Unionized public employees are not paid to think. Clever students are hard to come by, after three decades of New Math and Look-See dumbing down. Their attire and behavior was far less disturbing than the normal sort of macho adolescent bullying that public schools tolerate. In most districts, teachers are amazed and delighted to have students who pay attention. The last thing on the administrative agenda at Columbine was a couple of sissies who complained about Harris and Klebold.
Schools have counselors to deal with behavioral problems.
The teachers and principals at Columbine followed official procedure and passed the buck to licensed social workers who lectured Harris and Klebold about the importance of obeying the rules and being nice boys. Goth music is pretty tame compared to overtly violent gangsta rap. Many students and parents expressed abject disbelief the day after Harris and Klebold went on a shooting spree at suburban Columbine. Nor was there anything unusual about the killers' habit of playing violent computer games. Millions of children across America are sitting at Nintendo consoles right now, firing shotguns at three-dimensional, animated opponents who scream in stereophonic sound when they die.