I guess I must come from the future, when people finally realize that incidents like this cannot be so simplistically explained away with "the girl lashed out as a result of bullying - it's really someone else's fault she stabbed 8 kids".
Although I couldn't really follow your post, you do seem to have misinterpreted my post as completely absolving bullies from blame or correction. My main point, and the one you don't really address, is that "bullying", in particular verbal bullying, does not excuse every imaginable form of retaliation (and certainly not a deadly assault with a weapon). I think it's been at least a couple of centuries here in western society since a verbal slight could justify homicide. Is that the century you are from?
Yes, children pick on other children based on a variety of differences, and we wish they wouldn't, but they do and they always will. More to the point, so do adults, and they always will, and there's not much that can be done about it. Children have to learn that they will not always be included in groups, that they will not always be treated kindly or fairly, and how to deal with these problems short of inflicting physical harm on themselves or others.
And yes, psychopathic behaviour can take root at any age. But what would you call the behaviour of the girl who did the stabbing? Certainly appeared to be conduct without regard to its consequences. Seems like classic psychopathic behaviour to me. My point is that there are almost always issues to be addressed ON BOTH SIDES of a bullying problem. They may not be the same issues, but they are both problems worth addressing.
We may not be able to completely prevent bullying, but we ought to be able to do a much better job of preventing these sorts of violent rampages in our schools.
