Dammit, if I ever see another "Jeff Weiss was a Nazi thread"....

[no name no slogan]

Jeff Weiss is the kid who killed the people on the Red Lake Indian Reservation yesterday. Supposedly, he posted to a neo-Nazi web site and had a hatred of racial minorities.

This poor kid was clearly mentally ill. His dad committed suicide four years ago, and his mom is in a nursing home because of a serious car accident.

Unemployment runs around 40% up on the Rez. It's closer to 10-15% off the Rez, in the same area. That entire part of the state has poverty that puts the inner city to shame. A coworker of mine used to live up there and delivered the Bemidji paper on the Rez. He remembers driving past tiny shacks that housed 8-10 people, with only a blanket hanging over the doorway-- even though the winter temperature regularly dips to -20° and lower.

Jeff Weiss's brain was broken. What else would drive a young man to kill his grandparents, teachers and fellow students?

:cry:

[EFerrari]

1. I had the same thought.

Just slap the label on and forget about it.

Clearly, this was a kid who needed someone to KNOW him. Like all kids do.

Everyday, I try to do something to destigmatize mental health stuff. Today, I feel like I'm not doing enough or fast enough or something.

Such a terrible, needless waste.

[hedgehog]

2. People just don't know what mental illness looks like

and even if they did, where can they get help? Teen-age depression often looks like anger or acting out, but how many people know that?

[depakid]

3. Unfortunately, he was also taking prozac

and the dosage had just been bumped a week earlier.

Given his history (a previous attempt) and the fact that prozac is at best only slightly effective in kids his age, he shouldn't have been on it. One of the victims is going to go after the clinic- wait and see.