This story right here, hits a little too close to home.

The victim is an ex-student of the school I’m teaching in so, regretfully, some of my colleagues were directly affected by this tragedy. It was absolutely gutting to see a colleague crying and being unable to fathom how this could happen. I didn’t know the kid, but I could feel the pain that everyone was experiencing. The mood at work this morning was so solemn, it’s palpable. And amid the silence, a thought came to mind, what if it had been one of my own students?

I immediately think of all the times where I witnessed rage being allowed to dictate actions and how many of them stemmed from pettiness. But shoving and some quick blows is always as far as it goes. Never anything that causes severe bodily harm. Even then, I wonder how anyone can be okay after something like that happens. I mean, I find myself completely unsettled whenever I get into a major argument with my folks – and that’s just verbal – so how can a person punch someone else, and still be able to sleep at night?

It’s a worrying trend, but many teens today seem to have less control of their emotions. And anger clouds judgment, making it difficult to react sensitively, but to be insensible too? It’s beginning to seem that not only are our values degenerating, we are also becoming less wise.

I believe part of this is because society today thrives more on emotion rather than intellect. We often choose based on how we feel about something, and because of this, we don’t necessarily make the best decisions. And when we’re that driven by emotions, we seek comfort from cliques and gangs, letting the group’s psyche determine our behaviour. Unfortunately, in this case, a mob mentality caused a group of teens to wield cleavers and hack someone to death. All because there was some (inappropriate) staring going on.

How did they even get a hold of the cleavers? I… can’t…

I don’t want to have any irrational fears about the safety of my own students, especially since they hang around the area so much, but when others are acting this irrationally, surely it becomes rational, to be irrational?

This is so messed up.