Years ago, Rakel Dink's heartbreaking sentence still rings in our ears: “Nothing can be done without questioning the darkness that creates a murderer out of a baby.” This statement is not only an expression of pain; it is also a call for a society to look in the mirror.
Today, if a child can walk through the corridors of a school with a gun in his hand and kill his teacher, the issue is no longer an individual “deviation”; it is a social collapse. At this point, the blame cannot be placed solely on that child. This is the result of a widespread decay that extends from the family to education, from the media to politics. And yes, everyone, especially the education system, is a part of this picture.
The teaching profession is of course valuable. However, no profession can hide behind an unquestionable armor of sanctity. An understanding that excludes itself from criticism by saying “I am the owner of a sacred profession” causes the greatest damage to the reputation of that profession. If an educator thinks that it is enough to just get his/her salary and survive in a rotten system, he/she is also a partner in the wounds opened in the souls of the growing generations.
Today, schools are no longer just places that provide children with knowledge; they must also be places that prepare them for life and give them values. But unfortunately, the current structure has often turned into a rote learning, oppressive and soulless mechanism. A child growing up in this system cannot learn how to manage their anger, loneliness and despair. The result is exploding violence.
The real question to ask is this: When did we lose these children? Who ignored them? Which teacher, which administrator, which system did not hear this child's cry?
If a society explains the transformation of its own children into murderers only as “fate” or “individual perversion”, that society has already sounded the alarm. Because those children do not reach that point in a day. Every child who is not seen, heard and understood turns into a potential tragedy of tomorrow.
What needs to be done today is not to pass the blame left and right, but for everyone to courageously question their part. Without rebuilding the education system, without real support for teachers and without taking children's mental world seriously, this dark cycle cannot be broken.
And it must not be forgotten: To save a child is to save a society. But to lose a child... that is the responsibility we all share.