Krugersdorp school rocked by 'Satanic' killing

Pierre Eksteen's comments are understandable as an attempt to grapple with tragedy, and as an irresistable soundbite in the absence of an official comment from the school. That said, they come too close to the anachronistic claim that music is a cause of spree killing. Isolated, alienated individuals likely to engage in such sprees (to whatever extent that category is understood) may well identify with countercultural music, as do others, but that certainly doesn't make the music the cause, or the problem. One would hope that subsequent efforts by the school and its associated "support networks" to deal with the incident and its aftermath will avoid this easy fallacy.

Music seems like an easy way to distract people from issues that are more relevant to the cause...

I'm sure music may have been a coping mechanism for what this boy was going through, and there is no excuse for what he has done...but surely we should be focusing on the tragedy of what happened today, instead of jumping on the band-wagon to condemn HEAVY-METAL as a reason for these actions?

My heart goes out to those families and friends that lost someone today, I wish you nothing but strength and support through these trying times.

People should catch a wakeup call and stop blaming music for their actions. I mean there are so many murders and rapes happening out there and they only have them self’s to blame. People are always so quick to judge and criticize artist for their wrong doings. Why not blame the parents for his actions then??? We need to realize that we have our own lives to live and we need to take responsibility for our own actions.
Pedro

I agree that it is too easy to blame music for the cause of this tragedy. As a need to cope, understand and process events such as this we are all too regularly prone to create a so-called scapegoat.
Why did this child feel the need to kill (an obvious outcry, however macabre it may seem)? That need is most likely and firstly the cause of a tormented childhood. Resorting to and identifying with counter-culture such as Heavy Metal is an obvious outlet for the feelings this child must have felt leading up to this tragedy. But it is NOT the cause. Parents should have pro-active involvement in their children's lives. The pattern of blaming Heavy Metal and its icons for tragedies (especially involving children) is all too familiar. The Columbine school shooting in the USA is a prime example. Sometimes blame falls much closer to home than one would like to believe. Antagonising the music is too easy!

WOW. Its amazing how people can honestly blame music for a murder. Lets look no further than Zimbabwe for murderous villains. In fact lets look at the state of the world in general. There is obviously something very wrong with the world that people can cast blame on a musician! Heavy metal is liberating and is a healthy vent for anger! This kid would have have committed this atrocity ALL BY HIMSELF!

My thoughts are with the family of the deceased at this troubling time!

Oh and tell that principal to look no further than himself for this murder. Maybe this child was crying out for attention. Maybe not. Either way, just cause a murderer was wearing underwear , doesn't mean everyone who wears under-ware is a murderer. Just a thought!

Music and drugs, these are the two words that strike fear in the hearts of parents. You mention them, parents panic out of their utterance. Real parents always guard against these two in the life of their children. It is true, whether one denies it. Parents would tend to deny it because it questions their capabilities as responsible parents and exposes them as ignorant parents. If a situation like this happen, it is ndicative of the ignorance side of the parent in the upbring of the children.

I do not understand, how possible parents can live with and raise a child to as far as matric and still be unable to observe development patterns as they were unfolding in their son's life.If I am to blame here, I will only blame the parents. This is indicative of one thing. The parent of this boys who did this satanic act, have not being involved in this boy's life and school work actively. Because if they were, they would have recognized and observed behaviour patterns that deviates from normal standards of child development.

It is time school governing bodies, principals, teachers and the education department come with intergrated policies that striclty inforces parents to be involved in their children's life in its entirety. These policies should detail how the parents should get involved and also to give feedback to the school every quater on their observations regarding their children at home and any behaviour change that they have noticed. Many parents are irresponsible out there and this situation needs to be addressed immidiately or this kind of school violence will continue.

Music and drugs, these are the two words that strike fear in the hearts of parents. You mention them, parents panic out of their utterance. Real parents always guard against these two in the life of their children. It is true, whether one denies it. Parents would tend to deny it because it questions their capabilities as responsible parents and exposes them as ignorant parents. If a situation like this happen, it is ndicative of the ignorance side of the parent in the upbring of the children.

I do not understand, how possible parents can live with and raise a child to as far as matric and still be unable to observe development patterns as they were unfolding in their son's life.If I am to blame here, I will only blame the parents. This is indicative of one thing. The parent of this boys who did this satanic act, have not being involved in this boy's life and school work actively. Because if they were, they would have recognized and observed behaviour patterns that deviates from normal standards of child development.

It is time school governing bodies, principals, teachers and the education department come with intergrated policies that striclty inforces parents to be involved in their children's life in its entirety. These policies should detail how the parents should get involved and also to give feedback to the school every quater on their observations regarding their children at home and any behaviour change that they have noticed. Many parents are irresponsible out there and this situation needs to be addressed immidiately or this kind of school violence will continue.

Some people say it was the music, some says you cant blame the music. I think no one is in any position to say what exactly was the cause of this media frenzy. The kid obviously was influenced by slipknot (you can say what you want - why else would he bring their masks????) and lets not deny that Slipknot is not some easy listening pop band. Some kid could take them the entire wrong way - music affects people in different ways. When I was in high school I loved slipknot - and still think they are awesome - but cant say that I approved of pentagrams on the clowns face etc. I liked the music and thats as far as I took it. Some people look to deep into things - just like obsessive ex-lovers or highly sensitive people. This is something bad which happened which has definetly opened eyes throughout the whole of SA. Point is - you cant blame anything. I heard he was on drugs - then i read that he was quiet nerd. That he sounded like the joker from batman, that he was in another voice all together, that his eyes were crazy, that he had a mask on. Its all media frenzy . . . i think everyone is obsessed with the mystery of this

Perhaps before blaming someone specific and making them look like the bad party, they should look into the situation a little deeper. I was quiet at school and seen as a nerd, I was bullied and listened to Metal music since the age of say ten. It's hard for someone who is bullied, not to snap for not conforming to society's norm. Who's to say that the victim was innocent, maybe him and his friends were the bullies. And I believe it is a Katana and not a "Samurai Sword", it's called general knowledge.

Most Hip Hop groups who rap about sex, drugs and violence with lyrics such as "pop that p*ss*", "shoot that mother f***er", seem to be socially accepted. If you look at the definition of Satanism i would say that most of the socially accepted music is Satanic. I've seen more kids get hooked on drugs, becoming sexually active and turn to a life of crime, from listening to Hip Hop, R&B, Kwaito, and Pop even.

Most Metal bands are activists. True sometimes individuals may misinterpret the lyrics, but such too could be said about rap. Maybe people should use the internet and do research before putting the blame on innocent parties (by people, i mean those who are in a position of judgement or information distribution). Don't get me wrong, murder is a crime, just like any other crime and deserves full punishment. I am amazed at the news coverage this one boy has recieved, when there are repeated offenders running around freely without the publics knowledge.