To think that our school isn’t that far away from becoming the next Columbine or recently the Santana High is scary. These tragedies happen in small suburban schools by ordinary people pushed over the edge.

Most of the school shootings that hit national news in the last few years have been committed by students who were mocked repeatedly and whose feeling were torn to shreds by their fellow peers. Even though they were ridiculed, this in no way gives them good reason to shoot up a school. I’m not saying that at all.

My point is that the kids who perform these shootings aren’t kids who bully people, aren’t kids who make other’s feel less worthy. Most of them are normal kids who are just trying to enjoy high school before it is all over.

This is what makes me the most upset. These kids have no right at all to commit these crimes. They deserve whatever is coming to them. But to think maybe, just maybe that if that jerk in gym didn’t tell him he was a terrible athlete, or when he was walking down the hallway someone didn’t yell freak, than maybe they wouldn’t have done these crimes?

It bothers me because we can do something about it. We can prevent this from happening in our school. We can’t prevent it by installing metal detectors or stupid cameras. Students will find a way to get the weapon in school and the kids that perform these acts admit to it.

What we should start thinking about in our society and in our school is to stop giving these students reasons to want to do these things. If everyone in our school would just mind their business and stop caring about what other people do so much we would be much better off.

Many students already do mind their business but there are still the few immature ones who feel the need to degrade other people, which is probably only to hide their own problems.

After talking to many of my fellow students about it the issue, one in particular made a great point. Dan McDonald, a junior, said “If students realized that the little things they say to people really mattered, and how kids take things to heart sometimes, maybe we would all be more considerate.” I feel Dan’s idea makes a lot of sense in that if everyone wouldn’t say dumb things to people they don’t really know how much better we’d be off.

It’s cool to mess around with your friends but when you say things to people you don’t know in a non-joking manner it tends to hurt the individual. These comments become more serious when they occur often.

To say whether our school is next or not. We can never be sure if any of the ideas would actually work, but it’s worth it to try. Senior Brooke Rashkow commented on if we can prevent our school from being the next “Columbine”, “No, it’s inevitable, if it’s going to happen, it will and there’s nothing we can do.” Whether or not it will happen here we will never know but hopefully we can all stay positive.

I am sure Neshaminy students can deal with their problems using alternate solutions that would keep our school from showng up on CNN.