During the time of Columbine, I was the Principal of an Alternative to Expulsion for Weapons Possession School. We believed it to be the only such school in the country. Syracuse is at the crossroads of New York State … as such, it drew scores of drug traffickers. The very dangerous gangs … the Bloods and the Crips … had infiltrated the community and created a confluence of violence and more violence. I got the kids (Grades 6-12) via a Superintendent’s Hearing. It was deemed best to keep them in school rather than suspending them to the streets. We moved about 200 students through each year. Many of these misguided babies were labeled as Special Needs … they were the children most easily manipulated by the gangs … many were kids fearful for their own safety as they traversed the streets … many were angry, aggressive, emboldened by weaponry. I learned that each and every one of my students had a different motive for arming him/herself. As today’s tragedy gets sorted out, we will learn about the shooter … much of it will be speculation. In truth, we will never understand what motivated such devastation. All we can really do is to pray for those lost and those left to mourn them. Pray, too, for those who are in such turmoil of mental, physical, spiritual and moral despair that they see no other way to escape their pain than to cause as much carnage as they can before dying by their own hand or that of another.