Student shot because of medical condition

Intolerance is the order of the day here in the lovely Unruly States of Ammunition

this story really gets to me, my brother had an outbreak of alopecia when he was 23; he was so devastated by it but hes ok now. i couldn't imagine being a kid and having to go through something like this when you're so young and when kids can be so cruel.

i can't even get into the head of the kid who shot him, what in the world was he thinking, i gotta know. and yeah everyone's arguing over whether its bad parenting or not tight enough gun control laws although either way its true that guns are wayyy to easy to acquire, we gotta remember though that it all starts at home man, parents gotta start being parents and teaching kids some values and virtues, like tolerance (if intolerance is really the culprit). because for goodness sake he was just a kid with a hair problem, he had to deal with enough with as it was; this is not what is supposed to happen to kids, this is now how things should be.. this is some heartbreaking stuff and its crystal clear that things NEED to change, but for now..rest easy Ryan.

they should hang that kid by his jewles, we
d all be better off, kids like that, will go straight to hell

Yeh sure the parents bare some of the blame but guns are way too easy to acquire over there.

If they couldn't get their hands on the gun the worst that kid would have got is a beating.
Where else do you see kids shooting kids so often? Is that down to a weird phenomenon of bad parenting localised only to the states? No! It's down to the fact that it really isn't too hard to get hands on a firearm.

No amount of parenting is going to be able to completely stop a child from being as extreme with their actions as possible because kids make mistakes because kids don't have a fully developed social understanding of things.

Which is why when a kid has a problem with someone they're inclined to start a fight or in extreme cases try to take out the most harsh form of revenge they possibly can. If a gun is at their disposal or easily acquired TO be at their disposal they're often likely not to fully understand the possible outcome of their action if they do take that road.

of course the fucking media is blaming the lack of gun control. fuck that its not the guns fault its the fucking parents who are probably intolerent pricks just like this kid

When will America learn.

It's amazing that they haven't learned by now how rediculous their gun laws are.

They'll reep what they sow.

This does not make any sense, kid gets shot because he was sick? wtf

That family had to go through a lot because of his condition and now they have to bury him? There is no amount of justice that will rectify that.AT.ALL.

This is sick and unfortunate.

This is the second senseless shooting we've had here in the last month. The first involving a crazed man entering a church on a Sunday morning and opening fire during a children's play. Central High School is near one of the oldest parts of Knoxville , in an area called Fountain City. it's like something out of a Rockwell portrait, which is why this is even more disturbing.

This has been a typically idyllic place to raise a family. However in the last two years, three incidents here have risen to national coverage. The third incident having the makings of a hate crime involving the murder of two University of Tennessee students, Shannon Christian, and her boyfriend Chris Newton. The people here are very grounded, but these three events have shaken the town to its core. Since the economy began tanking, small town America is seeing more senseless crimes like this everyday. Because this has become my hometown, I'm praying that the media will maintain accuracy and integrity of its news coverage here, rather than allow the public at large to misinterpret the people who live here..

"Bullying. Fights.

Just a typical American public high school in a typical American public school district. "

That was actually the comment that my response was aimed towards, I thought I replied directly to the poster that made that comment. Wasn't really meant to be a blanket response to the entire thread. Now that you have the context in which I said would you care to respond?

You are wasting your breath Crob. L.E. is incapable of rational thought, he is an instigator and nothing more, that is why he hides behind a vicious and small minded screen name.

Isn't that one helluva assumption Liberal_Extinction to assume that the shooter was "never spanked"?

What would you say if it turned out he was -- oops! -- beaten every day by his alcoholic father and THAT'S what lead to his rage/mental illness?

No one has ever made the arguement that there should be no punishment for bad behavior. Almost all the posters believe the school should have taken a pro-active stance. Making generalizations about "those liberals" isn't useful.

In fact, we could make a generalization about Conseravtive households that could easily explain how a normal kid was turned into a murderer.

