Dig this over at Bad American:

When you take a fatherless home, a struggling mother, a deteriorating crime-ridden neighborhood and schools ill equipped to handle the social ills thrust upon it, is it any surprise that we don’t have more of these incidents?

What kills me is that underneath all that angst and rage, Asa Coon apparently had quite an intelligence. Reportedly, he had a gift for understanding the structure of mechanical and electrical machines and could take them apart and put them back together. He would not have been at SuccessTech if he had not had the smarts.

But his potential was overwhelmed by a lack of intervention on the part of the people that mattered most. Whether anyone or any agency could have reached this young man at some point before this tragedy is debatable. Thankfully, all four people who were shot will live so no more potential died with Asa.

Would it matter any less if the shooting had been at John Hay? Rhodes? Collinwood? It shouldn’t. Every live holds within it the potential for greatness.

The second issue here is the national media’s obsession with the case which is understandable. This could have happened anywhere, unfortunately it happened here so Cleveland gets yet another black eye.

Unfortunately, I have little faith that the city or the school system will do much other than put band aids on the wound. Yes, they’ll probably have metal detectors full time at SuccessTech and every Cleveland secondary school. That will not stop the violence once those students exit the school and perhaps not inside the school either…

Grab a cup of coffee and click thru for the whole thing. Add a comment while you’re at it.

Keep Your Head II; The Cleveland School Shootings « Bad American