EDITORIAL - So young, so murderous

Three young lives are lost, five others are injured while hundreds of others are deeply traumatized after two teenage students went on a shooting rampage yesterday morning at the Tacloban National High School.

The two shooters were quickly caught, and reportedly explained to police that they had been bullied in school. About 40 bullet casings were recovered at the scene. Images taken before the attack and posted online showed the two shooters grinning as they posed with the guns they apparently used.

Some quarters want Republic Act 9344, the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act passed in April 2006, revisited as minors increasingly figure in lethal violence. Those calling for amendments want the minimum age of criminal liability lowered to 12 or 13 from the current 15 years under RA 9344.

An amendment in 2013, through RA 10630, mandates children aged 12 to 15 who commit serious crimes such as parricide, murder, kidnapping, rape and drug trafficking to be held in local government youth facilities or Bahay Pag-asa for intervention programs.

Children above 15 but below 18 who commit serious offenses can face prosecution before the courts if they are assessed to have acted with discernment, with full knowledge of right and wrong.

The attack in Tacloban comes on the heels of another violent incident at the Bethel Academy in General Trias City, Cavite on June 16. A 14-year-old girl in Grade 8 stabbed seven Grade 5 students in the private school. At least the seven victims survived, but two of them required surgery. Police have not yet disclosed the motive for the girl’s rampage.

Last Friday, an 18-year-old senior high school student was stabbed and wounded during an altercation with a classmate at the Cavite National High School in Cavite City.

School administrators are tightening security measures as questions were raised on how students managed to bring guns to class in Tacloban.

Parents of one of the three fatalities also demanded accountability from the adults who own the guns, one of them reportedly a policewoman who is an aunt of one of the suspects. People who leave their guns lying around can be held liable for criminal negligence if the weapon is used by someone else for illegal activities.

The cases of deadly violence in school, with the academic year just starting, once again highlighted the weakness of mental health care, in a country that has earned the title of being the world’s bullying capital.

With three students dead in Tacloban and two teenagers looking at a bleak future due to their crime, perhaps the problem will get the urgent attention that it deserves.