But did his parents and the school know about these activities? I don't have kids, so I don't know if I'd be aware my hypothetical 15 year old son was doing these things. If I was aware of Twitter or Instagram accounts I'd try to subscribe to them, and be very concerned if he blocked me.
He was sending actual messages to his mom. Perhaps not about shooting up the school, but about seeing demons while he was awake. You wouldn't find that the least bit concerning if your hypothetical child were to say something like that? My son said he was having thoughts he wasn't sure how to handle and we got him in a program. He has depression.
Apparently he kept an animal head in his room. Was it in plain sight or did it turn up only after going though his room during the investigation? He "recorded himself torturing animals." If the recordings were on his phone, do parents routinely go through their teenager's phone to see if it contains disturbing videos?
LoL I sure as hell would if he was telling me he was seeing demons. The answer is, as you well know, we aren't sure at this point. We know his parents were aware of the bird head at least. It was reported to the school.
He "made Molotov cocktails at home." Presumable he did this while is parents were out (which apparently was a lot.) Instead of "cocktails" (plural), did he make only one, a small one at that, and it was a dud?
I think it's really odd you're using the parents terrible parenting as an excuse as to why their son turned out to be a school shooter. Their terrible parenting, ignorance, and horrible decisions with regards to their son is the problem, not a rationalization. As to the details around the cocktail? Again, as you are absolutely aware, we don't know. If that's all you want you hear, then take that as an answer for every post in the future. We won't know until trial.
My point is I believe normal teenagers can get away with a fair bit because they've learned from experience how to cover their tracks if they don't want adults finding out what they're up to.
But he didn't cover his tracks. In fact, it would appear that he was repeatedly caught due to not covering his tracks. This is information that's coming to light now, so at least some people were aware of it because it was in the court documentation.
Sure, we're finding out about these things in Ethan's life after the fact, but I don't know how obvious it would have been to school officials and to good parents (which unfortunately Ethan didn't seem to have.) From what I can gather, as far as the school was concerned he was a pretty good student, aside from the searches for bullets and that fateful "Help me, the thoughts won't stop" scribbling on the day of the shooting.
Yes,
we are learning about this after the fact. It would appear his parents had a good bit of information in real-time, and it was mostly ignored.
As to the text messages about ghosts and demons at home, as a hypothetical parent I wouldn't be too concerned about ghosts, but I would be about demons since (personally) I associate them with malevolence. And for sure if I'd received the texts before thinking about buying my kid a handgun, I wouldn't have done so.
Well, demons...and the bird head...and the ammunition issue (which the mother instructed him to work harder at not being caught). His parents were ****, they should be charged, and that's where we're at in the thread.
ETA: I would also like to point out that you've had to treat each one of these instances as if they happened in a vacuum. Something I brought up earlier in the thread. You've also had to shine them in the absolute best possible light, giving Ethan the benefit of the doubt in every situation, and it still shows that his parents played a role in this situation through their negligence.
