Daily Lessons from Life 12 May 2010 - Seven dead, 20 hurt in China school attack

"Seven dead, 20 hurt in China school attack - Wed, May 12, 2010 AFP

BEIJING, May 12, 2010 (AFP) - Seven children were hacked to death and at least 20 others were wounded in an attack at a kindergarten in northern China on Wednesday, state media reported, citing local officials.


The attack was the fifth violent assault on school children in less than two months, and comes despite a push to boost security in and around schools across the country.

The Xinhua news agency said the attack took place in the city of Hanzhong in Shaanxi province, and that the injured had been taken to hospital for treatment. No other details were immediately available."

Copy cat killing! BBC reported that this could also be due to 'mental patients' been shunted and 'not acknowledged' or 'not properly treated' resulting in such mindless killing!

Lessons for me are:

1. kindergarten should be the last place that such violence, never mind any violence, should take place. It should be a place of happy learning and blissful ignorance of whatever stress the children may have to face and deal with when they become older!;

2. it is like protecting ourselves against some of the mindless violent and suicidal acts by some terrorists. You can try your best to prevent and detect but you can never be sure as such acts are totally illogical and so random! With this latest attack, there will definitely be more defences going up. Hopefully the kids do not have to feel that they are in prison instead of being in a kindergarten enjoying learning and playing!;

3. is the BBC's report accurate that mental patients were shunted and mis-treated or not properly treated resulting in some of them wondering around in open and decided to kill? is it possible for a mentally disturbed person to have the sense of copying other attacks? We just have to look at each attack and dig deep to uncover the root causes. If there emerged a certain consistent pattern, maybe we can start drawing reasonable theories on what might have caused these killing. Until then, it is just a 'speculation' at best!

With this heightened awareness, may the kindergartens around the country of PRC be protected from similar harm!

Troubled people. Mindless violent and fatal behaviors?