Let me write what needs to be said.

We're Putting Parents in Prison

It's happening now. James and Jennifer Crumbley. Colin Gray. Parents of school shooters, convicted for what their children did. The legal argument is simple: they ignored warning signs. They failed to act. They are responsible.

And maybe they are.

But here's what no one is asking:

Where were the rest of us?

The Kid Who Reached the Breaking Point

Before the shooting, there was a child. A child who was bullied. A child who was tormented day after day. A child who ate lunch alone, walked halls alone, sat in classrooms where no one saw him.

Research says 71% of school shooters felt persecuted, bullied, threatened, attacked, or injured before they acted. For some, it was torment.

The Secret Service studied this. They found social rejection at the heart of most cases.

But we don't talk about that. We talk about the parents. We talk about the guns. We talk about the laws. We don't talk about the kid who was destroyed long before he destroyed anyone else.

Where Were the Rest of Us?

· The teachers who saw the bullying and looked away?
· The administrators who dismissed complaints as "kids being kids"?
· The parents of the bullies who never taught their children empathy?
· The classmates who watched and laughed and did nothing?
· The counselors who had too many cases and too little time?
· The community that tolerated cruelty as normal?

Where were they?

They were there. They saw. They knew. They just didn't act.

And now we point at the parents and say "they should have done more."

But the whole community failed.

What the Bible Says About This

Cain killed Abel. First murder in history. And God said:

"Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground." — Genesis 4:10

Blood cries out. Not just Abel's. Every victim's. Every child who was bullied until they broke. Every kid who reached the breaking point with no one to catch them.

And that blood doesn't just cry out against the shooter. It cries out against everyone who could have stopped it and didn't.

Jesus said something even harder:

"If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." — Matthew 18:6

He didn't say that about the shooter. He said it about the ones who cause the little ones to stumble. The bullies. The enablers. The ones who watched and did nothing.

The One Who Was Bullied to That Point

Here's what I believe:

The child who was tormented to the breaking point? The one who finally snapped and did the unthinkable?

They are already forgiven.

Not because what they did was right. Because God's mercy is wider than our failures. Because He sees what we did to them before they did what they did.

The blood cries out. But it doesn't just cry out against them. It cries out against us.

"The one that was bullied to that point is already forgiven. It's the community that holds the sin."

This is the part we don't want to hear.

The Community Bears the Sin

The shooter didn't happen in a vacuum. They were shaped by:

· Parents who raised bullies and never taught them empathy
· Schools that dismissed complaints to avoid paperwork
· Teachers who saw cruelty and looked away
· Administrators who protected reputation over students
· Peers who watched and laughed
· A culture that rewarded cruelty and called it popularity
· A community that tolerated all of it as normal

We are not off the hook just because we didn't pull the trigger.

We are complicit.

"Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed." — Isaiah 10:1-2

Unjust laws. Oppressive decrees. Withholding justice. That's not just government. That's a school system that protects the popular and ignores the outcast. That's a community that values comfort over truth. That's all of us who saw and did nothing.

What We Actually Need

Not more prisons. Not more punishment after the fact.

We need better ways.

· Better ways to see the kid sitting alone at lunch
· Better ways to train parents who don't know how to parent
· Better ways for schools to actually stop bullying, not just file reports
· Better ways for communities to take responsibility before the blood cries out
· Better ways to heal the broken before they break others

The bullied kid is already forgiven. The question is whether we'll change before the next one reaches that point.

The Question We Have to Answer

Not "who goes to jail?"

But: what are we going to do differently so the next kid doesn't get to that place?

Because the blood is crying out. And it's crying out against us.