This was my first high school. My brother had to help his class jump out of a window and go hide down by the pond. They installed so many metal detectors, cameras, and automatic locks. They canceled so many groups and clubs that kids depended on. We got used to living in a full surveillance situation 8 hours a day. My GPA went from 4.1 to 1.9 in a year. My brother’s mental health and behavior took a nosedive, and my parents got divorced. Without my mom around, my father became abusive. And I was one of the safest ones who was pretty minimally affected by the event. No matter what this guy does or says now, not a damn thing can erase any of that, or anything that any of the other 1000 kids went through that day and subsequently afterwards from his choices.
@@barbarafolk1854 thank you for your kindness. It’s one of those things where it seems like you’re over it until you look back and see how much it changed.
He's all about forgiveness, but he's also mad that his attacker didn't get more time as a hate crime... even though his attacker got more prison time than he got for attempting to kill his teachers and school mates. Why wasn't he called out for that hypocrisy? I have one guess
One Junko Furuta’s rapists (if you don’t know her case, it’s literally one the worst ever) opened a Twitter account and was surprised that people insulted him. He said he deserved a “second chance”. The audacity of these men i swear
That case makes me so so sick. One of those pure evil little shits mother’s even defaced her grave because they were mad she “ruined HIS life” (by being kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by him). The way people across cultures prioritize Male (racial majority) lives above all others is disgusting. Romano wouldn’t have gotten his “second chance” if he was black.
Would that be one of the few rapists that were actually punished? Because she was raped by 100+ guys, and pretty much none of them ever faced any consequences.
@@arbitarious Google at your own risk- they committed one of the most heinous acts of torture and assault on a teen girl over a period of several days. Because they were underage, they essentially got a slap on the wrist and even had their identities protected by the Japanese government. They've been hidden from the world at large, paired with name changes, because the case incited enough rage around the world for their lives to be at risk. People protested the extreme violence against women in Japan and the light sentencing that resulted. Junko Furuta's murder was further immortalized in disgusting manga and film adaptations. Her life and death were exploited horribly, and the perpetrators live on, virtually consequence free. They would be in their mid-40s now.
Its never just about the rage. It's about the beliefs that your feeings are more important than other people's lives. Turning to an outlet built on self absoption does not demonstrate change.
I think it's a bit reductive to say school shooters writ large are motivated by notoriety/attention, @@redmaple1982. That's what the comment you're responding to is saying. Your response is sorta accusatory in your last two sentences as if their response is mutually exclusive from them. Point being is that there may not be a sole reason for somebody to do a mass shooting. Many mass shooters are pushing a narrative and their notoriety is a vehicle to push an ideology. That ideology is more important than the lives they're stealing. So in a sense it's a sort of self aggrandised martyrdom for a larger ideal. A mass shooting for racism isn't just for notoriety or attention. A sole reason for heinous acts is like pinning jello to the wall.
it can often be a result of bullying, not saying that's any kind of justification but quite often poor mental health in combination with a lot of other things can brew into something sinister, it's not always as black and white as wanting to gain fame and is often an act of revenge
He literally attempted to shoot multiple people… children and teachers and he did hurt someone and got 17 years. But the black man who hurt him got a much longer sentence. He wants so badly to be a victim. He wants everyone to see him has a hero and a saint. He hasn’t changed
@@CanIswearinmyhandleI’ve never seen him acknowledge how traumatic it would be for other students and teachers to see him off himself at school. And no I don’t believe he didn’t intend to off anyone else. He did, but the first kid he saw was a friend so he didn’t do it.
@@Chelseabee55 Yeah he shot that teacher with intent to kill, and even if he didn't, getting shot with a shotgun in the tigh could easily kill someone. I think it's called the femoral artery in english, that thing's in there
I mean if someone makes you a victim how are you responsible for what that person did? What your saying is exactly what people in a cult do basically saying YOUR TRAUMA IS YOUR FAULT ! That’s not healthy thinking and it’s also VERY WRONG. If someone stabs you with a knife you aren’t responsible for what they did to you cause your a victim.
This whole situation is literally the proof that racism only work against people of color, specially black people in the case of the US, and never against white people. I'm so annoyed that most people in such country don't have a fkn clue about what racism actually is, and then they throw these lame ass wrong ass "common sense" definitions from google. THAT IS NOT A GOOD DICTIONARY SOURCE. that is absolutely NOT what racism is, the Google definition is so wrong and only serve for people like that dude to claim the reverse racism card. People don't want to study. Ugh also white devil is not never been and never will be a racial slur. It's like white lie, white jealousy, white collar. It's a term. White devil means deceptive devil. One that looks clean, but will trick you. Not our fault some many of the ones doing it fits the term in more then one way.
“You cannot be ‘not like other school shooters’ and claim to have valuable insights into the minds of school shooters in the same breath” is exactly right. Either he’s telling the truth which makes him an anomaly and thus not a useful example of how school shooters think, OR (and most likely) he’s started this platform to paint himself as a victim, or at least someone who can help stop the problem now, when it’s not true. He’s either an former attempted killer and a current liar, or he didn’t mean to hurt anyone, in which case he’s not an authority on school shooters and all he’s doing is re-traumatizing the community he targeted in the first place. Either way, he should not have a platform.
The fact his lawyer sued someone who tried to make an accurate record of the event from another perspective with other students and the victim hes shot makes me feel like he is not fully truthful because why would you want to be an advocate but still silence someone trying to get the truth out???? It's not adding up
There are people who actively attempt to research the lead up to and mindsets of mass shooters. If we are looking to help people and prevent mass shootings those researchers are the people we should be supporting and listening to. Not to say there is never a possible place for those who have reformed to reach people who others cannot reach. But those people need to be able to be role models of empathy, accountability, honesty, and hope. People who have successfully come through the quagmire of despair, selfishness, isolation, self hate and projection. Such as those in Life After Hate and various gang intervention programs. Not this guy who has rewritten his story either for self gain paired with a lack of remorse or because he cannot bear the truth himself.
I definitely feel like he’s going with the victim angle. He’s giving insight into the underlying issues that made him do the things he did, while ironically being upset at the guy who could be going through the same thing. Instead of taking the time to try and see that, he instead makes himself out to be a victim like he did when he was younger.
I am uninterested in whether school shooters change. They did what they did and left families and communities broken, wounded, and scarred. If they change, that’s for them to do internally and privately. But I don’t care about their emotional, psychological journey. I care about the people they hurt or killed, and the loved ones of their victims who have to pick up the pieces.
I slightly disagree. I think this line of thinking falls too much into the “perfect victim/perfect perpetrator” dichotomy. This doesn’t mean we have to justify a perpetrator’s actions, interact with them if we are uncomfortable doing so, freely platform them, or that we shouldn’t acknowledge that power generally leans in a perpetrator’s direction (I say generally and not always simply to refer to situations where a victim tries to protect themself with retaliatory violence) but I think if we ignore why someone did something and who changes and why, we’re missing important information on how to make our communities stronger. To be clear, I don’t think this applies to Romano’s case because he clearly hasn’t changed aside from no longer actively trying to kill people. Just think this could apply to other situations.
@@peterwallis4288 I don’t think care and prevention are mutually exclusive. Our society thoroughly knows and understands how to prevent violence. that is not the issue, violence serves white supremacy and capitalism. Also it would be more rewarding to learn from the folks who did not choose violence and build systems that reflect what stopped them bc anyone can be violent, and more people choose not to than those that do choose to use violence. also why should we care. the government and healthcare providers are the folks that need to care. I rather spend my care bucks and energy on people doing the work to choose not to be violent. I don’t mind if he benefits from the results of a healthy society, but I don’t think he or any other predator should be given a platform. I think it is fair to say you lose that opportunity. it might be unfortunate but we all have to live with the impact of trauma whether we dished it out or received it, like a scar or an injury that hurts years later.
@@fionatastic0.070I'm not saying he's a good guy, don't get me wrong; I largely agree with you. But, your statement that he "clearly" hasn't changed plays a bit into the false dichotomy which you referenced; a human's ability to detect deception is no better than the flip of a coin, in the majority of cases.
He’s still the entitled teen boy that he was when he premeditated the school shooting. Look at how bitter he is that the homeless man didn’t get sentenced the way he saw fit. He had the audacity to feel like justice wasn’t served to him. He can claim he’s changed, but I believe there are certain jobs and activities shooters should be banned from participating from. Social media = having the ability to privately message children and influence them. BIG NO. His account should be banned.
Absolutely agree. You should be ABLE to benefit the community you harmed, not be given opportunities to control it. And from his rants, he completely has no understanding of what he did.
I am curious though I hear ppl always boast about how we should forgive criminals when they do their time and not put it against people for having a felony yet I see everyone here say he should be bared from certain jobs or even activities (social media) and not be forgiven even if he did his time. I am just curious why the sudden flip from the internet? Is it because of the crime? Idk it’s just interesting to see how people feel and act about criminals whoare released from prison and trying to renter society. Where the line is drawn between accepting them or not and how much leeway we give them. Edit: Also I’m not saying he should be forgives or anything like that it’s just interesting to see how we think about them after they served time.
@@RaspBerryPiesit’s because of the way he’s acting like HES the victim as if he didn’t try to take the lives of others. That shows that he didn’t learn anything or change at all.
"you didnt deal with your thoughts, you acted on them!" is the most truthful line out there. He cant tell and advise CHILDREN on what NOT to do when he himself couldn't tell himself how to hold back! crazy
It also contradicts his whole “I didn’t go in with the intent to hurt anyone” bs. Bro if u weren’t intending to unalive anyone how exactly do you know how to deal with thoughts about unaliving other people 🤔 (I have no idea what TH-cam will filter out so I apologize for the stupid euphemism)
So learning from mistakes just does not exist in your reality? AA / NA should not exist, they have never helped anyone. Any psychologist, therapist, doctor, life coach, etc. that has ever had a personal issue and has not for their entire life been in perfect physical and mental health should not advise others. crazy
@@Moszbringing a weapon into a school with the intent to harm others is not just a “mistake” that someone learns from and other people do not in any case have to accept their so called “change”, hope this helps!
It is easy to be forgiving when you weren’t directly affected by a person’s actions. I realized this in college when I went to a presentation by an ex-neo n*zi for an assignment. I remember being confused as to why the minority students were so hostile and distrustful towards this speaker. He was obviously reformed- he had a great story, he was touring the country educating people-what else could he do to convince you he’s reformed?! It wasn’t until I actually got to hear these student’s perspectives the next day in class that it clicked. I was never and probably would never be endangered by neo n*zi beliefs. But these beliefs and actions affected my POC classmates. This man actively promoted the ideas that endangered them and the people they loved. He committed hate crimes. Yet instead of being socially ostracized or imprisoned (like many POC are for much lesser offended), he is applauded for being “reformed” and is making money off his racist past. There are no negative consequences for his actions. And POC students of all ages were being forced to listen to a man who once thought they were worthless sub-humans who should suffer. The same phenomenon is happening here. There are a fair amount of people who will never be directly affected by a school shooting. They aren’t in school nor do they have a child in school. They have no idea how much anger, fear, trauma and pain school shootings cause. So they see a troubled teenager who “paid his debt to society.” Those who have been in or are directly affected by school shootings, on the other hand, get to watch as this guy gets celebrated and gets paid for committing a crime that changed their lives.
