Ugh, Humans

See what I did there?

Between the Crumbleys basically pulling a Willy Wonka on their kid ("stop. don't. come back" in the most bored and insincere way possible) and then running away themselves, the usual suspects among the anti-vaxxers & antimaskers, the folks who believe that fetal existence trumps (yes, I said 'trumps' even though I hate it) actual living breathing humans out and about in the world, the fake-concern what-about-the-children types running for school boards and lying (or bullying) their way there, and people who think that 108F is reasonable for Seattle, especially on Blow Things Up Day, I'm about ready to throw hands.

And I'm a Social Justice Bard, not a Social Justice Warrior. I prefer using a level one Charm Person spell to bashing people over the head with my metaphorical lute, but that's not happening these days, apparently.

Do not get me started on those asshats who put the responsibility for Ethan Crumbley's actions on the school. They have all sorts of legal bullshit tying their hands. Ethan and his parents are the ones at fault here. Schools and the people running them are some of our Very Special Scapegoats these days, because god forbid children should learn to think for themselves and to form their own opinions different from their parents'. Why, they might become liberal! Or even (I'll whisper it) progressive.

Can't have progress. How will we control the peasants?

Do I sound mad? Angry-mad, not Hatter-mad. Because I am.

So the Crumbley thing went down on Tuesday. In Michigan. Later that week, we here in (the slightly saner) Washington had a bunch of threats to schools as well.

This is anxiety-producing for everyone, especially those with kids in those schools (not me) or who work for the schools (me. I don't have students in the affected schools in our district at the moment, but who knows what happens as I drive by taking younger students home, for instance?)

A post popped up in my Facebook feed, in support of the teachers (they've been extra careful, making sure to check in with all the kids to spot anxiety or upset over these threats) in the affected schools, so I clicked on it. Yay! A supportive post!

Then I read a couple of the comments.

This was a mistake.

People are sharing opinions that the schools are at fault because the teachers haven't been providing this extra support 24/7 since like 1980 (when most of these teachers weren't even born yet), and no wonder the kids go off the rails, and given that the threats are happening in many places, it must be a stupid TikTok trend and we can't blame the parents or the actual kid, no, it's the fault of the school system. And TikTok, evidently.

The same school system that you insisted needed to open up right away, no masks, no vaccines, but immediately and at once, regardless of health and safety (except that you don't want them on the school bus because those 6-foot distances aren't possible, not that you care anywhere else, so you clog up the parent drop-off lanes), so your little darling can be taught their ABCs by an expert (but god forbid the expert teaches anything resembling critical thinking, especially as regards consent issues or the mere existence of gay people or actual history)? That school system?

Make up your damn minds!

I have written about it before, of course, but how on earth do these people manage to hold such diametrically opposite views without imploding?

Well, maybe they do implode. By giving their unstable adolescents guns as gifts, refusing to take the kid home from school when called in because he's gone off the rails, and running away themselves in the end.

Sorry about the run-on sentences, if you got this far. I'm appalled, upset, furious, despairing, you name it.

But I try to channel my emotions - and I was once a bullied middle-schooler too - in more productive ways than shooting up a school. Or even threatening to.