Comments on: There But For The Grace Of God Go I: The Colorado Massacre

By: School Shootings: The Sad Reality of Mental Health Care For Children

School Shootings: The Sad Reality of Mental Health Care For Children — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 17:54:12 +0000

[...] health concerns to get the help they so desperately need. I wrote about it in August after the massacre in Colorado. The post Does My Child Need Therapy? came from my honest belief that perpetrators of these [...]

By: School Shootings: How To Talk With Kids About Unthinkable Tragedy

School Shootings: How To Talk With Kids About Unthinkable Tragedy — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 23:28:50 +0000

[...] it seems that these tragedies are happening at an alarming pace, from the victims of the Colorado movie theater massacre this summer to the precious lives lost this morning at Sandy Hook Elementary School. How can I [...]

By: Dr. Polly Dunn

Dr. Polly Dunn — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 20:14:58 +0000

You bring up a lot of good points, especially the concern that “unsupervised uncontained brilliance can and does get channeled into obsessive often sociopathic behavior.” Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment.

By: Dr. Polly Dunn

Dr. Polly Dunn — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 20:11:12 +0000

Thank you so much for your comment. You are right, we all need to be aware of the impact of violent images on our children. In today’s society it seems as though those images are coming at our kids from every direction.

By: Fed Up

Fed Up — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 19:24:41 +0000

I think that it is justified that people question why infants and young children are brought to see this movie. Obviously the gunman is to blame for his victims. However can our society not take any blame as well? Research clearly demonstrates that watching violence desensitizes people to violence, that it skews a person’s perception of the occurrence of violence, and that it makes people more fearful. What parent wants any of this for their child? Had the shooting not happened I would still question the judgement of parents who bring their children to violent and obscenity laced movies. This just continues a cycle of citizens that tolerates violence and then ignorantly question how something like this mass shooting happens. You have posted frequently about child sexual abuse. I am a little shocked that you do not also see that showing children violent images is another form of abuse. Where is the wake-up call that maybe we shouldn’t be exposing young children to such images ? No, the parent who chose to bring their child to this movie is not to blame for their child’s death, but the society who continues to expose children to these images is responsible for the lessons that the children learn.

By: Suzanne b feehan LCSW

Suzanne b feehan LCSW — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 22:19:59 +0000

I believe there is a frantic scramble to find someone to blame in face of this kind of event. Looking at all that might contribute to such a tragic event is one way we can respond to at least do what we can to learn from and hopefully preventing something like this from happening again. One of my thoughts in response to this is something that I feel can be changed. Our educational system is sadly lacking in funds and efforts to maximize education as something that should be fully funded. An exceptionally intelligent student is often part of a group that gets as neglected as those who have special needs. Both populations suffer because of this and the rest of the student population gets only a mediocre standardized approach as if all students learn the same. Exceptional brightness that is neglected can often go horribly directed towards very destructive behaviors especially if that bright student is excluded or even bullied for being different. Unsupervised uncontained brilliance can and does get channelled into obsessive often sociopathic behavior. Parents alone cannot educate and raise a child alone : it takes the collective community being willing to invest in our future. It takes a country that’s unwilling to participate in endless resource draining wars and political battles that immobilize a healthy governance. It takes a medical and mental health system to insure the benefits for all to have access so that attention can be made easily available to all who need those services. This tragic act did not happen in a vacuum and we need to act together collectively to overcome the many contributors to this incident.