Read parts 1, 2 and 3 of The Christian Post’s series on youth and school violence.
Nikolas Cruz, the troubled 19-year-old who was charged with the premeditated murder of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in February, was troubled.
His attorneys have painted him as “a broken child” who struggled with chronic mental illness and depression. They have also pointed to his chaotic family life which was made worse by the death of his adoptive mother, Lynda Cruz, in November 2017.
As many have sought to find an explanation for the conditions that give rise to school shooters, mental health experts agree that family dysfunction is one factor in the tide that leads them to strike like the “perfect storm.” But even so, there is no one type of family situation that would lead to the making of a school gunman.
“The dynamics of a school shooter is extremely complex. It’s like the meeting of a perfect storm,” said Daniel Huerta, vice president of the Parenting and Youth department at Focus on the Family, who is also a licensed clinical social worker.
“It’s not necessarily the exact same family pattern where you can say, ‘well, these families did this and so they developed and raised a school shooter.’ Some of the families are described as just average,” he noted.
Three Kinds of School Shooters
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