Does social isolation of nerds in suburban settings lead to mass shootings at schools?

[Andy F]

That's an idea suggested by Katherine Newman, a professor at Johns Hophkins University and the author of "Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings."

What Newman notes is that many or most school shootings happen in peaceful, even dull suburban towns -- most of them nearly all-white, it looks like -- where gangs and gun violence are rare.

Many of the shooters have been bright, lonely, quiet kids that no one suspected of ever going postal.

Newman suggests that the way that macho teenaged culture is arranged, to insure the popularity of football players and the social isolation and even the unpopularity of nerds, is leading a tiny minority of the nerds to turn to crazy kinds of violence in hopes of getting "respect" from their peers.

That -- and the popularity of violent video games & the easy availability of guns, which makes it possible for the kids involved to act on their violent fantasies.

Do you agree with Newman's theory? Below is a link to a recent article of hers on the subject. After you've read it, can you tell us what YOU think about her idea?

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/17/opinion/ne...index.html

[Gungy]

A "professor" says so? Well that explains it.

[Aunt Jemima]

To some extent it's true. But a lot of kids grow up isolated, unpopular, nerdy, etc. and don't shoot up schools.

[Arthur Aardvark]

If suburban teachers made a concerted effort to have sex with the nerds, none of this would have happened. Problem solved.

[Sam]

People like her are the problem, when you constantly have someone calling you a social outcast and a nerd people eventually will believe it and in turn isolate themselves.

[Penny]

Rx drugs

[Bark 0bama]

Who knows the geniuses can't see past the guns far enough to study that.

[RUKiddingtoo]

As opposed to packing people into the city like rats and allowing them to kill a few every night?

[ladycristina]

She begins the explanation with "Since they are almost always mentally or emotionally ill, those rejections -- so common in adolescence -- take on greater importance and become a fixation."

We already knew that part. In fact, that is the whole point. They are all mentally ill.

Anyone who has been around a high school lately knows that being on a team is not "cool" anymore. I don't know about small towns, I live in a city.

[unknowngender92]

Not necessarily. It's kind of like the movie "the perfect storm" it's based on a lot more than that. Environment (home, neighbors, school, games, etc. are one thing, but also ginetics. Have you read about the Texas tower shooting in the 60's? He left a note saying he hadn't felt himself for a few years, getting worse over time. Also saying to check his brain after he killed himself, they found a tumor pressing against part of his brain which caused the gradual loss of sanity.