Submitted by Manny Athwal, freelance writer for Montour Monitor

  The assistant principal at Bartow Middle School in Florida walked into the bathroom to see two girls (11, 12) with knives, scissors, a goblet, and the intent to kill 15 students to ensure a sin so severe that the girls would go to hell in order to be with Satan. Devised through watching horror films the weekend prior, these girls had the hopes to drink the blood and eat the flesh of the murdered students. Then, they were going to commit suicide.

  Thankfully, this never happened.

  Instead, the girls were caught due to the schools attendance system. In order to orchestrate this plan, the girls missed class. An automatic call alerted one of the mothers about their daughter’s absence from school. This prompted a call from the mother, which led to the assistant principal to walk into the bathroom and discover… the potential proceeds of a satanic ritual.

  Situations like this prompt general disgust and mortification from such asinine and despicable behavior. Due to the heavy nature of this situation, the main response of many is to praise that this did not happen, rather than try to make sure this does not actually happen. In the post-Columbine world we live in of almost averaging a school shooting every day, it’s quite easy to resonate with the typical opinions brought up in the realm of satanic rituals and school attacks. Satanic rituals are an anomaly, yet the increase of school violence warrants further consideration on the causes of such behavior. Gun control, arming teachers, armed security officers on high school campuses, etc. as well as systematic concepts such as attendance monitoring work as direct solutions to these problems.

  However, we need to focus on solving the underlying causes that leads to these problems. Mental health awareness and slapping thousands of dollars on counseling departments are not the end-all be-all. It is simply not enough. Tackling the question — why did these middle schoolers plan the murder of 15 peers with the goal of being with Satan — requires us to encroach on dangerous and tragic thoughts. The thoughts of eating human flesh are obviously not ones of your everyday, middle schooler. So forth, it implies that the 11 and 12 year old girls in question were faced with horrible circumstances that warranted the perception that death was better than living.

  How do we solve this? Honestly, I can’t tell you. While myself and the readers of this article most likely had no impact on the events in Bartow Middle School, these events serve as a harsh reminder. When we get deep into the discussions of how to solve societal problems, we give leeway to the actions of our own. Being nicer to others will not directly lessen the chances of violent attacks, however the opposite does. The potential incident in Barton High School was an anomaly. But, it is so divisively untypical, that it twists our perception of the world in such a way that we want to make sure it never happens again. The most efficient way to help ensure that incident in Bartow Middle School doesn’t become a reality requires us to get out of our comfort zone and to be nicer with others. Please consider self-change as the most critical and beneficial way to solve the fundamentally mind-twisting events that are becoming daily news headlines.