American Tragedy

Sooo much talk about mental health, preventing suicide with mindfulness (!?) But not a word about two major problems in the US - gun control and bullying in schools! Why do school shootings only happen in the US??? I live in Europe, we don't have "active shooter-drills" in schools here.

So much has come out since Columbine that it's unbelievable to me that a 2019 documentary would act like there were "no warning signs."

Dylan was arrested multiple times before the shootings, his friends knew he was acquiring guns, and most importantly, the police knew that both Eric and Dylan were troubled youth.

There was a 2-year paper trail and even an instance where a teacher reported a story Dylan had wrote (about watching a madman shoot up a place) to the school, and the school spoke to him about it and dismissed it.

The tragedy of Columbine isn't that no one saw it coming but that everyone should have seen it coming. Eric documented things in meticulous detail on his public website that police had access to. He talked about physical evidence that they later found (pipe bombs). There was a search warrant made up for his house a few months before the shootings that the police never took to a judge.

They were both known to police, Eric's dad knew he was making bombs, and Dylan had also been in felony trouble to the extent that his room would have been searched by any reasonable parent.

They left blazing signs they were going to hurt someone, and everyone just ignored it.

Mother of Dylan Klebold, one of the Columbine school shooters, is who this documentary mainly circulates around. She tries to grapple with how her son became the monster that shot up a school. When Columbine happened in 1999, at the time such an incident was unheard of although now it has sadly become so common in occurrence. Sue Klebold attempts to look back at the moments she missed, what she didn't see in Dylan, how she didn't notice the arcinary he was building in their garage. This documentary brings up interesting points about how America should be concentrating on preventative care as a way to curb future mass shooter creations. With so many aspects of physical health, we promote healthy eating and exercise but with school shootings we teach people what to do in the moment when it's already occurring. The documentary pushes for mindfulness which is great and all but we all know that the real problem is how easily youth can gain access to assault type riffles is what is problematic.

A movie every parent should watch. Any parent could find themselves in the shoes of Sue Kiebold. The movie demonstrates the struggles kids go through and how parents don't always see the signs. A real life drama highlighting the need for more focus on mental health...particularly with our kids. An eye-opener that all parents should see.

I am left feeling lost as to the point of the film. I kept thinking "ok, now they will tell me, as a parent, what to do to prevent it from happening." Realistically, I know they can't tell me what to do, but give me some tools to use to at least send me in the right direction. They did give me #committobrainfit. Unfortunately, the website is not made for cell phone browsers, so I can't even see what it's about.