We could make generalizations about how Conseravtives are usually racist (the attacker and victim were different races), have tons of guns lying around the house (a gun was used in the murder), are usually drunk, are usually physically abusive and (if their Republican politicans) probably gay and sexual predators.

We could even go so far as to say that it was the "I Hate Goverment / Don't Tell Me What To Do!" Conservative mentality of the shooters parents that prevented officals from getting the boy the help he obviously needed.

"Damn queer commie school officals trying ta tells me howz ta raise me young'in! Damn them and there fancy social workers!"

But these kind of mean-spirited and unfair generalizations only act as red herrings and don't help.

WTF do you people expect from public schools when liberal Mr & Mrs Neverspank get to dictate to the schools that they can't discipline their children or punish them for piss poor behavior?

Liberals have asked for this by removing all aspects of personal responsibility and consequences from the school system in lieu of excuses and blame shifting for being a fuck up.

Look, it's clear what happened wasn't about the alopecia. The article never even mentions that. But I can say that, at least when I was in high school in that area ten years ago, that school had a pretty bad reputation when it came to race relations.

Criminal charges for the parents would seem right.

A conviction would be justice.

let's all hold judgement until we know what exactly happend.

speculation is stupid unless you got nothing better to do.

I'm sure the shooter didn't attack just because some other kid was bald. The shooter was most likely primed to kill SOMEONE and he just decided to fixate on Ryan because he was already the victim of teasing.

Or more than likely there is no motivation whatsoever. I'm sure if it wasn't Ryan the shooter would have just picked someone else to fixate on.

Unless there is a whole lot more history between these two that we haven't heard -- I'm inclined to believe the shooter was probably just disturbed.

Either he was born with a mental illness, was molested, was the victim of teasing himself, was the victim of abuse at home -- something was going on with this kid above and beyond not liking someone because they were bald.

Isn't that almost always the case when they investigate these kinds of shootings? The shooter almost always seems to have been traumatized by something that happened and they either express that rage by taking it out on themselves (suicide) or attacking their families or they start shooting up the school.

I suspect that waaaay before it got to the point of murder this kid was exhibiting signs of mental illness. Teachers, parents, other kids -- you'd think someone would have noticed it and tried to notify someone.

Well I have to say that, that is just plain stupid. Why would you shoot someone just beacause they have a bad medical condition that leaves them bald? Don't you thing they've already suffered enough? People just do stupid things sometimes.

I say they should make a lesson out of this young punk and give him life.25 years of meditating on this mistake should do the trick.By the way,where the hell did he get the gun from in the first place?!

I actually know someone who has the same disease as the victim, and do not see any reason why someone would want to shoot someone with that disease, maybe the shooter had a phobia of bladheads or something

what the hell.

This story is very disturbing. Poor kid. I grew up with a lot of medical conditions myself. I overcame cance. Had my heel cords worked on four times, Had part of my intestine taken out, had to have the right side of my nose stitched back to my face, had my tendon in my right index finger cut and reattached, The list goes on. I got a lot of crap from kids growing up, I was always smaller than everyone else. Today I am a very healthy 26 year old. The problem is that society teaches us that people that are not as healthy as the avg. person are less of a being. Sort of a bad link in the chain. It also starts at home as well. Parents need to let their children know that this type of behav. is not acceptable. When is this stupid crap going to stop?

NOWHERE in that article does it say that he was shot because of his baldness. Congrats, NickerBocker09 for making it onto tv.

This is a disaster.

It is very disturbing that there are so many stories of young people getting killed because of some perceived difference. Situations such as this need be dealt with by the full extent of the law. It must be understood that this kind of behavior is simply unacceptable.

I just don't understand at all... I'm a fourteen year old high school student and it has never, ever crossed my mind to shoot anyone, or really harm them at all, especially if they had never done anything to me.

Maybe this Ryan kid was a jerk or something, but that doesn't warrant the use of weaponry... why would a someone ever want to kill anyone else?