Exactly. Thank you for this comment. It's also why I tend to not care about reformed racists. Objectively happy they see things differently now, but honestly I can't process the reality that they are allowed to be harmful AND make a career while speaking about being formerly harmful and so many of the people who were harmed by their actions quite literally can't get their heads in the front door because of the very things they were promoting. They may not have been solely responsible, but they promoted a very real ism that impacts actual people..... now they're essentially being paid to talk about doing that.
I do not have much sympathy for him. Yes, I understand the feelings of wanting to spread your feelings and hate, like, when you're in a bad mood and take out your anger at someone else, instead of handling it healthily. However. As someone who goes to a school where we go on lockdown multiple times a year (not drills, real instances of people being killed outside our school), and this year a student was shot right outside our school in a drive by, then hid on campus. This was during lunch, we thought we were going to die. There is no sympathy for school shooters. They are the reason that I have a trauma therapist. They are the reason why I am afraid of school. They are the reason I don't like being outside during lunch anymore. I am constantly in fear because of these people. I do not want him to have a platform. I understand his feelings at the time, everyone has those feelings. But not everyone turns to shooting up their school.
I’ve always had one big issue with apologies. So often, I think people apologize to shift the moral burden on to the person being apologized to. Now the victim becomes the bad guy because they can’t be the “bigger person” and forgive. This is the feeling I get with this guy. If I’m not willing to give him a second chance, then I’m the bad guy. It’s the manipulative weaponizatipn of performative contrition. Most public apologies strike me this way, and Romano’s entire social media career is that
This is so true. Also people act like just saying the words is enough. They don’t do anything else. They don’t improve, they don’t try to repair what they did. They just say sorry.
This 100% The attacker only has to apologize and suddenly the moral burden shifts. They may not even mean it, but society will then turn to the victim and think, "he's sorry though, why won't you forgive him?!?" as if forgiveness is always required after an apology. Newsflash, an apology should be given regardless of if forgiveness is given after the fact, an apology's purpose is not to gain forgiveness but to acknowledge ones own wrongdoing.
@@amyfalconer1660 @JaseekaRawr I think of it like being an alcoholic it still defines you even if your not actively doing it anymore. The ppl who survived his violence are still victims of a school shooting not former victims so hes still a school shooter in my book he's just no longer an active shooter but I'm not that language police you can describe things how you want these are just my feelings
@@JaseekaRawr I don't think that's how the English language works though. Former only works for a previously filled position or role. So former president, former boyfriend. Not former murderer lol. A role or position is something that is ongoing and continous that must be performed regularly. Now, if one was a hitman, which is actually a position or role (like being an accountant or a nurse), you could say they were a former hitman if they no longer kill people for a living.
I think it is also worth factoring in that Jon did have a 20+year sentence but only served 17 years so until the gentleman who attacked him is released we cannot truly comment on whether or not the sentencing was unfair because that gentleman may only end up serving 10 years. We also would then need to factor in that Jon was a teen/child so he would generally get a more lenient sentence anyway, whereas his attacker was an adult. Plus - and we don't know this so we can only make assumptions - but Jon being a teenager would mean that he likely did not have any prior convictions, whereas someone who is a homeless adult may or may not have priors. These comments don't even begin to factor in race or prejudice against the homeless but even if we were to base this on two people of the same race then the above points would need to be considered when comparing the sentencing each person received.
@@RandomSubjectsI’m all for playing devils advocate especially bc objectivity is cool and all, but you cannot understate how insanely white supremacist school shooters as a concept is. “He was a child, he wasn’t homeless, so race didn’t have to play a factor for him to get less time.” Do you think black children would’ve got HALF the sympathy he got for committing a senseless act of violence against school children? NO WAY, the media would be going up in arms about a rising generation of super predators and being ‘tough on crime’ like they were in the 90s about black teens. Instead, our media conversation about school shooters has been non stop “gun control?” and “mental health awareness!” Probably bc a majority of school shooters are white. And that’s not even getting into how the media never talks about the racism baked into the ideology of a LOT of these school shooters. Like Elliot Rogers wasn’t just sexism and incel, he was also motivated by internalized racism but nobody talks about that! I get what you’re trying to do, but you missed the mark by leaving out those factors! I agree that ‘to be objective,’ you’d need to compare only similar situations, but you haven’t considered/listed many factors that would be important controls to make the situations similar, like the documented biased media/governmental responses to different races committing crimes. Thus, your comparison would be a biased/flawed experiment. Peer review.
I've worked in several homeless shelters and transitional living programs, mostly with youth. People don't realize how much power counselors in these programs truly have over shelter visitors/residents. There were counselors that were selectively strict with black and brown kids, and if one was in that counselor's cross hairs that could be enough to leave on their own accord so they wouldn't have a shelter eviction on their social service "record". I'm not saying that man was justified in attacking this guy but any counselor worth their salt would know how to disengage that man from services in a way that was safe, didn't effect his benefits, and didn't result into an escalation. It's basic training.
Accusing someone of racism in a homeless shelter is the most privileged thing one could possibly do. You can see the man is being aggressive, and rather than leave it to the black workers who likely could’ve calmed him down, you, a white man, take it upon yourself to not de-escalate the situation, but to accuse him of racism while he had a sword in his hand? He knew dang well he wasn’t doing anything but stroking his own ego. He’s a narcissist who will go out of his way to boost himself and make himself feel better
@@DominantBtch ok maybe this clinical term is used too often and incorrectly like gaslighting is now a days. But the man most certainly at least has narcissistic tendencies. In common non clinical terms I would say he has main character syndrome. I don't think you can be a school shooter without that mindset nor escalate the incident in the homeless shelter while thinking you are deescalating. If he was alone the story would have made more sense. When he said a bunch of black coworkers were also trying to get the guy to stop. My first thought was "well why did you not remove yourself and leave it to them if the guy clearly racist and the presence of a white person was what was agitating him.?" My second charitable thought was "oh he must have attacked you while you were removing yourself from the situation". But no... I actually wondered if the black coworkers were even there or just made up so he can go "Only I was attacked, therefore, racism." Because if they were there he should not have been. You don't talk down a Nazi by having a Jewish person tell them they are being unreasonable when blond people are available.
@@DominantBtchIf you walk into a school and decide to try to kill people... you are a narcissist. There's no other way to describe the selfishness and willingness to traumatize others for your own pleasure.
There's also just no way for him to actually come off as trying to genuinely help the cause, everything he does will always feel like he's trying to gain notoriety or profit off of the horrible crime he committed. Instead of making HIS voice heard, why doesn't he try to amplify the voices of survivors or just do the work quietly? This man never stopped ego tripping from the moment he picked up the weapon.
Bingo. Contrast this guy with assorted ex-white-supremacists who've devoted themselves to talking about their experiences so that people can learn from them, actively campaigning and advocating for racial justice, and working to de-radicalize and inoculate at-risk youths and others against racist ideologies and movements. The truly-effective ones don't just make it about themselves and their personal story, and actively work to undo the harm they've caused to the world.
Yeah. I respect ex criminals that dedicate a lot of their time to prevent people like them from making the same mistakes. I think that has value. But when you're putting it on TikTok, you're not really reaching THAT crowd unless you're intentionally problematic enough to put yourself in their algorithms lol. So let's see it for what it is, the TikTok stuff is for his own need for validation from regular people, not to do the work.
@dinosaysrawr the ex-white supremacists who get paid to talk about how much they used to hate everybody are just the same as this guy. They're getting paid off that evil stuff they did while getting a pat on the back for changing their ways... why?
I'm a half Chinese trans man, I'm sick of the way white ''edgy'' teenagers are always given excuses for the things they say and do. I despise how, as minorities, we're just expected to take it from white people who ''don't know better''. We're expected to show endless compassion to white people who cause us harm because of who we are.
Same, mixed indigenous person. I'm so tired of qallunaat who treat me as their personal punching bag and can get away with the most heinous shit. But me not forgiving my abusive qallunaat grandfather makes me the villain and stuck up for not wanting to be the "bigger" person?
Exactly ! As a north African trans woman I'm so fucking tired of having to justify my humanity to a racist system that dehumanized me at birth, I don't want to have to justify my personhood to racists because by doing so am I not sort of agreeing with them ? If I debate my humanity I'm implying that it is indeed something debatable. Meanwhile white men can do the most heinous shit over and over again and the sanctity of their souls remains sacred.
@@S3lkie-Gutzwhat dies race have to do with your grandfather?! You're equating oranges and tangerines. He's given a pass and you're encouraged to forgive because you're related not because he's indigenous.
exactly. my classmates say slurs and make racist “jokes” all the goddamn time, and i (black trans masc) say smth about it and then suddenly its “oh they didnt know any better” and “oh youre just being sensitive, theyre just kidding” as if saying that black people are inferior and being trans is a mental illness is a joke and not something people say, actually mean, and act on. and the thing is that most of the time, its cis white guys i see saying that crap. there is absolutely a pattern.
@@6Shots_ofEspresso I knew someone who was mixed race (half white, half Jamaican), and she'd have to hear the racist bile spewed by cis white boys in her class but would be seen as an angry black woman if she ever spoke up about these views. She only turned 18 in May, so she's only just an adult. Teachers defended the guys by saying they were autistic and didn't necessarily realise they were being racist. I'm autistic and everyone should know that autism doesn't excuse someone being a bigot. This sort of crap took place in her A Level politics class (where she was one of the only non-white students), and it makes me so angry to think she had to deal with this stuff from both her peers and teachers. I'm sick of people defending the behaviour of white boys/young men, because the words they use aren't jokes.
I think that father brought up an excellent point. I didn’t have a “conventionally” traumatic childhood, but I definitely experienced significant mental isolation which affected my emotional development and meant I had pretty severe anger issues well into my mid teens. I also have NPD, which doesn’t typically make people violent but definitely didn’t help with my already significant struggles with anger management. I had to spend hours alone growing up to mediate my anger levels and avoid lashing out at people, and I relate heavily to the experience of feeling isolated and wanting to be validated through inflicting your pain on others. But I never once actively planned to harm anyone. I really appreciate that we’re becoming more open about mental illness, but it should also be made incredibly clear that mental illness is NEVER an excuse for hurting people. While this guy never says it outright, it definitely feels like a lot of his videos are implying that what he did isn’t his fault because of his mental illness, and that sickens me to my core. Mental illness or not, he deserves to be accountable and he shouldn’t be able to avoid the consequences of the crime he willingly committed.
I agree. I am deeply ashamed of this as an adult, but I had issues (not diagnosed) as a kid. I would snap out of anger and choke other children well into my teenage years. It was so violent and unpredictable, and I know the uglyness inside of me wanted me to make the other children pay with pain for whatever it is my brain registered as hurting my ego/pride. I was bullied as a kid, but I was friends with other kids who had worse stories of bullying than me, and I can acknowledge that none of them had the violent outbursts I did. And above all, I can acknowledge that the only time I planned on going to school and doing something, was for me to come to the loneliest restroom and unalive myself alone, without letter, in a quiet way, and hope it didn't look too bad for who found me much after. I am glad I never did it. I am ashamed I hurt everyone who I hurt. Some kids deal with ugly and dangerous things inside their heads, I was one of them, and counselors around me made it worse, and my parents made it worse, and sometimes nobody knows how to fix the situation (much less without a diagnosis). But in my personal experience and from the multiple friends I've had who had gone through much much darker stuff than me, it is rare for a 16 year old to go all out. All I have to offer is my personal anecdote to people I know one-on-one, and this comment section I guess, to remind people that sometimes kids have deep uglyness inside that can be dangerous and the adults around don't know what to do, so don't be complacent and assume it's being taken care of, or that the kid would never; even if the kid doesn't go to the level of a school unaliving, they can still cause deep pain and hurt around them that should be dealt with. On he other hand, please don't assume that just because somebody has a mental illness or neurodiversity, they'll be dangerous to society, an incredible amount of people have those, and the vast majority of them can coexist peacefully in society. Be kind, but don't be complacent and naive.
