Quote Originally Posted by Twisterdog
I am failing to see where the parents of these children are to blame for this, necesarily. Honestly, parents, when your kids were in the third grade did it EVER occur to you to search their packpacks and coat pockets every morning for knives and paperweights? I would have NEVER occured to me that my child could or would plot something like that! One kid could have picked up the broken knife in an alley somewhere ... and what parent thinks of the paperweight on their desk as a potential problem? These are EIGHT YEAR OLDS.

And, thus, being eight year olds ... they got this idea from somewhere. I have a hard time believing this was conceived by these kids without outside influence. Whether it was older siblings talking, the media exposure to high school and college tragedies, video games, whatever - these eight year old children have heard way too much, way too young.
Parents should raise their kids to have morals and to know right from wrong and that behaving that way is COMPLETELY WRONG AND UNACCEPTABLE. Just because parents "back when" didn't have to check their bookbags... times have changed, when I was younger parents were actually around to parent and raise their own children versus dumping them off at a babysitter, school function, or daycare. Parents would ask their children about what happened at school, how their day went, and make small talk because they actually cared. Nowdays that hardly happens because, as someone mentioned previously, most parents are still pretty much kids themselves!!!

I fully believe the parents are 100% responsible for these children's actions. Yes I understand that even the best parent in the world can turn out a bad egg but... dear Lord, nearly a whole class of them!?