Girl who was harassed by gunman among the victims of Texas shooting

[turbinetree]

"He kept making advances on her, and she repeatedly told him no."

CASEY QUINLAN MAY 20, 2018, 10:38 AM

One of the 10 people killed by Dimitrios Pagourtzis, a 17 year-old student, at a Sante Fe, Texas high school was a girl who reportedly rejected his repeated advances.

The shooter went into his high school on Friday morning and allegedly used his father’s shotgun and .38 revolver to shoot at students and teachers. Pagourtzis is in custody. He wore a T-shirt that read “Born to Kill” as he shot his classmates, according to a student who spoke to The New York Times.

Sadie Rodriguez, a mother of one of the victims, Shana Fisher, said that the shooter approached her daughter in class. Rodriguez told the Los Angeles Times that Fisher “had four months of problems from this boy” and “he kept making advances on her, and she repeatedly told him no.”

She said the the boy became more and more aggressive, according to The Times, which wrote that he “continued to get more aggressive, and she finally stood up to him and embarrassed him in class” a week before the shooting.

https://thinkprogress.org/girl-who-was-harassed-by-gunman-among-the-victims-of-texas-shooting-5b01999c52bc/

[Ohiogal]

1. This is just so scary, sad, and infuriating all at the same time.

I'm glad I'm not raising daughters in this crazy, sick, society we live in. How do you know what to say to them?

I like to think I've done a good job with my boys, teaching them to respect women.

[struggle4progress]

2. "You can have my penis substitute when you pry it from my cold dead fingers!"

[hlthe2b]

4. Guns are becoming a neon "screaming" sign for (real or perceived) inferiority it seems

Perhaps it is time to stop worrying about the sensitivities of the quintessential "law abiding gun toter" and call this for what it is. Just a thought....

[defacto7]

8. I think your comment states the basic psychology of

gun culture in a nutshell... real or perceived inferiority.

[smirkymonkey]

3. Hatred of women - either women in general or a particular woman - seems

to be a theme in many of these mass killings. When are men and boys going to learn that women and girls have a right to live their lives the way they want to and don't deserve to be murdered for it?

[Kirk Lover]

7. Rejection too. nt

[Iggo]

9. They don't learn it if we don't teach it.

Tell them.

Early and often.

And, come to think of it, tell their friends, too. You really can't count on other parents to do the right thing. And if the other parents don't like it, fuck 'em. I'd rather have a bunch of pissed off parents than a bunch of dead kids.

[MineralMan]

5. This is one of the saddest and most alarming parts of this latest school shooting.

It's illustrative of that old, "If I can't have you, nobody will..." statement by abusive men and boys when rejected by the target of their desires. It's also related to the whole "incel" phenomenon, in which men who are unable to form good relationships with women become angry and potentially violent, instead of learning how to behave in ways that are conducive to forming such good relationships.

We are failing to teach appropriate behavior in social settings to many boys and young men. Misogynistic anger is featured in the news, and is displayed by our leaders and others. Aggressive sexual behavior is standard fare in the porn that is freely available to all comers, including young boys and men.

Worst of all, angry people have easy access to especially deadly weapons, allowing those who are the least controlled to gain deadly control over others. The combination is leading to more and more horrible events.

It's getting to be a more and more dangerous world out there.

[malaise]

10. +1,000

I remember being pre-teen when my oldest sister was crying over a break-up with her first boyfriend.
Mom took a piece of string and gathered us. She said one end is the beginning of your life - the other, the end. Somewhere between here and there you will leave a boy or he will leave you. You will survive.
She said she knew because she was once big sister's age.
Sadly, too many of today's kids are brought up to believe they can get whatever they want.

[MineralMan]

12. And too many guys are brought up to believe they have the right

to get whatever they want, and from whomever they want. Your Mom had a good way of explaining.

Like most men, I've been turned down by some of the girls and women I was interested in. That started when I was just a teenager. My parents had taught me that I would never get everything I wanted when other people were involved, but that it was OK, and just part of life. So, I just moved on when my desires didn't match those of someone else.

We have, I think, come to a time when we expect gratification of every want, without question. We aren't learning that sometimes things don't work out the way we wish they would. Personally, I think that expectation begins when parents give in to every whim their child has. I see it all the time. The child learns that persistence or whining or even a tantrum will result in their desires being met.

Some call that being spoiled. I call it training for disaster down the road.

[malaise]

14. Mom always kept it simple

You're right - parents give in to every whim and fancy and their boys and girls assume that they will always get what they want.
One of my siblings had me look after her boys for two weeks. She and her hubby went overseas.
The younger one was four going five at the time and he had a habit of throwing tantrums to get candy from the machines in the supermarket. Sis would give in because she hated a scene. When he tried it with me I told him straight that I wasn't the one making a fool of myself so he could bawl 'til his folks returned home. That was the end of that.

[MineralMan]

15. I learned at a very, very early age that no meant no.

My parents would just say: No, you can't have that or do that or whatever. Sometimes they'd explain, but often they didn't. From the beginning, it was clear that if no was the answer, it would remain the answer, regardless of any action on my part.

By the time I was four or five, I had learned that lesson. I often didn't like the answer, but there was no point in fretting over it, because the answer would remain the same. So, I stopped trying to change the answer.

Over time, I began to learn what was possible and what was not, as long as my parents were in charge. So, I heard the negative answer less often. I learned to think about what I wanted before asking for it, and learned to anticipate what the answer would be. As I got older, my parents said yes more often, because I had learned that lesson.

I don't know whether my parents did that deliberately or whether that was just how they were. Probably the latter. In any case, they taught me that if I thought carefully about what I wanted, I could count on a positive outcome more often.

Maybe that was the best lesson they taught their children of all.

[malaise]

16. Many of our parents were more consistent

No meant no.

[IluvPitties]

6. This idea of guns as an integral aspect of American masculinity

will bring down our society.

[Hoyt]

13. Gunner daddies relish in indoctrinating their kids into gun culture. Then the manufacturers

pull junk like this (yet, no one can file suit because of our irrational gun laws):

[sarcasmo]

11. IF you have young children, think about home schooling. Scary shit!