Agreed. I grew up with and still deal with violent mood swings, anger issues, complex trauma, and a bunch of other mental health issues. I have C-PTSD, BPD, and psychosis. Even when I'm triggered and actively hate everyone around me, I always try my best to ground myself and I've never actively planned to hurt people. More often than not, I'm vulnerable to violence than I am the perpetrator of it. Even then, mental health should be an explanation for what you do, not an excuse.
As a teenager with mental health issues, who has been suicidal and attempted to take my own life multiple times, the fact that this man puts me in the same category as himself is so fucking offensive
as a teenager with mental health issues who is actively suicidal i dont think myself any better or worthier than anyone else with mental health issues because that makes you a shill to ableism
You mean faux news I'd bet faux news supports Tim who locked a foreign adopted boy In a box then 1 week later he wanted to try get out of jail until his sentence even shaking luckily the judge refused and sent him back to jail
The more I listened to his "gentle parent" voice, the more i could hear the oiliness behind it. I can see how vulnerable teens and kids could be drawn to him. And hos influence on them is terrifying. But it won't be his fault. He's trying to help. He's a part of the solution. He's supported by schools and cops. He's reformed.
I think he found a new thing that made him feel fulfilled. still being seen, but in a positive and sympathetic light. still using people to be seen a certain way or just to be seen at all. i don’t think he’s changed at all.
@@amyfalconer1660in his case, yes. he had to lie and twist words to get people on his side, and even then, most sensible people still realize he’s full of bs
Regardless of whether or not John antagonized that man from the shelter to attack him. To advocate that he should be charged with a hate crime for saying “white devil” is so pathetic, selfish and disgusting.
Yeah, I agree. Would anyone ever loose sleep for being called "white devil"? Maybe for someone who is interested in using their race as an excuse to be seen as a victim of racism? 🤷♀️
No amount of personal redemption of his can change hearing my cousin's oldest afraid that his sisters or he would die in school, and he was sad he was going to highschool and couldn't be with them if there was an attack. This guy and others like him have made this so common place that I hear from babies how to protect yourself from gunfire. When I heard he had a social media following it just felt like a serial killer being romanticized. It's gross.
OMG when i saw him on the philip defranco show and everyone was praising him in the comments and shaming the ppl who criticized him made me feel like i was living in the matrix 💀
As a canadian, i am constantly dumbfounded if the lack of gun control in America. Simply crossing the border makes me nervous. Theres kids killing kids, unregulated and easily contained weapons. Literally the only first world country who has this problem. Nobody should fear getting an education. My heart breaks for yall.
There is no country on this planet that has mass shootings in the world like USA! Maybe war torn countries.. of which these wars are funded heavily by the USA government
Also, we have had gun control but it is largely too late to contain the issue as much as certain European countries have, and there’s the fact that nearly, if not every, major piece of gun legislation has specifically targeted Black people. The oft-quoted joke that major gun control such as assault rifle bans would be introduced in the US if Black people bought them at high enough rates really isn’t one.
One of the issues rarely metioned (and I'm so glad you're addressing it) is if I were a parent and I found out that a former school shooter was approved by the school to talk to my child and a full school of children... But you know...a drag queen is the REAL danger Like I'm so disgusted that we as the queer community LGBTQ+ are seen as such sick p3do criminal deviants who are deceptive & here we are...a man like this, a murd3rer was allowed to be in a school AGAIN with kids. Like, it's not just him, the schools that allowed him in a school are villains too. But you know an openly gay teacher, that's the REAL danger to the kids... But not men like this guy....
This video took me on a trip, I began it being a bit more sympathetic to Ramano, but the videos really changed my attitude. I will also add that I as someone studying psych, I think that it his perspective would be super valuable for a clinical case study on school shooters, but starting a tiktok and public speaking business isn't "advancing the understanding of school shooters" in fact, such anecdotal experiences being generalized to all school shooters in my opinion can absolutely be seen as misinformation. I am also EXTRAORDINARILY critical of police departments choosing to listen to a speech by this guy over an actual professional who studies school shooters. A lot of these researchers exist and so I doubt they were somehow all too busy to give a presentation. You would hope that with billion dollar police budgets they would be able to meet researchers' presentation fees. If not, perhaps selling off a few military grade artillery tanks would let them afford an actual expert.
Ah, but if they hired an expert to come and talk then they'd likely get told all about the toxic cultures of masculinity and white supremacy that often lead to these individuals becoming violent in such a public way, and the gun control issues that make it far too easy for them to get access to their weapon of choice. Bringing him in doubtless means that they instead get a lecture about being kind and understanding to creepy assholes because they only "act out" due to lonliness and depression (but that the solution to that depression is for their potential victims to be nice to them rather than any real support or treatment bring provided). The latter suits their own narrative and culture far better.
The only value would be in pointing out the delusions he's still suffering from and how he says and maybe even believes that's he's moved past the person he was and dealt with the issues that led to the shooting but clearly has not actually done so.
I'm in psych too and the first thing I thought was if he wanted to be helpful, he should've just done an interview or research for science, instead of trying to give his 'nuggets of wisdom' to tiktok
25 years is crazy for someone who wasn’t even the school shooter and was obviously not of sane mind. It would make sense to give him time. But 25 years is not right. It saddens me that only 17 years was given to a school shooter who tried to hurt more than one person, and 25 years was given to a probably mentally ill homeless black man. I’m not saying that the homeless guy didn’t deserve punishment, but something isn’t adding up.
The conversation about mental health being a mitigating factor is only really applied to white people. When actually the mental health of black men in particular is ignored. It’s never really applied. People don’t show sympathy for mentally ill black or homeless people. Look at George Floyd. He was murdered and yet instead of people talking about his mental health and addiction sympathetically, they said that he deserved to die because he resisted or took drugs. It’s so fucking gross.
I'm a white man. I was suicidal when I was young. My whole childhood, just about. When I was 18 I called my mother in tears becsuse the thought of what suicide would do to her, and my Father, hurt so much that I couldn't bear the thoughts I was having. I asked for help to save other people, not to save myself. Being hurt doesn't damage your empathy and depression doesn't make you revel in the suffering of others. Don't let anyone tell you "mental health" is why school shootings happen. White supremacy and a sociopathic obsession with power, authority, and respect are the root cause. The depressed, the anxious, and the traumatized feel *more* deeply for others. School shooters feel less than nothing for others. Don't let them lie to you.
YESSSS this exactly! Depression is INward, not outward! It does not make one more violent except to one’s SELF. This is a harmful stereotype of the dangerous “crazy” person. No, they are not dangerous. They are like 20x more likely to BE harmed.
Everyone is talking about how Jon lied and is a hypocrite and all that- But lowkey, I am still so mentally stuck on the fact the guy attacked him had two swords... Where did they come from?! Does he just carry swords?! I can't move past this!! It's the most unimportant part, but my autistic brain is in shambles right now trying to figure out why he had SWORDS?! TWO OF THEM?! 😭😭😭
"We don't need to see you in order for you to change" Straight up facts. I had an emotionally manipulative girlfriend/best friend during high school. It was a really unhealthy, codependent relationship, and she crippled my mental health, on top of overstepping some of my boundaries. She cut me off the day of graduation-- which was honestly a good thing, because I didn't have the self-awareness that I needed to stop seeing her at the time. Two years later, right before I'm about to take a test, I get rapid fire texts from her that she's sorry and wants to get back together. After two years of no contact. I ignored her, blocked her, and she has been trying to contact me on various social media ever since. I just keep blocking her. I know that she hasn't changed at all, because if she actually did change, she would have acknowledged exactly what she did wrong, and accepted the fact that some relationships cannot be repaired. You f*ck up, you learn, you move on. If she really changed, she would stop trying to contact me. I myself even haven't been the best person to certain people from my life back then. I had a crush in high school that I was way too obsessive about, and was honestly a bit creepy to him. I don't go stalking his social media, or try to call or text him. If I ran into him in my hometown, I kinda just let him have his space and didn't approach him. I wouldn't blame him for never wanting to see me again. I don't feel the need to prove to him that I've changed, because I know that I've changed, and that's enough for me.
I KNEW as soon as I heard that audio clip something wasnt right. I spent enough time working and volunteering in shelters to recognize the power dynamics. You would be surprised at some of the mean and nasty things folks who work at shelters get away with. I will probably never do that kind of work with a non-profit again. Mutual aid, sure. But never with a non-profit.
I believe it we use to get assistance from shelters and they look and talk down to all of us we stopped going. A lot of people get off on the power they have over people in defenseless situations
I used to work with kids and we had two events where two men were shooting their guns in the street and getting into armed standoffs. It was terrifying. I thought I was going to die and the worst thing is that the kids understood what was happening. When I was in high school there were people who came to talk about the dangers or drugs and drunk driving and they could show the consequences on their bodies. They were not role models. I don't think he should be doing speaking engagements at all. We know a lot about mass shooters I don't think we need to hear from the one who is free because of a happy accident.
You know, people who genuinely feel remorse and want to reform themselves and their way of thinking generally are too busy actually doing the work and don't exactly want to broadcast their shame to the world. Just saying.
And they are actually conscientious about the harm that their mere presence on a public platform will be triggering and blatantly harmful to a lot of people - that should be enough for someone with actual remorse to keep any good work they want to do much less public.
@@niknikky donating to public schools, anti bullying campaigns, and anti shooting campaigns. Volunteering and living in a completely different town. Doing anything except trying desperately to be seen and 'understood' by people online. Your actions should speak louder than your words when you commit atrocities like this.
I work as a paraeducator in an elementary school...I hate this...we just went through our Critical Incident Training and our first "incident' drill...this individual needs to be de-platformed...he is glorifying himself and being glorified...and his excuse is that he wasn't "good" at school shootings?
All he is doing is trying to be the person he wanted to be in high school - popular and superior. He continuously seeks it. He sought it as a means to his death. That power will be his life long desire - and these are the top of people who isn't mentally unstable. These are the kind of people who are selfish and evil enough to harm others for selfish gain. Unlike the guy who might've been mentally triggered and went off on dude, shooter boy actively goes after people who has nothing to do with his personal problems. He needs to be separated from society forever.
16:55 -- This clip of Jon Romano talking into the camera exhibits BIG manipulative gaslighty Walter White kinda energy lol. I know this exact tone of voice, this exact fake-crying thing, this exact speech pattern from the abusers in my life. Sometimes when you've been through that your whole life, you can smell the insincerity from miles away.
