People got together to stop a school shooting before it happened

Bullying vs other causes

• Many see chronic bullying and social ostracism as core drivers of school violence and other harms (self‑harm, suicide, academic failure).
• Others argue that even if bullying vanished, the combination of mental illness and gun access would still produce shootings; bullying is one factor among many, not a sufficient explanation.
• Some push back on treating bullying as “biologically inevitable,” noting society has successfully suppressed other “natural” behaviors (rape, infanticide) and that fatalism blocks progress.

Guns, mental health, and policy ideas

• Several comments contrast the U.S. with countries that have fewer shootings and stronger gun control and mental health care, arguing that’s more tractable than “ending bullying.”
• Proposed policies include: revoking gun rights after any mental‑health or violence issue; mandatory mental‑health evaluations before and during gun ownership; strict liability (e.g., manslaughter) if a child accesses a parent’s gun.
• Others warn such rules could deter people from seeking treatment, and note that “mental illness” does not imply violence.

School environment, age, and discipline

• Repeated theme: schools tolerate or structurally enable bullying. Victims are often the only ones punished, especially under “zero‑tolerance” policies that treat being attacked as “fighting.”
• Administrators are portrayed as politically constrained and conflict‑averse, often siding with influential parents. Teachers may care but lack power.
• Some advocate aggressive suspensions/expulsions and even police involvement; others suggest expelling “problem kids,” which is criticized as unrealistic or dangerous given unregulated homeschooling.
• Debate over age segregation: some think mixed ages and older students can moderate behavior; others fear older, stronger teens would worsen abuse.

Justice, surveillance, and reporting

• One camp sees more supervision/monitoring (including AI‑based social analysis) as inevitable and useful; another warns that constant surveillance could itself be traumatizing.
• A recurring point: the bus had cameras and “hours of video,” but nobody acted until a threat appeared—evidence that the problem is not lack of data but lack of will.
• Suggested fix: make reporting safe and effective. Protect victims, then use targeted observation to confirm and impose real consequences, rather than blanket surveillance.

Victim vs system framing of the article

• Many readers say the article feels like self‑congratulation by authorities who pathologized the bullied student while barely punishing aggressors.
• Suspension for a hand‑gesture “threat” is seen as wildly disproportionate compared to the sustained abuse shown on video.
• Some note positives: bullies eventually apologized; the student felt genuinely cared for; his outcomes improved. Others say that if this is a “success story,” it implies countless unseen failures.

Lived experiences and long‑term impact

• Multiple commenters share stories of severe school bullying, inaction or complicity by adults, and only violence or police involvement finally stopping it.
• A pattern is described where kids quickly learn that reporting bullying backfires, while administrators mainly punish whoever “creates work” for them.
• One extended comment frames sustained bullying as a form of psychological torture: with enough isolation, loss of agency, and inconsistent treatment, “everyone breaks” in some way.

Is “bullied kid strikes back” even accurate?

• Some question the popular narrative that shooters are primarily victims seeking revenge, claiming many known shooters were themselves escalating aggressors who later cast themselves as victims.
• Others cite research suggesting a substantial fraction report being bullied, but note that many also posted threats and glorified guns, blurring lines between victim and perpetrator.
• Consensus in the thread: bullying is clearly harmful and morally wrong, but its exact causal role in school shootings remains unclear.

Scale and models of intervention

• Commenters are struck that stopping bullying around one student required “106 people from 59 organizations,” raising questions about cost, scalability, and why routine school staff didn’t intervene earlier.
• Some argue society has broadly lost the capacity and social norms to “correct” youth behavior informally; everything either gets ignored or escalated to formal systems.
• One alternative model praised is Sudbury‑style schools, where a joint student‑staff judicial committee hears complaints (including against staff) and imposes consequences, providing a democratic, rule‑of‑law‑like approach to bullying.