There are too many common threads that bind together the incidents at Pearl, Jonesboro, West Paducah, Springfield and Littleton to ignore the connection. One looks for more than a psychological or sociological explanation. All the preconditions for the killings exist in thousands of other schools throughout the nation. These are not easy questions. Adolescent youth, naturally made insecure by the most profound changes in their bodies and minds that they will ever undergo, are prone to cliques as a means of establishing their identity and obtain a sense of belonging.
Rival cliques are common, vying with one another for a position in the inter-clique pecking order.
This can be cruel indeed. Among boys, schoolyard bullies and victims are roles as ancient as schools themselves. The media and their expert sources have drawn several conclusions. Blaine Harden, in The New York Times, reminds us that schools overall are becoming less violent, that killings are becoming less frequent and there is no real reason to worry. Another columnist holds that parents, teachers, relatives, neighbors and friends are not actively engaging sufficiently in the lives of children.