Honestly maybe this is coming from the wrong place as a white person myself but i always roll my eyes hearing a white person be like "oh i suffered racism" because it literally always feels like theyre using that language antagonistically. Like they were just waiting for the moment they could flip the script and use words against magrinalized people without understanding them. Plus then they get to internally go "oh people don't think it was that? See? They hate me for being white they are the bad guys like i thought!" It just kind of... Somehow always wraps around to them being racist themselves
one of the main problems with social media i have felt is that people think they HAVE to be brands or celebrities but now i'm realizing it's also that they think they have a right to be
Yup. This is further evidenced by the fact that a lot of Romano’s supporters will belligerently respond to anyone questioning whether he should have such a large platform by saying “SO YOU JUST DON’T WANT HIM TO EXIST?!” as if someone not being allowed to garner widespread fame and make money off of the trauma they’ve inflicted is the same as them “not being allowed to exist” 🤦🏻♀️🫠
No. Just no. Don't force yourself into spaces where your victims could encounter you unwillingly. @17:00 That's not an apology. That's a monster "explaining" why they "were" a monster and why they "deserve" to be accepted as an ordinary human now.
The way our society makes it difficult for returning citizens (formerly incarcerated people) to get hired for jobs makes social media influencing very attractive. There are low barriers to entry-no background checks and no boxes to check indicating you are a former felon. A story, a mic, and people ready to be followers (ignorant or not), and you’re in business.
That's actually a very interesting thought. And i'll be honest, i probably would watch a blog titled "Just Got Out of Prison for Manslaughter | Get Ready With Me"
@@assassin8636 maybe he wouldn’t even have gotten on the Internet and had a platform negatively influencing people if he had his basic needs covered. Poverty is often a great motivator for bad behavior. In fact I would say that this guy has gotten a decent amount of blow back from this channel. Well deserved blow back by the way. And he might not even be doing this if he didn’t feel he needed the money. Although he also could just be vain to the point where he is more vain than lazy I haven’t known of the person long enough to know which one though either way it’s bad
First, this guy is like all the other people who got in their own head and convinced themselves "No, it's not really my fault. My mental health made me do this" when most people manage to live with mental health problems without hurting or traumatizing people. Second, the bob looks really cute on Kat >.
Yep. I've got a whole basket of mental health problems and I've never hurt anyone. People need to stop blaming mental health, it just victimizes innocent people and dissuades them from seeking help for fear of judgement.
Ya know I believe in rehabilitation and restorative justice for everyone. Even school shooters as absurd as that may sound. I would love to live in a world where the worst ppl find a way to grow and change and become better. HOWEVER, if you do some messed up unforgivable stuff, I think it's ok for the internet to collectively say "no thanks, could you please go away" haha. You can hold space for rehabilitation and also not fuck with ppl all the way (or at all 😂). We can hold that space for this man and also hey let's not give this guy a platform or present him as an authority. And if you've truly grown and changed you'd understand that.
I came to say something like this, because 💯 if he’s truly changed, he would have a deeper understanding of how he continues to be part of the problem.
Notice how all the restorative justice people are nowhere to be seen when a woman is incarcerated for killing her abuser....but they always emerge when people feel uncomfortable around a violent man.
@@redmaple1982 uh yeah that’s because nobody talking about restorative justice believes there needs to be a replacement for jail for those circumstances. There’s a reason the discussion is focused on people who do harm done unto others such as abuse, r*pe, etc, and not self defence.
Tik tok is actually way better than you think. Its a great place for feminism and left thought. The algorithm is way better than this shit, its the new twitter in terms of reach and political impact.
Crazy how John got 22 years for actually harming someone, premeditated murder, bringing an illegally obtained firearm on school grounds with intent to cause mass casualty, and he got 22 years and got out in 17 years. But the black man who attacked him gets 25 years. And John wants him to do longer time……….. veryyyyy interesting
I'm at 2:07. I get you Kat, I'm a gen Z, a 18 years old one and I technically should understand and fall into the TikTok category, but I just can't do that to myself mentally. I just see young girls repeating the pattern of pro ana social media there, the sexist teenage boys, people making fun of everything and everyone to the point where recording people in public is very normal. Maybe I'm a little harsh on this, but it's totally wild west there imo!
@@annjepsen1621 While that's true, I feel like most people agree on the fact that she shouldn't have a platform and I just don't see as much diet culture, pro ana content on youtube, but it may be just personal bias. Also while Eugenia's activity on the platform is dangerous, she's an adult, I think she's around 30. So I assume she's been there to experience the tumblrification of eating disorders. I don't condemn TikTok as a whole, I just can't really watch all this romantization of mental illness etc. all over again. Especially knowing, that TikTok is really heavy on their teenage audience.
Some of the students he went to school with and traumatised will not be parents sending their children to school in the neighbourhood he still lives in. I cannot imagine what they are going through knowing their monster is out in the community.
The woman at the end who says the right way for him to heal the hurt he's done is to work privately is 100% right. I do believe people can change and make amends, but it sure doesn't look like he has!
I hadn't heard that additional context about the incident where he was assaulted by that homeless man until now.. Jesus. I think you really did sum it up best in this video, and putting it all together like that, how after everything he's done, he's maneuvered himself into a position of power where he can ruin the lives of marginalized people so easily.. It literally made me grimace and shiver. And on top of that position of power, he has this platform (Which obviously comes with INNUMERABLE other problems, as was stated in the video) that's allowing him to warp this incident into another "but what about racism against white people? 😔" story for conservatives to wave around and water down discussions about violence affecting people of color. Disgusting.
if he really changed he wouldn’t shout it from the rooftops. true change comes when you realise that others’ perception of you has no bearing on your ability to grow. you have to change for yourself, not others, otherwise you haven’t really changed.
Ita not called "insane", it's called "racism". It's the proof his statement on reverse racism, better yet, universal racism is pure bullsh!t in the real world. That Google definition is absolutely ridiculous. That's not what racism is and he knows is but he is still claiming ALM and victim playing like the school shooter he is.
True crime as entertainment is disgusting and this is another example of why. The fact anyone sees it as normal to platform him is a nasty symptom of commodified true crime. What a shame
The man served his time. I don't think the man is necessarily being honest about his motives, but if I believe felons who've served their time should regain their voting rights, I'm not going to turn and say an ex-convict shouldn't have the same First Amendment rights as anyone else. I'd never heard of this man before watching this video. If TikTok wants to ban him, that's their right, but no one who doesn't want to see him is being forced to watch his videos.
@@VonWenki think it's more that he doesn't seem truly reformed than people saying there CAN'T be reform. i mean he's still lying about his crimes. how can you call him reformed when he won't even take accountability for what he did, yk?
His victims need to live the rest of their lives with the trauma he caused them, but he thinks that just because he got a second chance at freedom he is owed to live it like he never did anything. No. He ALSO needs to live the rest of his life with the crime he committed. He should be thankful every day that someone let him out of jail and he should use this gratitute to be fucking quiet and leave that community alone.
My ex used to tell me that they hurt me because they were masochistic and the only person they loved more than themselves was me, so hurting me was to hurt themself. They didn't stop even after I kept pointing out how wrong that was (wrong as in incorrect & as in inappropriate), so I eventually got them to stop telling me that, because they knew that I knew that it was BS. Bryan going into his school to "hurt himself" has that same slimy icky feeling to it.
I can understand people being curious and watching his videos to see wtf is going on with this weirdo, but there are people who have SUBBED/FOLLOWED him. But we can't really be surprised in this day and age. I don't even know if we can be further disappointed in society than we already are....
That father had it ABSOlutely right when he said that lots of people have messed up lives and childhood trauma and intrusive thoughts but what separates the rest of us from school shooters is that MOST people have even a modicum of restraint, logic and empathy even at 16, most people do not act on these thoughts
As Kat said, his crime is his brand and he definitely hasn't healed. John needs therapy to work on himself and if he wants to atone for his crime he can volunteer or work in different communities without posting about it.
his desire to be tik tok famous is very telling of his character and i think you’re right about how it reeks of the same mentality that shooters have to want to be known.
This attempted murderer (I hope) wanted fame and attention for killing people and now he is using that attempt to get fame and attention. He doesn't deserve a platform. Very terrible precedent for TikTok.
"selfish" is probaby the best word to describe Jon Romano's behavior on TikTok. If you really want to atone for hurting so many people, keep a very low profile for all the reasons Kat mentioned. I also wonder how prison may have affected his worldview. Ive read that prison can further radicalize violent racists.
A friend of mine survived a work place shooting, she got hit with some of the shot gun bbs or whatever is in it, it’s still in her arm. She has ptsd everytime someone acted violent when getting fired or walked out. She was friends with the man who shot up the place, she has fond memories of him but she can’t think of anything about it with out remembering the fear and remembering all the blood everywhere
the fact that someone like him is allowed to hold a large tiktok platform while black, brown and/or queer creators always have their content suppressed and are susceptible to mass hate reports, which often ends in account termination? foul.
17:43 "I also didn't want to be forgotten, I wanted people to see me." It seems that he hasn't changed in the slightest in regards to this and him starting a tiktok tells me all I need to know. He's not remorseful at all and even after nearly 2 decades later, he's still seeking that attention. The ABSOLUTE audacity of it all is astounding.
He’s lying about what he wanted to do when he walked into that school. Maybe he’s lying to himself as well, it would be understandable to want to downplay something so horrendous, but it’s even in the way he says “I didn’t want to die alone… I wanted people to see me.” Someone who can’t be bothered to educate himself on racial issues, and who can’t understand why victims of people like him may not want to be around him, should NOT be in a position of power around vulnerable people (including folks at the shelters where he is working, and folks getting exposed to his tik toks.)
If you lie about what you did, then that shows you haven’t truly repented and don’t truly have remorse and I don’t see how you can expect forgiveness in that situation. Even for people who really are remorseful should understand if people don’t want to forgive them. This person has no business acting in any sort of counseling capacity.
The things that people get away with on tiktok truely baffle me. This, the kia/Hyundai car theft challenge and "Gnome hunting" truly just make me feel like we're going backwards.
If you won't take full accountability for your actions, you don't get to claim redemption. And if you are doing it for public praise, that's terrible I don't understand why people who did terrible things get way more praise when they change and acting differently, than people who never did anything awful at the first place
I don’t believe a word John Romano says because in his most candid moments, the moments when he doesn’t get to narrate the story and craft his image, he chooses to cause the greatest damage possible. He hates his school principals? He’s going to shoot them and anyone he sees on the way. A black man at the shelter he volunteers for acts up somehow? He strips the man of the only shelter he has. Any person with an actual ounce of sympathy wouldn’t even think of doing either of these things.
If a yt person says they’re the victim of a hate crime you know they’re lying. 😐 cuz prejudice is a preconceived opinion not based in reason or actual experience. Most of what people think about them is based on our ACTUAL EXPERIENCES & REALITY of what they have done & still do. They documented all of it & happily tell us of their atrocities but think we shouldn’t be wary of them? 🙃 insanity.
Not everyone knows every TH-camr. You can be a YT content creator and still be treated poorly largely due to your race. It might be less common, but I wouldn't hardline that it's impossible.
Thank you so much for talking about this !! I’m incredibly shocked and disturbed by this man glorying his crime so publicly as a free man. You’re right about him, the man is still his teenage self and is clearly still in that violent mindset. He acted on his actions, he’s not helping no one !!
