shooters
—
Eric
Harris
and
Dylan
Klebold
of
Columbine
High
School
—
Weise
had
an
affinity
for
neo-Nazi
culture.
And
as
has
become
the
norm
among
school
shooters,
Weise
had
a
history
of
being
teased
and
bullied
—
“terrorized,”
one
student
told
the
Minneapolis
Star-Tribune
—
by
his
schoolmates.
Some
youth
violence
experts
argue
the
strongest
influence
contributing
to
Weise
becoming
a
mass
killer
was
the
so-called
“boy
code,”
a
culture
where
bullying
is
considered
“boys
being
boys,”
and
young
men
learn
that
aggression
and
violence
are
legitimate
expressions
of
their
masculinity.
The
perpetrators
of
random
school
shootings
since
1982,
all
boys,
were
“overconformists”
to
the
popular
notion
that
being
a
“real
man”
means
aggressively
defending
your
manhood
when
it
is
challenged,
such
as
through
prolonged
bullying,
said
Michael
Kimmel,
a
sociology
professor
at
the
State
University
of
New
York
at
Stony
Brook.
And
no
weapon
is
more
emasculating,
or
brandished
more
frequently
on
schoolyards
across
the
country,
than
the
homophobic
rhetoric
used
to
describe
anything
that
makes
a
young
man
different
from
his
male
peers,
Kimmel
wrote
in
a
June
2003
article
for
the
journal
American
Behavioral
Scientist.
“We
found
a
striking
pattern
[while
analyzing
news]
stories
about
the
boys
who
committed
the
violence:
nearly
all
had
stories
of
being
constantly
bullied,
beat
up,
and
…
‘gay-baited,’”
Kimmel
wrote.
“And
most
strikingly,
it
was
not
because
they
were
gay
—
at
least
there
is
no
evidence
to
suggest
that
any
of
them
were
gay
—
but
because
they
were
different
from
the
other
boys:
shy,
bookish,
honor
students,
artistic,
musical,
theatrical,
non-athletic,
‘geekish,’
or
weird,”
he
continued.
Instead
of
the
standard
review
of
“what
went
wrong”
with
individual
school
shooters,
the
media,
government
researchers
and
society
at-large
must
understand
the
roles
standards
of
masculinity
play
in
facilitating
violent
outbreaks
by
young
men,
Kimmel
said
in
an
interview
for
this
article.
“I
think
one
of
the
saddest
parts
of
this
is
how
unwilling
we
seem
to
be
to
really
examine
the
heart
of
these
kinds
of
issues,”
Kimmel
said.
“I
think
we
are
too
quick
to
declare
ourselves
blameless
and
focus
on
the
psychological
problems
of
the
individual.”
Not
all
experts
on
bullying
agree.
To
focus
on
masculinity
as
the
impetus
for
school
shootings
and
lesser
forms
of
bullying
is
an
“oversimplification,”
according
to
Joel
Haber,
a
White
Plains,
N.Y.-based
psychologist
known
as
the
“Bully
Coach”
who
produces
anti-bullying
materials
and
forums.
“It’s
not
just
about
masculinity
—
it’s
about
a
diminished
sense
of
self,”
Haber
said.
During
a
mental
evaluation
for
his
trial
on
charges
that
he
gunned
down
three
of
his
classmates
at
a
western
Kentucky
high
school
in
1997,
Michael
Carneal
said
his
attack
was
motivated
by
the
constant
anti-gay
teasing
he
endured
since
he
was
in
eighth
grade.
He
also
cited
a
rumor
column
in
the
school
newspaper
that
reported
he
was
gay.
“Mike
detailed
extensive
harassment
at
school
in
recent
years
in
which
he
was
called
gay,
faggot,
nerd,
geek,”
according
to
the
psychological
evaluation
prepared
by
Diane
Schetky,
a
nationally
known
child
psychiatrist.
After
the
1999
shooting
at
Columbine
High
School,
former
classmates
of
Dylan
Klebold
and
Eric
Harris
recounted
how
the
two
teens
were
often
ridiculed
as
being
gay.
“They’re
freaks,”
Ben
Oakley,
a
Columbine
sophomore
at
the
time,
told
the
Internet
magazine
Salon
shortly
after
the
shootings.
...