I would like to audit the schools records in regards to how they have been handling bullying situations.

When a complaint of bullying is reported -- was it logged? What specifically did the school do to address the compliant? Did they speak with the students involved? Speak with the parents? Did they seperate one or more the students by forcing one or both to attend different classes/lunches at different times to avoid another confrontation?

Exactly what did or didn't the school do?

If there is anything positive to take away from this incident it could be a case study in how NOT to handle bullying because obviously whatever they did (or more likely DIDN'T do) failed.

Everyone bears responsibility for the murder.

If I have a pitbull and it kills someone then I'm legally responsible for that death as the owner -- shouldn't the same standard be applied to parents?

If my incompetence to properly train and handle a pitbull makes me negligent as a dog owner in the eyes of the law, then I don't see why a negligent parent should be let off the hook.

Same with high school officials.

If you run a prison and -- oops! -- you're policies or negligence allow a gang riot to occur in which 5 inmates get stabbed in the melee, then you're responsible.

If you run a high school and someone with a long and established history of being harrassed while at school gets shot (not punched, shot!) then you are responsible for that death to a certain extent.

I feel sorry for all involved.
I'm from the UK, and we have had over 20 shootings or stabbings this year involving school children. When I was at school, it would never cross ANYONE'S mind to take a weapon of any sort to school. And nor should it now.
In my opinion, children do not get the parental control we had in my school days. If you were naughty at school you would be caned (or get the slipper). If I was naughty at home, I would have been smacked (or hit with something). This told me not to do it again. And I reacted to that. Nowadays, with control over spanking and caning (and also, teachers are not allowed to touch a child, let alone reprimand them), I think that it has gotten too out of control.
Give the teachers back their 'guardian' rights and half of these shootings and stabbings would stop. Give parents lessons in parenting and the other half might stop as well.

The article doesn't specifically say what type of gun was used....does anyone know for sure?

I'm going to assume that it was most likely a handgun, just because it seems unlikely that he could make it all the way into the cafeteria lugging a rifle over his shoulder without someone stopping him.

An arguement could be made this fatal shooting (with a handgun) could have been avoided in this specific situation if we....banned the sale and manufacture of handguns in the US.

If the high school sophmore only had access to pepper spray or a taser there would not be a fatality. It would be a serious assualt, but the kid wouldn't be dead.

Had the high school sophmore decided to lug a giant hunting rifle into school (something that cannot easily be concealed like a handgun) the odds that such a LARGE weapon would have been noticed by just about everyone and school security/officials would have stopped him prior to the shooting.

My opinion is that handguns seem to enable much more crimes than then provide protection from crime.

We'll never know the psychology of the killer for certain, but do you think he really would have bothered with the attack if he knew it wouldn't result in death?

"..Police identified the victim as Ryan McDonald, a sophomore who lived with his grandmother and had alopecia, a condition that left him bald since he was 3 and the target of endless teasing as a child..."

So the victim had apparently be subjected to persistent bullying over years. Does the school, and the school district, not have an anti-bullying policy in place?

Are the school administrators not responsible for controlling what is obviously an ongoing problem on school grounds, during school hours?

"..Students in the cafeteria began crying and scrambling to leave, while others tried to get in the room, thinking they had missed a fight, witnesses said..."

Students outside the cafeteria rushed in because they might have missed a fight. Sounds like the school administrators are running a real pleasant place.

Bullying. Fights.

Just a typical American public high school in a typical American public school district.

- b_p

disgusting.

Again, another case of ignorance.

Incredible cop quote #56,489:

"The victim, is, currently dead."

Because he was bald? What was the kids problem, did he think he would contract terminal baldness from Ryan McDonald?

There either has to be something else behind this, or Jamar Siler is a goddamn basket case.

That is so jacked up...Damn kids are so stupid these days

tennessee? i guess they're vying for the most backward state which has been alabama for a few years now.