No one is a bigger believer in the power of forgiveness and redemption than me. With that said, some people absolutely weaponize the empathy of others. They perform actions to show remorse, but if you scratch the surface just a little deeper, you can see that the person has no remorse for the hurt they caused. Why come online and risk the chance of re-traumatizing the individuals who he attacked?
the caucasity. this story was wild from start to finish. While I‘m a teacher, I live and work in Switzerland and can thus but imagine what being at school feels like in the US. I‘m sorry you guys have/had to go through this.
As someone with depression who was in high school when Columbine happened, it sickens me that he's blaming what he did on mental illness while pretending to be a mental health advocate. People with mental illnesses are much more likely to be the victims of crime, not the perpetrators, because it's easier to isolate and take advantage of you. Mental illness only got more stigmatized in the era of mass shootings. When I went through a mental health crisis in high school, they tried desperately to get rid of me by sending me to a special needs school, where I would have to start over and be separated from the few friends I had. They saw me as a liability, not a human being. As a result, I internalized this narrative and became terrified, not that I would be shot in school, but that I'd become the next shooter myself. This is how bullying victims end up being punished more than the bullies, and how society justifies taking the rights away from people with mental illnesses "for your own good."
I'm younger, but same. When many people find out I have mental illnesses one of the most common first questions I get is if I'm violent, even if they only know I have anxiety. The stigma is insane. Even doctors play into this. You're having symptoms that are clearly a physical health problem but you also have depression? Whelp, better up the antidepressants and start working out.
You stated a concern of mine, that existed in the back of my mind but I couldn't quite articulate until now. And that is these shooters often inspire one another. Someone looking at this man and the platform he has and seeking to emulate it? A very real possibility. One of these shooters in the past few years even streamed on Twitch. Attention is definitely a part of it and that's what people miss. And a part of realising you've done something wrong? Is knowing you are not owed forgiveness. That someone has a right to feel negatively about your wrongdoing. I hate people are judged for essentially having boundaries and wanting their peace.
I had the exact same thought about a copycat who seeks Jon’s sort of clout by brining a gun to school & feigning regret claiming that they “didn’t come there to kill” & trying to pivot their actions into “inspiring penitent criminal”. Hell, worst case: someone could be inspired to go even further than Jon & kill all the people they want at their school & comfortably believe they can pull a Romano & just fake some regret to build an audience of sympathizers duped into thinking they’ve grown into a saint despite the trail of bodies that paved their road to social media stardom. At best this entire project by Romano is grossly short-sighted & oblivious to the reality & impact of the crime he committed which would be wild despite having nearly two decades of time for self-reflection & consideration to give his victims
Honestly considering how open he is about his school shooter status, i am surprised that he thinks this is a hate crime and not maybe someone reacting to the fact that he is a school shooter
Came across his TikTok before and remember how jarring it felt but I’ve just realised how odd it is that someone with his record is permitted to work with vulnerable people in the first place.
This whole time, I was thinking about how he traumatized people. No one died, and the person that got hurt probably made a near full recovery, but not only his peers at the time, but the adults that worked at his school must have been horrified, petrified, and again, traumatized to step foot into their jobs and their ticket to future success. Can you imagine being afraid to further your education, or, if you're a teacher, being afraid to provide for your family because some kid couldn't reel in his emotions? Trauma isn't something that the people around him that day chose, but to be infamous? This John character deff chose that.
He claims he's such an advocate for mental health, but conveniently doesn't mention the fact that the guy who attacked him was a mentally unstable homeless man. He claimed that the guy didn't know about his past, but this is the same community where he committed mass violence, I feel like most people around him would probably be aware of that fact. Like, that's not something people just forget about. Watching his statement about the supposed hate crime against him, it just felt off the entire time. A guy who was genuinely remorseful of his own acts of violence, probably wouldn't be so quick to point fingers at other violent, mentally ill people, glass houses and all that.
I’m so glad someone finally said it. I don’t care how much of a “better person” you are, the people you have negatively effected are NOT obligated to just open arms and forgive you all of a sudden or hype you up or input you back into their lives because you’ve decided to turn a new leaf. And I absolutely hate that narrative, it’s basically telling you to be passive aggressive lol. You’ve effected these people negatively, so if they choose not to have anything to do with you, by all means, they have every right. Trying to “prove” to them how much better of a person you are and lowkey showcasing it too is pretty weird and kinda performative but that’s just my personal opinion. 😭
My cousin was on his list and eventually I went to the same high school. We heard the story over and over and once I heard his story, I was like 😒 We were told that he hid in one of the bathrooms for the first period or two and texted his friends to leave school or not be there, something like that. They told on him because they had a feeling they knew what that meant. Trench coats were still not allowed by the time I attended and it was because of him.
I really appreciate that you took the time to empathise as much as you were able to. I feel like you approached everything with so much more humanity than many would even try to. Thank you.
I just can't get over his dramatic poetry voice when retelling his SCHOOL SHOOTER story. That's so wild, it's so obvious he just wants clout from his past crimes, I wonder if he even has remorse for the person he shot, or the trauma he caused to the people there.
Here's the thing: I was raised Catholic. Of course I want to believe in forgiveness. I'm sure he has changed in the past two decades and I would love to believe anyone who can make a decision like that once will change and know why they would never, ever do it again. Thing is... I don't think that equates to giving him a platform. I just don't think that's the same thing. We're in an age where deplatforming is a serious conversation topic. It used to be easier to shoot that down immediately, especially when social media made a hell of a lot less money than it does now. The stance used to be, well, hey, anyone can come onto Facebook or TH-cam and speak their mind, but we're at a point where some individuals attract such a large audience and manipulate it, and at that point, it needs to be stopped. They need to be cut off from abusing others with their power and their platform. We have this conversation, for the most part, about people who've never tried to kill anyone... and I think that's the way it should be. I understand the subject of this video to some extent probably really does want to be part of the solution, but his personal and private reformation should be his full contribution. Be the change. Leave the survivors to lead this conversation, not the offenders. Their fullest contribution should be as a changed individual and an audience member.
the part with the former teacher really broke me. ive never been one to really cry over sad stories but hearing her speak out on her experieance as a teacher really got to me
This is a bit of a tangent, but as someone who was diagnosed with autism and spent years and years of my childhood in Special Classes and Special School and Special Afterschool Activities and Special Camp against my best wishes, it just feels SO TYPICAL that this guy ends up working at a homeless shelter, ie a position where he holds a tremendous amount of power over vulnerable people - and I think that another aspect that plays into this is how our culture sees social work and "charity" work as a means of personal development and virtue. There's a space where I think people like him really thrive, because not only is he given that power, but he's also praised for taking care of those scary scary untouchables that everyone else just wants out of sight. It's so paradoxical and frustrating - giving that much power to someone who has demonstrably proven that they'll use it to hurt people is such an obviously bad idea, but in cases like this, somehow that power imbalance instead cleanses his soul and makes you the ungrateful and bitter one if you don't respect him? It's like some twisted version of purgatory, but the torture is to interact with the people we as a society find icky and weird and scary, and the reward is trust and respect and plausible deniability and assumed innocence and a relief from transparency. The bigger the power imbalance, the more spotless his character, and the more he is absolved of suspicion and guilt. As a white person I'm definitely missing the racism perspective that comes from a life lived as a person of color in a white supremacist world, and this comment is just me relaying what I personally related to, from a limited incomplete perspective. That said, the guy with the sword did nothing wrong and "white devil" was just an accurate observation 💀
I honestly think he cares more about rewriting his own story to create a better image for himself rather than helping people. Not saying that for sure bc I don't know him but it wouldn't surprise me if that was his real intent for making a platform on tiktok.
We can't really prove that , I think what we can do is teach him better , he needs to be more self-aware and better educated. He is very involved with preventing school shootings (that is great!) but the issue of healing for the victims of past shootings is still an issue, he may need to be pushed a little, like rather than branding his face he could work with an organsation. The issue with tiktok is that it can give a lot of fame to a face making them a kind of brand , this can work well fro some kinds of actvism but in the case of a person who shot up a school how a person becomes branded could cause more truama to the victims of a real school shootings, their feelings should be considered , he may never be truly able to atone for the trauma he caused even if he did not kill anybody , he can accpet that and still make great change in the world but he needs to understand that what he has done makes him a symbol of pain for some any people and he needs to work around that in a way that shows respect, kindness and consideration. So yeah I am not completely on the anti train for him like I don't want him locked up for the rest of his life and I applaud him for any good work he does, he is a human being , we all have flaws but what he did was evil and although I want him to change and be a better person and do good I think it is fair to say some forms of evil we can never undo and we can never make up for even if we become better people who would never do what we did then. When we consider atonement and forgiveness we need to consider the limits which means how he brands himself needs to be appropriate.
"I brought a gun to school and opened fire, but I didn't want to kill anyone." WHAT?!
He had a hate list of targets, but never mind that part.
Right,, and some are buying that BS,
LOL WHUT
I-- 🤡☠️🥴
Also, where else have you heard that before? "I brought a gun, and I've repeatedly written about ways I wanted to use it, but I just wanted to talk!"
Yeah, and he totally didn’t intend to shoot those principals or anything. Totally didn’t plan it
This was my first high school. My brother had to help his class jump out of a window and go hide down by the pond. They installed so many metal detectors, cameras, and automatic locks. They canceled so many groups and clubs that kids depended on. We got used to living in a full surveillance situation 8 hours a day. My GPA went from 4.1 to 1.9 in a year. My brother’s mental health and behavior took a nosedive, and my parents got divorced. Without my mom around, my father became abusive. And I was one of the safest ones who was pretty minimally affected by the event. No matter what this guy does or says now, not a damn thing can erase any of that, or anything that any of the other 1000 kids went through that day and subsequently afterwards from his choices.
I am so sorry for what happened, for you, for your family, for your community.
@@barbarafolk1854 thank you for your kindness. It’s one of those things where it seems like you’re over it until you look back and see how much it changed.
im sorry you had to deal with that.
I am so so sorry you went through that!
Damn. I‘m sorry you guys had to go through that!
He's all about forgiveness, but he's also mad that his attacker didn't get more time as a hate crime... even though his attacker got more prison time than he got for attempting to kill his teachers and school mates. Why wasn't he called out for that hypocrisy?
I have one guess
I'm qwhite sure we all know why
It's the caucacity
We mayo never know…
right? that was my first thought when i heard his attacker’s sentence. it’s both appalling and entirely expected.
Well, he was a minor
For a mental health advocate, he sure wants that evicted man to go to jail rather than get care.
He’s a mental health advocate for himself lol
i was thinking the same thing… so mental healthcare only matters for school shooters???
One Junko Furuta’s rapists (if you don’t know her case, it’s literally one the worst ever) opened a Twitter account and was surprised that people insulted him. He said he deserved a “second chance”. The audacity of these men i swear
That case makes me so so sick. One of those pure evil little shits mother’s even defaced her grave because they were mad she “ruined HIS life” (by being kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by him). The way people across cultures prioritize Male (racial majority) lives above all others is disgusting.
Romano wouldn’t have gotten his “second chance” if he was black.
That story is one of the worst things I’ve ever heard. I’ve never felt so angry than when I read what they did to her.
@@rsiogjtsjiflgtksjfijgsrljhlfwhat did they do?
