Why Aren't We Shocked? - Volume 21 No. 2 - Winter 2006 - Rethinking Schools Online

Rethinking Schools Online: "'Who needs a brain when you have these?'
— message on an Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirt for young women

By Bob Herbert

In the shootings at an Amish schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania and a large public high school in Colorado, the killers went out of their way to separate the girls from the boys, and then deliberately attacked only the girls.

Ten girls were shot and five killed at the Amish school in October. One girl was killed and a number of others were molested in the Colorado attack.

In the widespread coverage that followed these crimes, very little was made of the fact that only girls were targeted. Imagine if a gunman had gone into a school, separated the kids on the basis of race or religion, and then shot only the black kids. Or only the white kids. Or only the Jews.

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