The bodies aren't even cool yet and already people are looking to ascribe a motive to this guy? It's kind of sad.

In other news: J.K. Rowling really is a teenage boy with magical powers.

Because EVERY piece of fiction EVER written tells you what the author is going to do next.

This is more an example of his state of mind than a motive.Do you really think that the person who wrote this play was mentally healthy? It was disturbing enough for his professors to recommend counseling. To me, this is less of a piece of literature and more an outpouring of rage and evidence of a scarred childhood.

I'm not sure this one thing by itself goes to motive but I do think it is one part of the overall picture.

They are trying to assemble a psychological profile on this guy and his views of society. I think this is a relevant piece of the puzzle.

I read the "play" a few times and in hindsight it may be a bell-ringer, but as I read it it's just cartoonish and childish. It's not the kind of thing a 23-year-old would write, it's more like the ramblings of a 12-year-old. For one thing, he seems to have no understanding of how people actually talk to each other.

Maybe for that reason I would've suggested he talk to someone if he'd turned this paper in to me. If that's how he thinks a married couple talk to each other he's obviously been around some very broken pairings.

I dont think this happens enough to justify it but doors that can go into "lockdown" would be beinficial, wouldnt they?

If you read the Columbine PDF that the police department released, it seems to be SOME kind of indication of a person being disturbed. Those kids had all kinds of crazy disturbing things in their notebooks.

I was listening to reports of these kids jumping from the buildings and getting hurt - I think that public buildings that are 2 or 3 stories high should also include landscaping that would help facilitate people getting out in an emergency...

full bushes and shrubs (anything) that can lessen the impact of a falling (jumping) body for instance.

Well, if an author who writes violent plays is prone to this type of behaviour, what does that say about Shakespeare?

Perhaps it might shed some light on this particular individual's motives, but I'd be extremely cautious about saying anything more for risk of painting every author with the same brush.

Double Post!

Couple years ago I saved some of my old school essays from the attic before we sold the house. These were fictional stories from second or third grade.

Among some other stories I wrote about a rock musician who had a flying car. In the end he crashed it into a cruise ship, sinking it. The story implies no one was saved.

Back then my teacher congratulated me for the imaginative story and the rich language used, had it been modern days they'd probably had sent me to a shrink too. You don't have to have a mass murderer mind to write odd stories.

I haven't read the play, but it did get this kid refered to counseling.

But how do you tell the difference between a plea for help and what many would call the "genius" of a Steven King. I am sure most of Mr. King's early stuff was of the "watch-this-kid-he-is-going-to-be-a-serial-killer" type of thing. Childish writing could reflect a problem, or it sould be a language issue, or it could even have been an affected style (even if it failed).

Maybe the counselor should have spotted something, I don't know.

Bottom line is that this was a psychopathic personality determined to commit mass murder. You hope someone spots them early, but they will happen.

Trust me, by MODERN standards, we all need sickotherapy (oops, I mean psychtherapy), Especially the sickotherapists.

Here is a list of the victims, including the hero professor who was a Holocaust survivor:

Yeah, but it doesn't mean I'm not keeping an eye on you just the same.

People are scrambling for an explination as if knowing what caused this will prevent future shooting; I don't think that can be done. Plenty of people read and write violent lit. and they don't become murderers. Besides, correlation does not imply causality.

As for myself, when I was in 5th grade I wrote stories about zombie cows that ate peopleburgers and stuff like that and got referred to a psychiatrist. I wasn't insane, I just liked reading horror novels (still do).

If you think "writes about bad things = will do bad things", by rights I should be a mass murderer. Instead, I'm a fairly quiet person who's *saved* three lives and still enjoys reading and writing gory stories.

I don't think anyone is saying that this play by itself pegs him as a psychopath. What is starting to emerge however, is a series of indicators (this being one of them), that if put together early enough, may have allowed someone to intervene in time.

- He writes a violent play
- Guidance counselors are concerned enough to refer him
- He's on anti-depression meds
- He has a fascination with guns (brandishing them on a myspace page)
- He voices great disdain for the country/society he lives in (doesn't like the US or its people)
- He appears to be a social outcast of sorts (by the account of his peers)

...taken together, it's starting to sound like someone worth looking at.

I realize that. I just get the feeling this is going to get blown out of proportion.

It kind of reminds me of the 'Random Story of Randomness' (and the sequel) that my friends and I wrote a few years ago. Except, with less seriousness.
But I would have never turned it in for a project or anything.
Maybe he just couldn't think of anything.

(Here I am, defending this guy. Does that automatically make me a horrible person?)

No, unless you're condoning what he did, and I don't think you are. It could be that his play was intended as a farce, or that he was just writing whatever came to mind. Unfortunately, I don't think that's the case. When I read this, it seemed to me like the writer was emotionally stunted, maybe because of childhood abuse and/or mental illness. Even if I didn't know that the writer later committed mass murder, it still reads like a blazing red warning sign, one which at least one person recognized. Maybe he was intentionally sending out a signal by turning it in as an assignment, I don't know.

Anyways, that's enough amateur psychoanalyzing for me.

Writing something violent is one thing.. but his writings do creep me out.. especially since he is old enough to understand empathy.