Would that be one of the few rapists that were actually punished? Because she was raped by 100+ guys, and pretty much none of them ever faced any consequences.
@@arbitarious Google at your own risk- they committed one of the most heinous acts of torture and assault on a teen girl over a period of several days. Because they were underage, they essentially got a slap on the wrist and even had their identities protected by the Japanese government. They've been hidden from the world at large, paired with name changes, because the case incited enough rage around the world for their lives to be at risk. People protested the extreme violence against women in Japan and the light sentencing that resulted.
Junko Furuta's murder was further immortalized in disgusting manga and film adaptations. Her life and death were exploited horribly, and the perpetrators live on, virtually consequence free. They would be in their mid-40s now.
School shooters are motivated by a desire for notoriety/attention...IDK how pivoting into influencing is supposed to show growth and change.
Well, some of them are. I have no idea if he was motivated by that or just pure rage.
Its never just about the rage. It's about the beliefs that your feeings are more important than other people's lives. Turning to an outlet built on self absoption does not demonstrate change.
I think it's a bit reductive to say school shooters writ large are motivated by notoriety/attention, @@redmaple1982. That's what the comment you're responding to is saying. Your response is sorta accusatory in your last two sentences as if their response is mutually exclusive from them. Point being is that there may not be a sole reason for somebody to do a mass shooting. Many mass shooters are pushing a narrative and their notoriety is a vehicle to push an ideology. That ideology is more important than the lives they're stealing. So in a sense it's a sort of self aggrandised martyrdom for a larger ideal. A mass shooting for racism isn't just for notoriety or attention. A sole reason for heinous acts is like pinning jello to the wall.
it can often be a result of bullying, not saying that's any kind of justification but quite often poor mental health in combination with a lot of other things can brew into something sinister, it's not always as black and white as wanting to gain fame and is often an act of revenge
@@CelticFC.1888 Bullying can catalyze it, but you still need the components of narcissism and sadism to come together.
He literally attempted to shoot multiple people… children and teachers and he did hurt someone and got 17 years. But the black man who hurt him got a much longer sentence. He wants so badly to be a victim. He wants everyone to see him has a hero and a saint. He hasn’t changed
I got so fucking mad when he said him bringing a shotgun to school and using it was just a suicide attempt
@@CanIswearinmyhandleI’ve never seen him acknowledge how traumatic it would be for other students and teachers to see him off himself at school. And no I don’t believe he didn’t intend to off anyone else. He did, but the first kid he saw was a friend so he didn’t do it.
@@Chelseabee55 Yeah he shot that teacher with intent to kill, and even if he didn't, getting shot with a shotgun in the tigh could easily kill someone. I think it's called the femoral artery in english, that thing's in there
I mean if someone makes you a victim how are you responsible for what that person did? What your saying is exactly what people in a cult do basically saying YOUR TRAUMA IS YOUR FAULT ! That’s not healthy thinking and it’s also VERY WRONG. If someone stabs you with a knife you aren’t responsible for what they did to you cause your a victim.
This whole situation is literally the proof that racism only work against people of color, specially black people in the case of the US, and never against white people. I'm so annoyed that most people in such country don't have a fkn clue about what racism actually is, and then they throw these lame ass wrong ass "common sense" definitions from google. THAT IS NOT A GOOD DICTIONARY SOURCE. that is absolutely NOT what racism is, the Google definition is so wrong and only serve for people like that dude to claim the reverse racism card. People don't want to study. Ugh also white devil is not never been and never will be a racial slur. It's like white lie, white jealousy, white collar. It's a term. White devil means deceptive devil. One that looks clean, but will trick you. Not our fault some many of the ones doing it fits the term in more then one way.
“You cannot be ‘not like other school shooters’ and claim to have valuable insights into the minds of school shooters in the same breath” is exactly right. Either he’s telling the truth which makes him an anomaly and thus not a useful example of how school shooters think, OR (and most likely) he’s started this platform to paint himself as a victim, or at least someone who can help stop the problem now, when it’s not true. He’s either an former attempted killer and a current liar, or he didn’t mean to hurt anyone, in which case he’s not an authority on school shooters and all he’s doing is re-traumatizing the community he targeted in the first place. Either way, he should not have a platform.
The fact his lawyer sued someone who tried to make an accurate record of the event from another perspective with other students and the victim hes shot makes me feel like he is not fully truthful because why would you want to be an advocate but still silence someone trying to get the truth out???? It's not adding up
That was very well-put, thank you.
"not like other school shooters" definitely sounds like a category
There are people who actively attempt to research the lead up to and mindsets of mass shooters. If we are looking to help people and prevent mass shootings those researchers are the people we should be supporting and listening to.
Not to say there is never a possible place for those who have reformed to reach people who others cannot reach. But those people need to be able to be role models of empathy, accountability, honesty, and hope. People who have successfully come through the quagmire of despair, selfishness, isolation, self hate and projection.
Such as those in Life After Hate and various gang intervention programs.
Not this guy who has rewritten his story either for self gain paired with a lack of remorse or because he cannot bear the truth himself.
I definitely feel like he’s going with the victim angle. He’s giving insight into the underlying issues that made him do the things he did, while ironically being upset at the guy who could be going through the same thing. Instead of taking the time to try and see that, he instead makes himself out to be a victim like he did when he was younger.
I am uninterested in whether school shooters change. They did what they did and left families and communities broken, wounded, and scarred. If they change, that’s for them to do internally and privately. But I don’t care about their emotional, psychological journey. I care about the people they hurt or killed, and the loved ones of their victims who have to pick up the pieces.
Well, that seems a weird thing to say. We should care because that can give us insight into preventing more violence.
I slightly disagree. I think this line of thinking falls too much into the “perfect victim/perfect perpetrator” dichotomy. This doesn’t mean we have to justify a perpetrator’s actions, interact with them if we are uncomfortable doing so, freely platform them, or that we shouldn’t acknowledge that power generally leans in a perpetrator’s direction (I say generally and not always simply to refer to situations where a victim tries to protect themself with retaliatory violence) but I think if we ignore why someone did something and who changes and why, we’re missing important information on how to make our communities stronger. To be clear, I don’t think this applies to Romano’s case because he clearly hasn’t changed aside from no longer actively trying to kill people. Just think this could apply to other situations.
@@peterwallis4288
I don’t think care and prevention are mutually exclusive. Our society thoroughly knows and understands how to prevent violence. that is not the issue, violence serves white supremacy and capitalism. Also it would be more rewarding to learn from the folks who did not choose violence and build systems that reflect what stopped them bc anyone can be violent, and more people choose not to than those that do choose to use violence.
also why should we care. the government and healthcare providers are the folks that need to care. I rather spend my care bucks and energy on people doing the work to choose not to be violent. I don’t mind if he benefits from the results of a healthy society, but I don’t think he or any other predator should be given a platform. I think it is fair to say you lose that opportunity. it might be unfortunate but we all have to live with the impact of trauma whether we dished it out or received it, like a scar or an injury that hurts years later.
That’s why Murica has so many school shooters in the first place, y‘all don’t care.
@@fionatastic0.070I'm not saying he's a good guy, don't get me wrong; I largely agree with you. But, your statement that he "clearly" hasn't changed plays a bit into the false dichotomy which you referenced; a human's ability to detect deception is no better than the flip of a coin, in the majority of cases.
He’s still the entitled teen boy that he was when he premeditated the school shooting. Look at how bitter he is that the homeless man didn’t get sentenced the way he saw fit. He had the audacity to feel like justice wasn’t served to him. He can claim he’s changed, but I believe there are certain jobs and activities shooters should be banned from participating from. Social media = having the ability to privately message children and influence them. BIG NO. His account should be banned.
He also shouldn't be allowed to have power over ppls housing, that's just nuts.
The privilege is OUTSTANDING. He felt entitled to people's lives then and still now.
Absolutely agree. You should be ABLE to benefit the community you harmed, not be given opportunities to control it. And from his rants, he completely has no understanding of what he did.
I am curious though I hear ppl always boast about how we should forgive criminals when they do their time and not put it against people for having a felony yet I see everyone here say he should be bared from certain jobs or even activities (social media) and not be forgiven even if he did his time. I am just curious why the sudden flip from the internet?
Is it because of the crime? Idk it’s just interesting to see how people feel and act about criminals whoare released from prison and trying to renter society. Where the line is drawn between accepting them or not and how much leeway we give them.
Edit: Also I’m not saying he should be forgives or anything like that it’s just interesting to see how we think about them after they served time.
@@RaspBerryPiesit’s because of the way he’s acting like HES the victim as if he didn’t try to take the lives of others. That shows that he didn’t learn anything or change at all.
"you didnt deal with your thoughts, you acted on them!" is the most truthful line out there. He cant tell and advise CHILDREN on what NOT to do when he himself couldn't tell himself how to hold back! crazy
Elite pfp ❤️
ahh thank you! its awesome to know that you also like wonyoung ☺@@KatBlaque
It also contradicts his whole “I didn’t go in with the intent to hurt anyone” bs. Bro if u weren’t intending to unalive anyone how exactly do you know how to deal with thoughts about unaliving other people 🤔 (I have no idea what TH-cam will filter out so I apologize for the stupid euphemism)
So learning from mistakes just does not exist in your reality? AA / NA should not exist, they have never helped anyone. Any psychologist, therapist, doctor, life coach, etc. that has ever had a personal issue and has not for their entire life been in perfect physical and mental health should not advise others. crazy
@@Moszbringing a weapon into a school with the intent to harm others is not just a “mistake” that someone learns from and other people do not in any case have to accept their so called “change”, hope this helps!
It is easy to be forgiving when you weren’t directly affected by a person’s actions. I realized this in college when I went to a presentation by an ex-neo n*zi for an assignment. I remember being confused as to why the minority students were so hostile and distrustful towards this speaker. He was obviously reformed- he had a great story, he was touring the country educating people-what else could he do to convince you he’s reformed?! It wasn’t until I actually got to hear these student’s perspectives the next day in class that it clicked. I was never and probably would never be endangered by neo n*zi beliefs. But these beliefs and actions affected my POC classmates. This man actively promoted the ideas that endangered them and the people they loved. He committed hate crimes. Yet instead of being socially ostracized or imprisoned (like many POC are for much lesser offended), he is applauded for being “reformed” and is making money off his racist past. There are no negative consequences for his actions. And POC students of all ages were being forced to listen to a man who once thought they were worthless sub-humans who should suffer.
The same phenomenon is happening here. There are a fair amount of people who will never be directly affected by a school shooting. They aren’t in school nor do they have a child in school. They have no idea how much anger, fear, trauma and pain school shootings cause. So they see a troubled teenager who “paid his debt to society.” Those who have been in or are directly affected by school shootings, on the other hand, get to watch as this guy gets celebrated and gets paid for committing a crime that changed their lives.
Exactly. Thank you for this comment. It's also why I tend to not care about reformed racists. Objectively happy they see things differently now, but honestly I can't process the reality that they are allowed to be harmful AND make a career while speaking about being formerly harmful and so many of the people who were harmed by their actions quite literally can't get their heads in the front door because of the very things they were promoting. They may not have been solely responsible, but they promoted a very real ism that impacts actual people..... now they're essentially being paid to talk about doing that.
I do not have much sympathy for him. Yes, I understand the feelings of wanting to spread your feelings and hate, like, when you're in a bad mood and take out your anger at someone else, instead of handling it healthily.
