I don't know why it is that the British tabs seem to get the stories of what is happening in America even before the American local press in Connecticut or nearby big-city New York press. Maybe because they are more aggressive in getting to sources and getting them to expose their privacy -- so we learn from sources at the Daily Mail that Nancy Lanza, the mother of the Newtown shooter Adam Lanza, was suffering from MS, and was traveling around the country trying to find some sort of reform school or other facility that could take her son (she had the wealth to afford it), fearing she couldn't take care of him any more.
Huffpo picked this up too, exploring the motive as related to possible psychiatric confinement.
There's a "home alone" theory brewing as well at the Daily News -- it seems that Nancy has spent some respite time at a New Hampshire resort, and returned home the night before she was murdered. Lanza was left in his dark basement to play violent video games and plot the massacre for two and a half days.
So now at day six after the massacre, we're coming to the theory prevalent with other school shootings like Columbine that it was all the fault of the anti-psychotic or psychotropic drugs administered to these children or young people. "Was it the Meds"? asks the American Thinker
We have stories that the killer took Fanapt, and stories that in fact that is a hoax perpetrated by an Internet troll who shows up during such tragedies pretending to be an uncle of the perpetrator -- even with an admission that in the long list of public shootings, pharmaceuticals nearly always played a role.
We have Michael Moore claiming that Columbine and similar shootings that "it occurs for no other reason" and may be "nothing more" than the drugs.
Yet that's preposterous. The whole reason these kids are even put on the drugs is that their behaviour is impossible to deal with -- parents and schools put them on the drugs not on a lark, but because they are presented with the impossible challenges of both autism spectrum disorder and the violence and nihilism of the Internet culture. This post on The Blaze by "I am Adam's Teacher" sums up the chilling reality -- which will likely be lost on most Internet snarks because of the spelling errors which invite the question of whether this person is really a teacher:
gwhisper2003
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 1:14am
I am “Adam Lanza’s Teacher.” When I first got back into teaching in 2000 after five years away I was quite literally stunned at all the behavioral and learning disailities that there were literally “overnight.” It was now acceptable for our society to create a nation of pill popping students that were given these pills by their parents and doctors. Parents allowing these kids on meds and h=behavioral issues languish in virtual worlds immersed in violence. Gee thanks mom and dad. As a teacher I can not begin to tell you how insensitive this is to do to the rest of us that have to try and create a positive safe learning environment for many other children.I began to see behaviors that were stunning and scary. Students that were medicated seemed to be souless. Their eyes held no glimmer. They often talked of death and violence. They fixated on violent games and gang activities. MAny threatened to kill the families. I might mention here that I worked on an alternative placement campus for students whom could not function on regular school campuses because of thier violent nature.
Many of the parents would ask me for suggestions because these students could maintain thier behaviors and learn and respect me while they were with me. I would tell them it takes dedication, consistency, clear guidelines for what was expected and holding the kids accountable for thier choices.
My own child referred to me as Satan. When he did I knew I was doing something right..
It's clear to me that the right (American Thinker) wants to pin the massacre on drugs because then they don't have to blame guns; the left (Michael Moore and Infowars) who might want to control guns also want to pin massacres on drugs because then they can blame evil capitalism, "big Pharma" which is "bad karma" and do their usual one-two punch -- castigate corporations that make drugs as evil and exploitative, and worship mom and pop marijuana operations as the people's solution.
We get the Guardian earnestly saying what "we know and don't know," and there is still a muddle about whether Nancy Lanza was or was not at the school in a capacity as a volunteer at least, and persistent disclaimers that Adam Lanza was ever a student at Sandy Hook, until someone comes up with the 2003 sweatshirt signed by all the kids supposedly proving he was there in 2002.
I think this article in the National Review actually is quite thoughtful in reflecting on all the aspects of the story, from guns to violent games to drugs, and sifting through the reasoning.
So...Police are working with the motive that fearing he was going to be committed to an institution, Lanza shot and killed his mother, destroyed his hard drive, and went to kill children that he thought she cared more about than about him. Even though we don't have enough evidence for this hypothesis.
We're also told that Lanza considered joining the Marines -- he loved guns and war games -- a common move by troubled youths seeking stability, and one applauded by their exhausted caregivers and law-enforcers and judges, who have been known to drop felony charges on some suspects if they say they are going into the armed services to "shape up".
There are testimonies that Adam spent long hours playing Call of Duty and other violent war games, but the concerted gamerz' lobby that denies this has anything to do with affecting the state of mind of an autistic man, even one on psychoactive drugs.
Oh, and Lanza also worshipped the devil on an Internet site. Right.
I've pointed out that Aspies and their parents can be in denial about their violence; if they also suffer conduct disorder or other psychiatric ailments and are exposed to guns AND powerful psychoactive drugs, this can be the deadliest combination.
Reason tries to reason us all out of thinking about these obvious connections.
Let me summarize why I think you can make a threat assessment and what criteria to look for -- with an aim to prevention and mitigation, not violation of anyone's civil rights:
o parents and caregivers of children and young people with autism spectrum disorders who become violent -- and they can indeed become violent when they are comorbid with conduct disorder and other psychiatric illnesses -- should be able to seek competent help and be able to confine their children if they are a danger to themselves or others more readily than they currently can. These cases will be a small percentage of cases of Aspergers/autism and no preventing detention or prescreening of all autisim cases will be required and indeed would constitute a violation of civil rights. But those with a history of violent incidents and comorbidity will be definable already and shouldn't be deterred from getting restrictive residential treatment for their kids in institutions just because institutions were abusive in the past, or some institutions today might not be the best therapy.
o parents and caregivers of children and young people with autism spectrum disorders or any child who is being given powerful antipsychotic drugs like Risperdal, Seroquel, Fanapt or others should question the medication and also insist their children be carefully monitored and evaluated, and both the medical profession and society at large should insist on more answers about these drugs.
o parents and caregivers of those with autism spectrum disorders should not let violent movies, violent games, and the Internet in general babysit their difficult kids. They should limit their exposure to these powerful and often addictive cultural influencers and interact more with their children themselves in other ways with other activities.
o parents and others should ensure that neither they nor their children have access to guns.
Now was that so hard?
culturally we seem to be 0 for 3 on the big "technologies" of our "modern times"
1. Pharma/Bio tech
2. Machine Media/ Digital networks
3. Weaponry
Posted by: c3 | 12/20/2012 at 04:53 PM