So I found out I'm on my schools "Shooting Watch List"

[WhatIsThisIDontEven]

So I was called into the office of my high school today to talk to my guidance counselor about college stuff (I'm a senior) and she had all my files and stuff on her desk. There was one folder she never looked at though during the meeting. I asked her about it and she said it wasn't important.

The bell rang and we both got up to leave. I went back to her office once she had left and picked up the folder. It was a report about my "school shooting potential". At my school, apparently, the SSP is based on grades, interests, music choice, and religion. It said this (from what I can recall, I skimmed it)

"Grades: Excellent, excels in science.
Interests: Shows an interest in death and goth culture.
Music Choice: Heavy metal, shows interest in death.
Religion: Atheist, shows lack of empathy.

Comments: Staff are urged to act nicer to NAME to keep him at a stable emotional level."

Which is weird, because I don't have any interest in goth subculture or a death fascination. I do like metal, but so? Also the part about me being an atheist is ridiculous (the school is in a Protestant/Catholic town).

Anyone else think this is a bit weird?

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Err, that's good. It's good that you like death.

It's very good.

>_>

<_<

Please don't shoot me bro!

Nah, I'm joking. Seems kind of messed up that a school would measure the sociopathic tendencies of its students.

 

[Zeema]

that is weird

Usually teacher's shouldn't psychological profile you. i assume at least i never was.

but i did find a site that talked bout it


http://www.kidspeace.org/healing.aspx?id=1464

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Well people who excel at science do tend want to kill people...for science reasons of course.

How does relegion and music taste make you more likely to go on a shooting spree. Kind of strange for a school to monitor their pupils like this based of vague ideas of their personality and interests.

 

[FlyAwayAutumn]

Well people who excel at science do tend want to kill people...for science reasons of course.

They also have weird fascinations with cake...

OT: That is weird. But at least the teachers are being told to be nice to you.

 

[Yureina]

This is starting to make me wonder if my high school kept a similar file for me while I was there. I always wondered why, after years of difficulties, everyone suddenly started being nice to me one day.

 

[Dogstile]

I would have confronted them about it. I wouldn't be happy with them putting me on a shooting watch list, or associating me with death and "goth culture".

Psychological profiles on people can be dangerous because people have a remarkable ability to judge you wrongly.

 

[Sightless Wisdom]

Hah, if my school has a list like that I'm totally on it. I'm one of the few metalheads at my school and I hang out with the strangest crowd of people, I openly and often disregard teachers in class and complain about how terrible the Board of Education is. Fun times... fun times...

 

[AetherWolf]

What, is your school run by Jack Thompson?

Seriously though, I thought people were done with this generalizing based on the Columbine Shooting years ago.

 

[Trololo Punk]

I find people saying atheists and other "non-believers" show less empathy,remorse, and are more "dangerous" quite insulting
For the whole shooting list thing, I didn't even know they existed, possibly cause they do not do those in Canada/the area that I live

 

[The Red Spy]

Profilling students? Is that even legal? Seems like a surefire way to affect someone's entry into college if they think you're going to go Rambo if your pencil lead breaks (heaven forbid you forget your homework!).

Whatever you do, don't tell them you're a gamer, they'll have SWAT on you in no time at all, asking what your demands are.

 

[t3h br0th3r]

i'm not surpised ur school had one, it seems relatively common.

at my middle school there was a %90 chance i was on that same list, and if i wasn't they were pretty dumb given the symptoms i was showing. (Depressed, very few friends, self-absorbed, bullied,interest in medieval weaponry).


but after being on that list i went on to found my schools Gamer's Club (Freshman year, no teacher help, only kid to pull that off in school history) and get published a bunch of times in the school literary magazine.

I'm currently mopping up my undergrad degree and have been accepted into graduate school so there is hope bro.

 

[-AC80-]

"Grades: Excellent, excels in science.
Interests: Shows an interest in death and goth culture.
Music Choice: Heavy metal, shows interest in death.
Religion: Atheist, shows lack of empathy.

Comments: Staff are urged to act nicer to NAME to keep him at a stable emotional level."

Which is weird, because I don't have any interest in goth subculture or a death fascination. I do like metal, but so? Also the part about me being an atheist is ridiculous (the school is in a Protestant/Catholic town).

Anyone else think this is a bit weird?

i would call it very weird but i'd currently be storming into the principals/head teacher office and demand an explanation to these out right lies/total miss communication (and i assume the "lack empathy" bit was an immediate conclusion base on the sole fact that you are atheist and they dont really know much about it?, question that in detail as well) (?).

 

[HHKelevra]

Hey, welcome to the club! When I was in friggen high school more or less the same thing happened to me. Oddly enough, I didn't understand why at all. My grades weren't the best, but I generally stayed on the good side of everybody. The ROTC instructor (more or less the only class I was consistently good with) pretty much verbally destroyed the entire counseling staff about it.

But hey. If it gets you closer to the entire school bowing before your awesome science-wielding power, let 'em keep believing it.

 

[Gxas]

So I was called into the office of my high school today to talk to my guidance counselor about college stuff (I'm a senior) and she had all my files and stuff on her desk. There was one folder she never looked at though during the meeting. I asked her about it and she said it wasn't important.

The bell rang and we both got up to leave. I went back to her office once she had left and picked up the folder. It was a report about my "school shooting potential". At my school, apparently, the SSP is based on grades, interests, music choice, and religion. It said this (from what I can recall, I skimmed it)

"Grades: Excellent, excels in science.
Interests: Shows an interest in death and goth culture.
Music Choice: Heavy metal, shows interest in death.
Religion: Atheist, shows lack of empathy.

Comments: Staff are urged to act nicer to NAME to keep him at a stable emotional level."

Which is weird, because I don't have any interest in goth subculture or a death fascination. I do like metal, but so? Also the part about me being an atheist is ridiculous (the school is in a Protestant/Catholic town).

Anyone else think this is a bit weird?

I think that you should bring this to public attention somehow. Get newspeople on it (if they'll believe you) and try to get them to make that information public. In my eyes, that shit is not right at all. If anything new happens with this, I'd like to know about it. I'm very interested in this story now.

 

[Custard_Angel]

Here's an idea.

Smile more often.

It'll open many "non-shooting" doors.

 

[Gaiseric]

That's interesting that schools have files on their students for that kind of thing. Weird, possibly harmful but interesting.

In high school everyone said that if anyone was going to shoot up the school it would be me. I'm quiet(mostly) and I had a couple guns(at the time, more now ) which is enough to convince people that I would do something heinous with little provocation. Kinda sucked that people thought I was capable of doing something like that.

edit: That attitude(people thinking I'd shoot places up) carried over into my brief stint of college. I got a worrying amount of fearful looks just walking down the quad to my classes.

 

[WorldCritic]

That's really weird, and incomfortable. I can respect the desire to keep chances for a school shooting low, but that's kind of ridiculous.

 

[similar.squirrel]

Heh. I'm pretty sure I ended up on one too, but that was for entirely different and retrospectively hilarious reasons. Made even better by the fact that gun ownership is not the norm in this country, and handguns are banned outright.

 

[Wadders]

That is pretty damn creepy.

Can you not make like a formal complaint or something? I'd be pretty pissed off if I found out my school (not that I go to school any more) had been profiling me.

But then, my country doesnt allow people to walk into a shop and buy an assault rifle, so maybe they do have good intentions, but either way that can't be a nice feeling for you.