However. As someone who goes to a school where we go on lockdown multiple times a year (not drills, real instances of people being killed outside our school), and this year a student was shot right outside our school in a drive by, then hid on campus. This was during lunch, we thought we were going to die.
There is no sympathy for school shooters. They are the reason that I have a trauma therapist. They are the reason why I am afraid of school. They are the reason I don't like being outside during lunch anymore. I am constantly in fear because of these people.
I do not want him to have a platform. I understand his feelings at the time, everyone has those feelings. But not everyone turns to shooting up their school.
I’ve always had one big issue with apologies. So often, I think people apologize to shift the moral burden on to the person being apologized to. Now the victim becomes the bad guy because they can’t be the “bigger person” and forgive. This is the feeling I get with this guy. If I’m not willing to give him a second chance, then I’m the bad guy. It’s the manipulative weaponizatipn of performative contrition. Most public apologies strike me this way, and Romano’s entire social media career is that
Thank you for putting words in what I couldn't articulate.
Yes. He wants to be validated as he is instead of putting in the work to become an actually better person.
This is so true. Also people act like just saying the words is enough. They don’t do anything else. They don’t improve, they don’t try to repair what they did. They just say sorry.
this.this right here, couldn't be more truthful
This 100%
The attacker only has to apologize and suddenly the moral burden shifts. They may not even mean it, but society will then turn to the victim and think, "he's sorry though, why won't you forgive him?!?" as if forgiveness is always required after an apology. Newsflash, an apology should be given regardless of if forgiveness is given after the fact, an apology's purpose is not to gain forgiveness but to acknowledge ones own wrongdoing.
You definitely don't get to be a 'former school shooter' you're juat a school shooter forever. I believe ppl can heal but you still did that
Literally, it's just a descriptive fact 🤷🏼♀️
but he's not doing it anymore
@@amyfalconer1660 @JaseekaRawr
I think of it like being an alcoholic it still defines you even if your not actively doing it anymore. The ppl who survived his violence are still victims of a school shooting not former victims so hes still a school shooter in my book he's just no longer an active shooter but I'm not that language police you can describe things how you want these are just my feelings
@@JaseekaRawr tried to tag you in my reply! But unsure if it worked! So please see other comments for my thoughts if interested
@@JaseekaRawr I don't think that's how the English language works though. Former only works for a previously filled position or role. So former president, former boyfriend. Not former murderer lol. A role or position is something that is ongoing and continous that must be performed regularly. Now, if one was a hitman, which is actually a position or role (like being an accountant or a nurse), you could say they were a former hitman if they no longer kill people for a living.
Forgive me if this comes up later in the video, but Why did swords guy get MORE jail time than a premeditated school shooter
He’s Black
I think it is also worth factoring in that Jon did have a 20+year sentence but only served 17 years so until the gentleman who attacked him is released we cannot truly comment on whether or not the sentencing was unfair because that gentleman may only end up serving 10 years. We also would then need to factor in that Jon was a teen/child so he would generally get a more lenient sentence anyway, whereas his attacker was an adult.
Plus - and we don't know this so we can only make assumptions - but Jon being a teenager would mean that he likely did not have any prior convictions, whereas someone who is a homeless adult may or may not have priors.
These comments don't even begin to factor in race or prejudice against the homeless but even if we were to base this on two people of the same race then the above points would need to be considered when comparing the sentencing each person received.
@@RandomSubjectsI’m all for playing devils advocate especially bc objectivity is cool and all, but you cannot understate how insanely white supremacist school shooters as a concept is. “He was a child, he wasn’t homeless, so race didn’t have to play a factor for him to get less time.” Do you think black children would’ve got HALF the sympathy he got for committing a senseless act of violence against school children? NO WAY, the media would be going up in arms about a rising generation of super predators and being ‘tough on crime’ like they were in the 90s about black teens. Instead, our media conversation about school shooters has been non stop “gun control?” and “mental health awareness!” Probably bc a majority of school shooters are white. And that’s not even getting into how the media never talks about the racism baked into the ideology of a LOT of these school shooters. Like Elliot Rogers wasn’t just sexism and incel, he was also motivated by internalized racism but nobody talks about that!
I get what you’re trying to do, but you missed the mark by leaving out those factors! I agree that ‘to be objective,’ you’d need to compare only similar situations, but you haven’t considered/listed many factors that would be important controls to make the situations similar, like the documented biased media/governmental responses to different races committing crimes. Thus, your comparison would be a biased/flawed experiment. Peer review.
IFKR?!
Guaranteed that race and class are the reasons
@@RandomSubjectsall this and it’s still cause he’s Black
I've worked in several homeless shelters and transitional living programs, mostly with youth. People don't realize how much power counselors in these programs truly have over shelter visitors/residents. There were counselors that were selectively strict with black and brown kids, and if one was in that counselor's cross hairs that could be enough to leave on their own accord so they wouldn't have a shelter eviction on their social service "record". I'm not saying that man was justified in attacking this guy but any counselor worth their salt would know how to disengage that man from services in a way that was safe, didn't effect his benefits, and didn't result into an escalation. It's basic training.
Accusing someone of racism in a homeless shelter is the most privileged thing one could possibly do. You can see the man is being aggressive, and rather than leave it to the black workers who likely could’ve calmed him down, you, a white man, take it upon yourself to not de-escalate the situation, but to accuse him of racism while he had a sword in his hand? He knew dang well he wasn’t doing anything but stroking his own ego. He’s a narcissist who will go out of his way to boost himself and make himself feel better
Worked in homeless shelters as well and this is so true
@@Algae555 stop calling everyone a narcissit
@@DominantBtch ok maybe this clinical term is used too often and incorrectly like gaslighting is now a days. But the man most certainly at least has narcissistic tendencies. In common non clinical terms I would say he has main character syndrome. I don't think you can be a school shooter without that mindset nor escalate the incident in the homeless shelter while thinking you are deescalating.
If he was alone the story would have made more sense. When he said a bunch of black coworkers were also trying to get the guy to stop. My first thought was "well why did you not remove yourself and leave it to them if the guy clearly racist and the presence of a white person was what was agitating him.?" My second charitable thought was "oh he must have attacked you while you were removing yourself from the situation". But no...
I actually wondered if the black coworkers were even there or just made up so he can go "Only I was attacked, therefore, racism." Because if they were there he should not have been. You don't talk down a Nazi by having a Jewish person tell them they are being unreasonable when blond people are available.
@@DominantBtchIf you walk into a school and decide to try to kill people... you are a narcissist. There's no other way to describe the selfishness and willingness to traumatize others for your own pleasure.
There's also just no way for him to actually come off as trying to genuinely help the cause, everything he does will always feel like he's trying to gain notoriety or profit off of the horrible crime he committed. Instead of making HIS voice heard, why doesn't he try to amplify the voices of survivors or just do the work quietly? This man never stopped ego tripping from the moment he picked up the weapon.
💯
Bingo.
Contrast this guy with assorted ex-white-supremacists who've devoted themselves to talking about their experiences so that people can learn from them, actively campaigning and advocating for racial justice, and working to de-radicalize and inoculate at-risk youths and others against racist ideologies and movements. The truly-effective ones don't just make it about themselves and their personal story, and actively work to undo the harm they've caused to the world.
Yeah. I respect ex criminals that dedicate a lot of their time to prevent people like them from making the same mistakes. I think that has value.
But when you're putting it on TikTok, you're not really reaching THAT crowd unless you're intentionally problematic enough to put yourself in their algorithms lol. So let's see it for what it is, the TikTok stuff is for his own need for validation from regular people, not to do the work.
@dinosaysrawr the ex-white supremacists who get paid to talk about how much they used to hate everybody are just the same as this guy. They're getting paid off that evil stuff they did while getting a pat on the back for changing their ways... why?
I'm a half Chinese trans man, I'm sick of the way white ''edgy'' teenagers are always given excuses for the things they say and do. I despise how, as minorities, we're just expected to take it from white people who ''don't know better''. We're expected to show endless compassion to white people who cause us harm because of who we are.
Same, mixed indigenous person. I'm so tired of qallunaat who treat me as their personal punching bag and can get away with the most heinous shit. But me not forgiving my abusive qallunaat grandfather makes me the villain and stuck up for not wanting to be the "bigger" person?
Exactly ! As a north African trans woman I'm so fucking tired of having to justify my humanity to a racist system that dehumanized me at birth, I don't want to have to justify my personhood to racists because by doing so am I not sort of agreeing with them ? If I debate my humanity I'm implying that it is indeed something debatable. Meanwhile white men can do the most heinous shit over and over again and the sanctity of their souls remains sacred.
@@S3lkie-Gutzwhat dies race have to do with your grandfather?! You're equating oranges and tangerines. He's given a pass and you're encouraged to forgive because you're related not because he's indigenous.
exactly. my classmates say slurs and make racist “jokes” all the goddamn time, and i (black trans masc) say smth about it and then suddenly its “oh they didnt know any better” and “oh youre just being sensitive, theyre just kidding” as if saying that black people are inferior and being trans is a mental illness is a joke and not something people say, actually mean, and act on. and the thing is that most of the time, its cis white guys i see saying that crap. there is absolutely a pattern.
@@6Shots_ofEspresso I knew someone who was mixed race (half white, half Jamaican), and she'd have to hear the racist bile spewed by cis white boys in her class but would be seen as an angry black woman if she ever spoke up about these views. She only turned 18 in May, so she's only just an adult.
Teachers defended the guys by saying they were autistic and didn't necessarily realise they were being racist. I'm autistic and everyone should know that autism doesn't excuse someone being a bigot. This sort of crap took place in her A Level politics class (where she was one of the only non-white students), and it makes me so angry to think she had to deal with this stuff from both her peers and teachers.
I'm sick of people defending the behaviour of white boys/young men, because the words they use aren't jokes.
I think that father brought up an excellent point. I didn’t have a “conventionally” traumatic childhood, but I definitely experienced significant mental isolation which affected my emotional development and meant I had pretty severe anger issues well into my mid teens. I also have NPD, which doesn’t typically make people violent but definitely didn’t help with my already significant struggles with anger management. I had to spend hours alone growing up to mediate my anger levels and avoid lashing out at people, and I relate heavily to the experience of feeling isolated and wanting to be validated through inflicting your pain on others. But I never once actively planned to harm anyone. I really appreciate that we’re becoming more open about mental illness, but it should also be made incredibly clear that mental illness is NEVER an excuse for hurting people. While this guy never says it outright, it definitely feels like a lot of his videos are implying that what he did isn’t his fault because of his mental illness, and that sickens me to my core. Mental illness or not, he deserves to be accountable and he shouldn’t be able to avoid the consequences of the crime he willingly committed.
