Virginia Tech Incident - Could Bullying Be The Culprit?

Virginia Tech on the Blue Ridge Mountains



What has happenned at Virginia Tech today is most shocking and tragic. Almost eight years to the date that the Columbine massacre took place. I cannot begin to imagine the immense sorrow that shrouds the Virginia Tech campus this very moment.

Only last Sunday, I wrote about how bullying played a role in the lives of the Columbine gunmen - Klebold and Harris - in an article entitled Warning : Schools May Be Abetting Culture of Bullying which was published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on April 15, 2007, I talked about how research had shown that the two gunmen had suffered immense torment from being bullied for so many years. The following day, yesterday, I read a Reader's Digest story about how a young man was shot by someone who had also experienced bullying for most of his life. I cannot help but wonder if the young man, apparently an Asian student who lived at the dorm where the massacre in Virginia Tech began, was himself, a victim of bullying.

Authorities are still at a loss and everyone is still in shock. In a few days, weeks perhaps, the motivation will hopefully revel itself. For now, let us just pray for the the 32 families whose lives are now forever changed by such a terrible tragedy.