A series of disturbing and violent incidents involving teenagers and deadly weapons over the past week once again points
to mounting social tensions in the US and deep-seated alienation among young
people. The communities shaken by these incidents include urban and suburban areas, as well as small-town America. Such events have occurred periodically in the years since the Columbine High
School massacre in 1999. But with each new eruption, the authorities and the media reveal their inability to provide any serious explanation for either the specific incidents or the general phenomenon of young people resorting to homicidal and, in many cases, suicidal violence. Each outburst is met with disbelief and treated simply as a law-enforcement problem, replete with new calls for more police and beefed-up security. In Crandon, Wisconsin on October 7, 20-year-old Tyler Peterson, a Crandon High School graduate and sheriff’s deputy, shot and killed six people who had gathered at a friend’s apartment for pizza. Peterson arrived at the apartment at around 2:30 a.m. He began an argument with his former girlfriend that became heated and she demanded he leave. He returned minutes later armed with an AR-15 rifle and proceeded to gun down six people and wound another before he was shot and killed by police. All of the victims were either students or graduates of Crandon High School. Crandon, a small community of about 2,000 in northeastern Wisconsin, is known in the region as a vacation destination for hunting, fishing and snowmobiling, and is also the home of the Crandon International Off-Road Raceway. Funerals began Friday for the victims, who included: Bradley Schultz, 20, a criminal justice major at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Lindsey Stahl, a 14-year-old freshman and animal rights activist; Jordanne Murray, 18, Peterson’s former girlfriend; Aaron Smith, 20, who worked casually as a construction worker; Lianna Thomas, 18, who left behind a twin sister; and Katrina McCorkle, 18, a senior and longtime friend of Jordanne Murray. The town is a state of shock following the shootings. Charlie Neitzel, 21, the only one at the party to survive the shooting, sustained extensive gunshot wounds. It is too early to know the long-term effects of his injuries. Charlie’s aunt told the press that he is “devastated” and “mourning the loss of many of his closest friends.” In a statement earlier this week, the shooter’s family apologized and said, “We are struggling to respond like most of you. We do not know what we should do. Like you, many of us are asking why and looking for answers.” Just three days later, on October 10 in Cleveland, Ohio, Asa Coon, 14, entered a downtown high school and went on a shooting rampage, wounding two students and two teachers before taking his own life. The young man, a new student at SuccessTech Academy, an alternative high school for gifted and troubled teens, had a long history of family and mental health problems. According to court records, he had spent time in two juvenile facilities and was suspended from another school last year for attempting to harm a student. A report by a Cortland County, New York social worker in 1997, when Asa Coon was three, said that he lived with his family in a garbage-strewn home. According to the caseworker, his older brothers threatened neighbors with knives, rocks and a fake bomb. When Asa was four years old, his mother, Lori Looney, was found guilty of neglect by the county juvenile court. His father was not involved with the family.