Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everyone. Thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch and in today's episode we're asking the question, did you know we can stop school shootings now? This is based on a fascinating article I read recently in the New York Times, uh, that I think laid a great blueprint for moving increasingly to a world where fewer school shootings happen. Let me give you a little background. This story takes place in a rural town in New York where a 16 year old was going through some intense bullying and emotional isolation and began to show signs of becoming a potential school shooter. In fact, at one point kind of pantomiming a pistol and pointing it to other students with his finger and saying something bad was gonna happen to them. Now as this kind of bubbled up to the adults in the community, they responded in an atypical way. Sometimes, usually that gets ignored or kind of the hammer of justice comes down. That kid gets expelled. And we've seen that that just results in more isolation and if that kid potentially becomes bec. Violent. But not in this town. In this town they had set up 106 member team, uh, of law enforcement, uh, people, educators, uh, mental health counselors who had been training on how to respond to a situation like this. As a result, this student was removed from in person classes, given tutoring, offered counseling, and as a result of that counseling, the school identified the bullying, came in, solved that problem, did away with it and, and that 16 year old went on to graduate, leave the school and not ever become violent. In other words, that student fit every box, bullied, emotionally isolated, weapons were in the house, had begun to make violent threats. But this time, because adults acted proactively, restoratively and preventatively, violence didn't happen. And this is a story you're gonna miss because no one talks about the school shootings that didn't happen. But if we want fewer of them to happen, these are the stories we have to pay attention to. And I think this is brilliant. And let me offer you a biblical argument. Why? First, here's the first point. Intervene before destruction, not after it. I mean that makes sense logically, but we just don't do it. Proverbs 24:11 says to rescue those being led away to death. And in this case that's exactly what happened. The truth is that a lot of time bullying takes place under the supervision of adults who are either not paying attention or don't care enough. These adults Saw it as their responsibility. They uh, saw it as their job to ask why this kid was struggling and why he was turning to violence. And there's a biblical concept under this by the way. And that's my second point. Recognize that every person is made in the image of God. Uh, there's a certain amount of human dignity. Genesis 1:26 and 27. God makes us in his image. This 16 year old kid was not born wanting to shoot up the school. He became like this in response to the trauma around him and the sinfulness inside of him. Instead of after the fact of a school shooting, vilifying the kid who did it, which of course in that case they are, um, they have become a villain instead getting to the kid early and saying, this kid isn't doing this because he's just out and out more evil than everybody else. This kid is doing this because something happening in his external world is hooking into his internal brokenness. And I guess this is what the Bible means in Micah 6, 8 when it says to act justly and love mercy. If we wait until after the violence happens, all we have is justice at that point. But if we engage in, the kid that we see is isolated and the kid we see is not attaching to anyone else in their class. So the kid who is acting in a way that might indicate they're turning towards violence, well then, then we can be merciful. If you read the story, there's this incredible guy at the school who really gets involved. He watches hours of film in the school building to figure out when the bullying is happening, who's doing it and how he can prevent it. In other words, because he doesn't see the kid is fundamentally a problem, but fundamentally his responsibility, he acts and the result changes everything. This is what Paul means in Galatians 6:1 when he says to bear one another's burdens and fulfill the law of Christ. People don't become our problem when they shoot up a school. There are problem when they're isolated, alone and being bullied. Listen, I'm not trying to legitimize any kid who turns to violence. I'm just saying by the time a 16, 17 year old kid turns to violence, a number of adults have already failed them. Listen, the Bible says in 1 John 4 that perfect love casts out fear. I know we're all afraid of the next school shooting. We're all afraid it's gonna be at the school of our children. But what if that resulted not in anxiety and fear, but in looking around for those that aren't being loved enough for those on the margins of a school community because I can tell you as someone who did experience bullying when he was in school, it is a crippling experience that can take you to some pretty dark places. The answer is to go into those dark places with a message of love before it is too late. And you might think that's idealistic and it doesn't work but it did in this town and it could in your town as well. Let's stop lamenting school shootings after the fact and start loving hurting kids before they get violent. Hey thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. 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