Wisconsin prom shooter was bullied in school, say ex-classmates

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Wisconsin prom shooter was bullied in school, say ex-classmates

By Brendan O'Brien

April 25, 2016

(Reuters) - A teenage boy who shot two students outside a Wisconsin high school prom before being killed by police was bullied in school and had a fascination with weapons, former classmates told local media.

Jakob Wagner, 18, was teased while attending Antigo High School, about 180 miles (290 km) north of Milwaukee, because of his bad hygiene, Emily Fisher, a 19-year-old former classmate, told the Wausau Daily Herald. "He was bullied a lot," she said.

Fisher also told the newspaper that Wagner made replicas of guns and weapons in art class and frequently discussed guns.

"Ever since we were younger, he was one of the kids you kind of watched out for," Fisher said. "If someone was going to shoot the school, we thought it was going to be him."


Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/wisconsin-prom-shooter-bullied-school-ex-classmates-213446368.html?nhp=1

[Dont call me Shirley]

1. Why didn't the school and community get him help before it got to this?

[840high]

4. I don't think schools take it seriously enough.

[LeftyMom]

6. Because he'd already graduated?

High school is shitty for basically everybody who isn't a shallow asshole. When you graduate you're supposed to go do more interesting things with more interesting people, not hang around nursing a grudge.

[Drahthaardogs]

17. What do you want them to do?

First of all, mental health is hard to access in this country. Secondly, you cannot medicate or hold an 18 year old against their will. Lastly, the benefits of talk therapy are grossly exaggerated in the media. Generally speaking, if it has not helped you a lot after ten sessions, it is probably not going to be effective for you.

Sometimes kids are not strange because they are bullied, but rather sometimes they are bullied because they are strange. Would you want to hang around a person always drawing pictures of guns and being obsessed with that culture? Would you shun them as well? I probably would have avoided him as well. He sounds scary to be around. It is harder than it sounds to help people like that and you cannot force them to accept help.

[Dont call me Shirley]

19. Thanks to the prison corporations sucking up all the money which needs to be used for effective

mental and emotional healh treatment and research. Kids with psychological problems caught early enough and treated early enough with effective therapies can work miracles. Society needs to start investing in this area of life, instead of prisons and war.

The school anti-bullying policies are rarely enforced.

The repeteive messsages of violence in media and entertainment are cementing these ideas in peoples psyches especially vulnerable children. Bullys often target the vulnerable.

[bluestateguy]

2. Shooting up a school dance is a pretty major act of bullying.

No sympathy for this rotten kid.

[AtheistCrusader]

3. Well, it's a good fucking thing someone acted on all those warning signs.

[Archae]

5. I was in a Wisconsin school too, and was bullied from day 1 until I graduated.

I did have thoughts of shooting up the school, but I'd stop thinking along those lines quickly.

Time is my revenge.

The bullies are now old, fat, some are dead, others ended up in jail.

Still others are on marriage #3 or #4, paying a lot of child support.

[CreekDog]

7. I'm thankful you didn't act on those thoughts

I guess your continued self absorption is better than the alternative.

[radicalliberal]

12. "(Y)our continued self absorption"? Sounds like a put-down.

Lacking in empathy, perhaps?

[raging moderate]

8. Thank you for your honesty.

You may be saving some other very young callow person from doing something horrible before time can give them the solace of a wider perspective, as it did for you.

[Archae]

9. Unfortunately too many want to go out and grab a gun.

Bullied, road rage, someone breaks in line, etc.

Too often the response is to grab a gun.

[Democat]

11. Anyone on DU who likes guns is "bullied"

The article says this kid likes guns.

If he was on DU he would be called names and insulted because he likes guns.

Is that wrong?

[radicalliberal]

13. Yes, it is wrong. n/t

[oneshooter]

14. And yet the members of DU allow it to happen

time after time.

[LanternWaste]

16. I imagine it's because we expect rational and mature behavior from DU members

I imagine it's because we expect rational and mature behavior from DU members rather than shooting dancers because someone disagrees with a premise they may have made...

"time after time."

[Blue_Tires]

15. I was teased all through school

yet I somehow made it out without shooting someone... I must be special or something.

[NobodyHere]

18. It's a shame we don't care about each other more