Why did local students want to blow up their schools?

Last week police announced the arrest of three local boys (ages 13, 15, and 16) in what was called a "credible" plot to use bombs to blow up their respective schools (Albemarle High; Western Albermarle High, and Jack Jouett Middle School). The prospect of a Charlottesville "Columbine" is indeed chilling.

We are left to wonder: Why did these students want to blow up their schools? Were they "nerds" or "geeks" who had been picked on? Were they just typical unrestrained American boys, enamored with guns and violence who wanted to get noticed? Reports indicate that much of the evidence gathered about their plot came from their internet postings in chatrooms and blogs. We might also ask where their parents were and why they were not supervising their children’s internet activity. If you are a parent, by the way, under no circumstances should you ever allow your child to have an internet connected computer in his room or allow him free and unfettered access to the internet when you are not present to supervise his activity!

For parents this raises more disturbing questions like, How safe are your children when you send them off to school? In this case, the issue is a physical threat to children. What about the non-physical threats children receive both from teachers and their fellow students in the form of non-Biblical worldviews and relativistic thinking?

There is a current crisis in public education—and it is evident even in a prosperous community like ours where the public schools are the envy of many in our state. That crisis is becoming severe.

This story reminded me again of why it is important for churches to support alternatives to public education, either in encouraging home schooling or in establishing private, church-based schools.

No. We will not be able to eliminate sin on this side of the kingdom. But we can provide something that public schools cannot: a moral compass that comes from a Biblical worldview. Someone needs to teach those boys that is wrong to hate and wrong to kill (Exod 20:13; Matthew 5:21-22).