Texas school shooting suspect's father thinks he was bullied

[DonViejo]

Source: Associated Press




SANTA FE, Texas (AP) — A 17-year-old student accused of fatally shooting 10 people at a Texas high school should be seen as a “victim” because he may have recently been bullied, causing him to lash out, his father said.

In a phone interview over the weekend with Greece’s Antenna TV, Antonios Pagourtzis said he wished he could have stopped the killing Friday at Santa Fe High School. His voice cracked as he described how he told police to let him inside the school so his son, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, could kill him instead. He said he suspects his son was under pressure, perhaps due to bullying.

“Something must have happened now, this last week,” he told the station. “Somebody probably came and hurt him, and since he was a solid boy, I don’t know what could have happened. I can’t say what happened. All I can say is what I suspect as a father.”

The suspect’s attorney, Nicholas Poehl, has said he is investigating whether his client endured any “teacher-on-student” bullying after reading reports of the teen being mistreated by football coaches. The school district issued a statement saying it investigated the accusations and “confirmed that these reports were untrue.”

Read more: https://apnews.com/70ba9b2e83194fbab13bb26819aed045/Texas-school-shooting-suspect's-father-thinks-he-was-bullied?utm_medium=APCentralRegion&utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&__twitter_impression=true&__twitter_impression=true&__twitter_impression=true

[snowybirdie]

1. Looks like

he's afraid of bring charged for not keeping his weapons away from a minor.

[njhoneybadger]

2. Mr. Pagourtzis could have stopped the killing if he would have locked up his guns.

[lark]

3. He thinks his son was bullied or is this trumper just using the current rw excuse?

I'd bet big money its the later. He's just trying to deflect from himself being an accomplice to the childrens, teachers and cops deaths when he is guilty of failing to keep his many guns out of the hands of his murdering son. Son posted on FB about wanting to kill folks, dad is a total ass and guilty or murder and in a sane world would be charged as such in a sane country - which we are not in these sad horribly twisted times

[Bengus81]

4. Uhhh...he also took ammo you had laying around. Probably up on the shelf of the same closet....

This guy is trying to cover his ass by finding a reason to blame it on instead of him.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

5. I was bullied a lot in my youth

until I learned what it was all about. I never once thought of killing anyone........

[OnlinePoker]

14. I never once thought...

I did...myself. If you aren't shown coping mechanisms or places to turn to early, school can be a vile place. Add onto it the shit that happens outside and it was hell.

[woundedkarma]

17. Agreeing with OnlinePoker

Bullying.. the things that can happen in school.. when you're a kid can be horrible and devastating. School shootings aren't the only horrible thing that scars children and adults happening in schools.

Murdering people can't be justified or defended by crying "bullies" but I believe there could be some correlation.

[cyclonefence]

6. Two of the survivors interviewed on thes scene

said that the kid was bullied, but not by other students so much as by the coach (mostly) and his teachers.

[AllyCat]

7. People get bullied all the time. We don't go shooting people.

This does not make any of it right. We need fewer guns if this is how some folks respond to bullying.

[RhodeIslandOne]

8. Always interesting how what one does changes the narrative

If this kid had committed suicide without killing anyone else, and his father came out and said "My son was bullied and committed suicide", what would the reaction to a post about it be?

Mental illness, teen fragility and the effects of bullying manifests itself in many ways. Sometimes it brings harm to only oneself and their family and in others it brings harm to many.

And mind you, I say this as someone who is angry that young woman stood up to him and his ongoing harassment and got killed for it.

[Blue_Tires]

9. I'll just leave these here...

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[LisaL]

13. After supreme court ruling, minors are not eligible for death penalty.

Tay-K isn't going to be eligible for the death penalty either if he committed a crime at 17.

[Blue_Tires]

10. Fuck this shit, seriously...

Link to tweet

[LisaL]

15. Wow. Father thinks son is a good boy?

Lets give him a cookie, ask him not do it again and send him right on home.

[Jimvanhise]

11. Not bullied, just rejected.

The mother of the first girl he murdered said that he had been pressuring her to date him but she rejected him just a couple days before he went on his rampage. He clearly felt entitled to the girl's affection. He is not a victim in any way.

[Nac Mac Feegle]

12. Just one observation here

From what I've seen, and experienced, bullying tends to destroy the self-image of the victim, leading to suicidal thoughts or actions.

The helplessness pounded (often literally) into the victim chews away at them inside, until they decide to "put themselves out of their misery". The effects are "internal-facing".

To do something like a shooting rampage seems more of an "outward-facing" power dynamic; "To show everyone who's Boss". "Who's laughing now?" More of a revenge scenario against perceived insults.

It might seem a fine distinction from the outside, but from the inside, it's quite different.

The bullied are targeted for their differences or their helplessness and that is reinforced, creating the downward spiral.

I don't really see someone in that type of a situation turning a weapon on anyone but themselves.

The mass shooting scenario seems to be more of an expression of rage, turning outward, rather than helplessness turning inward.

I read something, somewhere that if bullying were the cause of these shootings then minorities that are often the targets (Gay, Black, different religions, etc...) would be the perpetrators. These perpetrators have invariably been white, Christian, and male.

Just my two cents.

[TheBlackAdder]

16. Bullshit! "Solid Boys" don't snap by being bullied! Everybody's been "recently bullied" at one time

[sinkingfeeling]

18. Sorry, but cry me a river. Bullying is not an excuse to gun down a girl who

rejected him and others he "didn't like."

[Sherman A1]

19. Precisely

The guns should have been secured and this kid or anyone else should not have been able to access them. He went after the girl who rejected him.

[apnu]

20. This doesn't line up. Kid is bullied but doesn't go after antagonizers?

Dad says the kid is bullied by football coach and some other teachers. But the kid takes weapons to school and goes right after the girl who he'd been harassing for months. This excuse doesn't line up and smells of a premeditated defense from some lawyer trying to control the PR game.