Bethel Park High School officials have contradicted reports that Trump shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks was bullied, threatening, and a member of the school’s rifle team.
In updated statements posted Saturday, officials said they have “no record” of Crooks ever trying out or being dismissed from the rifle team due to character or performance concerns, as previously reported.
My high school would have said I wasn’t bullied. They’d be lying.
Lying implies intent. They likely would just be wrong.
They’re still not qualified to make that statement. It’s a fucking high school, the safest stance is always going to be that a kid like that was bullied.
The only statement they should make is if they have a record of him being bullied or not. They should not be speculating either way.
The article actually does say that they have no record. So it’s thedailybeast.com misquoting them in the headline presumably in an effort to spin a narrative.
Schools tend to hide bullying problems I know from experience.
My school would claim I was never bullied, too, and it would be a lie.
Exactly. Especially if the administration was bully-friendly, which they often are. My daughter was so bullied at her middle school that we ended up having to take her out and put her in online school because the administration didn’t give a shit. The one time we went so apoplectic that they were forced to act, they made the bullies apologize to her and her apologize to the bullies. Which, of course, made things worse.
One of my daughter’s best friends is still in that school and he is trans. Some girl was harassing him and being incredibly bigoted to him and he finally turned around and slapped her for it. Guess which one of them got suspended and which one wasn’t even finger-wagged at? Hint: it wasn’t the girl that got suspended.
I think they just denied the fact that he was on the rifle team, because they didn’t want it on record that their team would have missed.
Or, ya know…because they were responsible in training a would-be political assasin. And that probably comes with legal responsibilities. Such as “Why are we putting guns into teenagers hands, and teaching them how to kill?”
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I know a person who went to school with him. I was told he was indeed on the rifle team and was kicked out because he was absolutely dog shit at shooting.
I bet that person you know’s name is Kenny Powers, right?
Halbert Meinstein.
Some have. Some have said otherwise. The truth isn’t as clear yet about who he was
If some people say person X was bullied and some people say a person X wasn’t bullied. I’ll probably believe person X was bullied.
If you say they were bullied (and you’re not a liar) you only had to have seen it happen once. If you say they weren’t bullied either you a) never saw it happen or b) you’re always watching and it didn’t happen
A) is possible because most people don’t see all bullying, but it’s an overbroad statement B) is functionally impossible.
I’m also more likely to believe he was bullied because of the actual video that was posted where a classmate was pulling on his pant legs when Crooks didn’t want them to.
EDIT: fixed the link, I hope
Oh please, look at that year book photo again and tell me seriously that he wasn’t bullied.
“School says he wasn’t bullied” no shit. Guy could get beaten right in front of the principal and they’d claim nothing happened lmao
He’d be suspended or expelled for “participating in a fight”
Imagine interviewing the superintendent or whoever and they go: wait, you’re talking about Pantshitter Mcglasses? Yeah we bullied him, look at this little shit.
This shit here is why I’m glad I was homeschooled with caring, loving parents.
We literally didn’t have bullies in our school.
Of course, we also had proper funding and an administration that both gave a shit and had the power to expel bullies.
Sounds like you got lucky compared to many. My wife’s experience at a large high school despite not being one of the easier targets still saw and experienced plenty. Bullying of my older sister was a big reason my parents did the same for us decades ago. Meanwhile the general statistics show a rising trend of bullying, forgetting rising adolescent suicide and ODs. Probably no coincidence that this coincides with rising school shootings, too. We mutually agreed to homeschool our kids with supplementary education (online curriculums, state resources, libraries, etc.).
Secular, not religious Christian fundies. That’s where many issues with homeschooling arise.
Quick, get rid of the paperwork. Adam, where is the effing shredder. Bully? Nonsense. Never happened.
Every report I’ve seen said he failed to make the tea so I don’t know where the fake fact came from that he was on it, but this is the first time I have read he wasn’t picked on.
To be fair, I don’t think we can rely on a school self-reporting bullying.
There is no bullying in hi-school-sai.
The claim they’re making is that he was not kicked out of club for his behavior.
I’ve always seen it claimed he wasn’t allowed in at all for strange comments and poor aim.
Interesting that they’re saying something no one was claiming happened didn’t happen.
I love that in the current age if someone isn’t blasting every aspect of their life onto social media we have no idea what to do with them.
I don’t think small school clubs usually keep detailed long-term records, so that’s not saying much
If they’d als my school, they would go: who? Look up a file and say: nah he was never bullied.
Well yeah if he was on the rifle team, I’d imagine he’d have had better aim.
It’s a 6" target at 147 yards with iron sights… With probably max adrenaline as well. Only missed by a couple inches
Give the kid some credit where it’s due. It was pretty fucking close
“Crooks was well within that range when he opened fire on Trump Saturday from about 135 meters (147 yards) from where Trump was speaking”
Still a long shot but not as bad as 400 yards. 400 yards with iron sights would be almost impossible. 147 would still be hard but not impossible with practice. Not that this dude has practice and a scope would be cheap and infinitely easier.
No because a good Rifleman wouldn’t have aimed at the head.
I mean… people say this. But a head shot with normal ammunition would be the only way to ensure a kill on a target that could potentially be wearing body armor.
I don’t condone what he did, violence of this kind is never the answer. But speaking on the planning of a good marksman I would bet with this setup they would have gone for a head shot. A good marksman would never be in this situation though…
Are rifle teams common in high schools? I mean I know that sport shooting is a thing, but I never heard of a high school with a rifle team. I went to high school in WA state.
Depends on the area. Golf teams aren’t common in schools, but my school had one.
Why does the guy have to have been bullied? Maybe he just really hated a convicted criminal, rapist, draft dodger, supected pedophile, treasonous, and otherwise all-around garbage human being and thought the world didn’t need as many of those as it has.
Just because someone made an attempt on that orange clown’s life doesn’t give the horse’s ass a pass at being an all-around shit heel.
Fuck that fat piece of shit.
All the evidence points to him just doing it for the sake of committing a shooting though. He was looking up random political events, seemingly to find the closest one, regardless of party.
So you’re saying we nearly managed to get rid of Trump accidentally?
No, he definitely wanted to kill Trump. But if Biden were holding a rally that day, it just as easily could’ve been him. At least that’s what the initial evidence seems to be saying
So he wanted to shoot someone for the sake of shooting them but definitely wanted to kill Trump. Does it say anywhere that he definitely wanted to kill Biden? Him shooting Bidene is just speculation on your part.
If he wanted to just shoot someone he could have chosen someone not as high profile and survived.
He was looking up the closest political rally. Turns out it was Trump.
Why the fuck is there a rifle team in school???
Same reason the track and field team throws the javelin and shotput.
Sports shooting is incredibly popular at the high school and collegiate level in the US.
Of course thats the story coming from covering your ass high,
Yes, but was he in the John Wilkes Booth after-school fan club?
In case the whole “hit a wall while trying to aim at a target on a different wall” story didn’t seem strange, the school has now confirmed he never tried out for the team. Also worth pointing out that many students interviewed said he was just a quiet kid who was not bullied, but the click-worthy headlines came from the kids who said he was bullied.
I have 2 middle schooler/high schoolers. Kids are not going to admit to bullying nor know who is being bullied if it’s not them doing the bullying or being bullied. They are all way too self involved at those ages.
