Dawn Anna Townsend is the mother of Lauren Townsend, who was killed in the Columbine massacre. Recently, she spoke at a Pennsylvania high school, and she had some interesting things to say…
“They hated everybody,” Townsend said about the gunmen who killed her daughter. “They hated her (Lauren Townsend) because she breathed and that she was in their way.”
Townsend said one of the inaccurate reports that came out of the Columbine massacre was that the two murderers were retaliating against athletes who picked on them.
“They (the killers) were the bullies,” Townsend said.
Emphasis mine.
And yet 6 years later, people are still holding on to that myth.
She also had a lot of great things to say about bullying. The sad part is that I’m sure it fell on deaf ears.
I remember when I was in school that every time we had some kind of speaker come in to talk to us about some problem, we spent the rest of the day making fun of the presentation. I hope today’s students aren’t like that, but I know that some things never change.
Not to mention the fact that the reality is there always have been bullies and there always will be. That’s just an unfortunate fact of life. Therefore, it’s up to the schools to realistically do something about bullying. And the parents…
Townsend also speaks with parents. She reminds parents that their children don’t need them to be their best friends, they need them to be parents.
“When your child becomes older, then you become best friends,” she said, urging parents, teachers, and especially students, that ignoring suspicious activity in people could have dire consequences.
“The warning signs are a road map,” she said.
Emphasis mine.
It’s just too bad that a lot of people won’t listen to a woman who is saying all the right things. The right things that used to be known as common sense.
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