The story My Son was a Columbine Shooter on TedTalk by Sue Klebold is based on Dylan Klebold, a student who committed suicide after involving himself in a Columbine Highschool massacre. The incident led to the death of 12 students and one teacher (Klebold). The purpose of this talk is to enable the audience to recognize that Dylan’s mother was not aware of what led to the act. However close she was to her son, she never knew what contributed to Dylan’s homicidal and suicidal acts. Additionally, Klebold wanted her audience to understand how the link between mental health and violence led to the two massacres and Dylan’s death.
Some of the behaviors that Dylan’s mother never observed are her son’s agony and suffering, situations that are linked to the massacre. In my opinion, Dylan’s death is suicidal, as explained by his mother; she left a note about how he was feeling and the step he wished and wanted to take to end his life. One’s homicidal ideation is rooted in the desire to commit suicide. Based on Dylan’s story, the US mental health system is not well equipped to help everyone until the situation reaches a behavioral crisis; hence several murder-suicide cases do occur.
Dylan shared his sense of rage and feeling of alienation with his friend Eric who was also seriously disturbed in controlling homicidal. Therefore he later assisted him in committing the act. Sue Klebold developed several conditions, such as breast cancer (two years after the shootings); she then later began to develop the mental problem because of her son’s murder-suicide act. The post-COVID data on homicides by 2020 was at 21,570, a 30% spike compared to the previous year (Lucas). The reasons behind the increment were the depression brought by the economic recession in the US.
Two psychological terms that were examined were:
- Homicide refers to the criminal and non-criminal acts of murder.
- Aggression is the feeling of attacking or confront someone in a manner that results in it physical or mental harm
According to the video, aggressiveness is likely to result in suicidal thoughts and other severe mental health problems. This video directs people to always seek help when aggressive before the situation becomes hard to help. In my view, this video brings to light why I need to guide and help those who are depressed, feel alienated, and aggressive to seek help from an expert.
Works Cited
Klebold, Sue. My son was a Columbine shooter. This is my story. Ted. 2017. Web.
Lucas, Ryan. FBI Data Shows an Unprecedented Spike in Murders Nationwide in 2020. Web.