This past week has been filled with a large amount of tragic and negative news. Earlier today, a few of my coworkers and I got into a debate about all the recent events that transpired. In regards to the shooting that took place in Parkland, FL (R.I.P. to all the souls last in that tragedy), some of my coworkers felt as if society is to blame for the actions of this 19-year old; however, a few others believe that it falls upon the parents to properly censor what their children are exposed to.

In order to get a deeper understanding on the viewpoints of these tragic issues, let’s take a minute and explore these positions. Society does play a huge role in the development of children (due to the exposure through social media, television, etc.), and it also has a huge influence on the human population as a whole. Despite however many people think they are “anti-government” and they “don’t follow everyone else”, there are still things that those people do that are, in fact, influenced by society somehow.

I’m not a parent, so I cannot really comment on this viewpoint as strongly as an actual parent can, but many of my coworkers felt strongly that this shooting, along with a sixth grader writing a very hateful note yesterday, all comes down to how the child was raised. Yesterday, a sixth grader wrote a note that threatened the students and faculty, saying he was going to “shoot their ugly a**es” and called them “you b*tches”. It is truly sad to see such a young individual write such hateful and threatening words.

How can we stop this?