Decius proclaimed:
] It is wrong to show our children in high school the kind of
] indifference you'd project toward an enemy in war. These
] people are not your enemy; they are your responsibility.
]
] You must equip them with the perspective needed to make the
] right decisions, and you must identify and eliminate the
] pressures you have created that drive them to these ends.
]
] We don't seem to be doing either. I have little optimism that
] we will.

I highly recommend that people check out "Geeks" by Jon Katz (2000). It's subtitled "How two lost boys rode the internet out of Idaho." Note the excerpt below where Jon has asked one of the "two lost boys" about how the Columbine shootings happened.

-janelane

///

Highschool is set up for other people -- jocks and preppies, sports. You are not valued at all. You are constantly taunted, humiliated, elbowed, laughed at. The classes are boring and most of the teachers don't care if you live or die. People hate you for having ideas, for talking about them, for being different. You are never, ever invited to anything. High school is like a universe of parties, groups, activities, to which you are the only person who doesn't have the key, who never gets an invitation.
You start to get angry, then you start to hate. They just slice away your humanity, piece by piece, and the hate becomes bigger and bigger, until there's nothing left but hate. If you don't have good friends or a teacher or a parent to talk to, then one day, there's just no humanity left. You're all hate. You have no connection to the world. And so you snap.
--Jesse Dailey, p. 144 of Geeks by Jon Katz

RE: Why Nerds are Unpopular (Long, and worth it.)