I agree. I am deeply ashamed of this as an adult, but I had issues (not diagnosed) as a kid. I would snap out of anger and choke other children well into my teenage years. It was so violent and unpredictable, and I know the uglyness inside of me wanted me to make the other children pay with pain for whatever it is my brain registered as hurting my ego/pride. I was bullied as a kid, but I was friends with other kids who had worse stories of bullying than me, and I can acknowledge that none of them had the violent outbursts I did. And above all, I can acknowledge that the only time I planned on going to school and doing something, was for me to come to the loneliest restroom and unalive myself alone, without letter, in a quiet way, and hope it didn't look too bad for who found me much after. I am glad I never did it. I am ashamed I hurt everyone who I hurt. Some kids deal with ugly and dangerous things inside their heads, I was one of them, and counselors around me made it worse, and my parents made it worse, and sometimes nobody knows how to fix the situation (much less without a diagnosis). But in my personal experience and from the multiple friends I've had who had gone through much much darker stuff than me, it is rare for a 16 year old to go all out. All I have to offer is my personal anecdote to people I know one-on-one, and this comment section I guess, to remind people that sometimes kids have deep uglyness inside that can be dangerous and the adults around don't know what to do, so don't be complacent and assume it's being taken care of, or that the kid would never; even if the kid doesn't go to the level of a school unaliving, they can still cause deep pain and hurt around them that should be dealt with. On he other hand, please don't assume that just because somebody has a mental illness or neurodiversity, they'll be dangerous to society, an incredible amount of people have those, and the vast majority of them can coexist peacefully in society. Be kind, but don't be complacent and naive.
Agreed. I grew up with and still deal with violent mood swings, anger issues, complex trauma, and a bunch of other mental health issues. I have C-PTSD, BPD, and psychosis. Even when I'm triggered and actively hate everyone around me, I always try my best to ground myself and I've never actively planned to hurt people. More often than not, I'm vulnerable to violence than I am the perpetrator of it. Even then, mental health should be an explanation for what you do, not an excuse.
As a teenager with mental health issues, who has been suicidal and attempted to take my own life multiple times, the fact that this man puts me in the same category as himself is so fucking offensive
as a teenager with mental health issues who is actively suicidal i dont think myself any better or worthier than anyone else with mental health issues because that makes you a shill to ableism
Watch fox news find a way to make him a victim 🙄
B-but he was just a little sad boy with sad boy issues 😢 /s
Somehow, this was the fault of leftism.
Your right i forgot * instert sad backstory while showing slowly fading pictures of him* /s
You mean faux news I'd bet faux news supports Tim who locked a foreign adopted boy In a box then 1 week later he wanted to try get out of jail until his sentence even shaking luckily the judge refused and sent him back to jail
he-he was a lonely student with no friends and his parents were abusive waaaa waa waa 💀
The more I listened to his "gentle parent" voice, the more i could hear the oiliness behind it. I can see how vulnerable teens and kids could be drawn to him. And hos influence on them is terrifying.
But it won't be his fault. He's trying to help. He's a part of the solution. He's supported by schools and cops. He's reformed.
What's to suggest he hasn't reformed, though?
@@chickensalad3535 The fact that he's openly trying to get fame shows that he hasn't changed
@@chickensalad3535 ew stop defending him weirdo
I think he found a new thing that made him feel fulfilled. still being seen, but in a positive and sympathetic light. still using people to be seen a certain way or just to be seen at all. i don’t think he’s changed at all.
is that wrong?
@@amyfalconer1660in his case, yes. he had to lie and twist words to get people on his side, and even then, most sensible people still realize he’s full of bs
Regardless of whether or not John antagonized that man from the shelter to attack him. To advocate that he should be charged with a hate crime for saying “white devil” is so pathetic, selfish and disgusting.
Yeah, I agree. Would anyone ever loose sleep for being called "white devil"? Maybe for someone who is interested in using their race as an excuse to be seen as a victim of racism? 🤷♀️
…the fuck?
Wait what?
I don't even think the man was wrong in calling him that, this dude is evil.
but he physically attacked him 😭
No amount of personal redemption of his can change hearing my cousin's oldest afraid that his sisters or he would die in school, and he was sad he was going to highschool and couldn't be with them if there was an attack. This guy and others like him have made this so common place that I hear from babies how to protect yourself from gunfire. When I heard he had a social media following it just felt like a serial killer being romanticized. It's gross.
OMG when i saw him on the philip defranco show and everyone was praising him in the comments and shaming the ppl who criticized him made me feel like i was living in the matrix 💀
Doesn’t surprise me
For real omfggg. Frustrating 🙁
@@KatBlaque It was so irresponsible of him to not do proper research before platforming such people.
@@ryanpriye1402he’s spread lies about me in the past. He’s not a great guy and mostly cares about views
i was fighting for my life in that comments section. 😭
As a canadian, i am constantly dumbfounded if the lack of gun control in America. Simply crossing the border makes me nervous. Theres kids killing kids, unregulated and easily contained weapons. Literally the only first world country who has this problem. Nobody should fear getting an education. My heart breaks for yall.
It's the wild west out here. So much funding needs to be going into things combating these issues but nah, we'd rather put it everywhere else.
@uniquenewyork3325 come on now that makes too much sense
There is no country on this planet that has mass shootings in the world like USA! Maybe war torn countries.. of which these wars are funded heavily by the USA government
The issue isn’t the guns so much as the culture, one born of brutal white supremacist systems and ways of thinking and being.
Also, we have had gun control but it is largely too late to contain the issue as much as certain European countries have, and there’s the fact that nearly, if not every, major piece of gun legislation has specifically targeted Black people.
The oft-quoted joke that major gun control such as assault rifle bans would be introduced in the US if Black people bought them at high enough rates really isn’t one.
One of the issues rarely metioned (and I'm so glad you're addressing it) is if I were a parent and I found out that a former school shooter was approved by the school to talk to my child and a full school of children...
But you know...a drag queen is the REAL danger
Like I'm so disgusted that we as the queer community LGBTQ+ are seen as such sick p3do criminal deviants who are deceptive
& here we are...a man like this, a murd3rer was allowed to be in a school AGAIN with kids. Like, it's not just him, the schools that allowed him in a school are villains too.
But you know an openly gay teacher, that's the REAL danger to the kids...
But not men like this guy....
This video took me on a trip, I began it being a bit more sympathetic to Ramano, but the videos really changed my attitude. I will also add that I as someone studying psych, I think that it his perspective would be super valuable for a clinical case study on school shooters, but starting a tiktok and public speaking business isn't "advancing the understanding of school shooters" in fact, such anecdotal experiences being generalized to all school shooters in my opinion can absolutely be seen as misinformation. I am also EXTRAORDINARILY critical of police departments choosing to listen to a speech by this guy over an actual professional who studies school shooters. A lot of these researchers exist and so I doubt they were somehow all too busy to give a presentation. You would hope that with billion dollar police budgets they would be able to meet researchers' presentation fees. If not, perhaps selling off a few military grade artillery tanks would let them afford an actual expert.
Ah, but if they hired an expert to come and talk then they'd likely get told all about the toxic cultures of masculinity and white supremacy that often lead to these individuals becoming violent in such a public way, and the gun control issues that make it far too easy for them to get access to their weapon of choice.
Bringing him in doubtless means that they instead get a lecture about being kind and understanding to creepy assholes because they only "act out" due to lonliness and depression (but that the solution to that depression is for their potential victims to be nice to them rather than any real support or treatment bring provided).
The latter suits their own narrative and culture far better.
The only value would be in pointing out the delusions he's still suffering from and how he says and maybe even believes that's he's moved past the person he was and dealt with the issues that led to the shooting but clearly has not actually done so.
I'm in psych too and the first thing I thought was if he wanted to be helpful, he should've just done an interview or research for science, instead of trying to give his 'nuggets of wisdom' to tiktok
25 years is crazy for someone who wasn’t even the school shooter and was obviously not of sane mind. It would make sense to give him time. But 25 years is not right. It saddens me that only 17 years was given to a school shooter who tried to hurt more than one person, and 25 years was given to a probably mentally ill homeless black man. I’m not saying that the homeless guy didn’t deserve punishment, but something isn’t adding up.
Exactly
The conversation about mental health being a mitigating factor is only really applied to white people. When actually the mental health of black men in particular is ignored. It’s never really applied. People don’t show sympathy for mentally ill black or homeless people. Look at George Floyd. He was murdered and yet instead of people talking about his mental health and addiction sympathetically, they said that he deserved to die because he resisted or took drugs. It’s so fucking gross.
I'm a white man. I was suicidal when I was young. My whole childhood, just about. When I was 18 I called my mother in tears becsuse the thought of what suicide would do to her, and my Father, hurt so much that I couldn't bear the thoughts I was having. I asked for help to save other people, not to save myself. Being hurt doesn't damage your empathy and depression doesn't make you revel in the suffering of others.
Don't let anyone tell you "mental health" is why school shootings happen. White supremacy and a sociopathic obsession with power, authority, and respect are the root cause. The depressed, the anxious, and the traumatized feel *more* deeply for others. School shooters feel less than nothing for others.
Don't let them lie to you.
this this THIS. so eloquently put, my friend.
So true!!!
Absolutely. What he experienced is not depression, just senseless anger and hate.
Thank you
YESSSS this exactly! Depression is INward, not outward! It does not make one more violent except to one’s SELF. This is a harmful stereotype of the dangerous “crazy” person. No, they are not dangerous. They are like 20x more likely to BE harmed.
Everyone is talking about how Jon lied and is a hypocrite and all that- But lowkey, I am still so mentally stuck on the fact the guy attacked him had two swords... Where did they come from?! Does he just carry swords?! I can't move past this!! It's the most unimportant part, but my autistic brain is in shambles right now trying to figure out why he had SWORDS?! TWO OF THEM?! 😭😭😭
Lol I also thought of this
"We don't need to see you in order for you to change"
Straight up facts. I had an emotionally manipulative girlfriend/best friend during high school. It was a really unhealthy, codependent relationship, and she crippled my mental health, on top of overstepping some of my boundaries. She cut me off the day of graduation-- which was honestly a good thing, because I didn't have the self-awareness that I needed to stop seeing her at the time. Two years later, right before I'm about to take a test, I get rapid fire texts from her that she's sorry and wants to get back together. After two years of no contact.
I ignored her, blocked her, and she has been trying to contact me on various social media ever since. I just keep blocking her.
I know that she hasn't changed at all, because if she actually did change, she would have acknowledged exactly what she did wrong, and accepted the fact that some relationships cannot be repaired. You f*ck up, you learn, you move on. If she really changed, she would stop trying to contact me.
I myself even haven't been the best person to certain people from my life back then. I had a crush in high school that I was way too obsessive about, and was honestly a bit creepy to him. I don't go stalking his social media, or try to call or text him. If I ran into him in my hometown, I kinda just let him have his space and didn't approach him. I wouldn't blame him for never wanting to see me again. I don't feel the need to prove to him that I've changed, because I know that I've changed, and that's enough for me.
Same, she sent me countless letters and gifts to try and get me back.
@@clairerogers2411 Obsessive people never change.
Okay lol.
@@clairerogers2411Again okay lol.
@@jjnix95Yeah, lol..........
I KNEW as soon as I heard that audio clip something wasnt right. I spent enough time working and volunteering in shelters to recognize the power dynamics. You would be surprised at some of the mean and nasty things folks who work at shelters get away with. I will probably never do that kind of work with a non-profit again. Mutual aid, sure. But never with a non-profit.
I believe it we use to get assistance from shelters and they look and talk down to all of us we stopped going. A lot of people get off on the power they have over people in defenseless situations
I used to work with kids and we had two events where two men were shooting their guns in the street and getting into armed standoffs. It was terrifying. I thought I was going to die and the worst thing is that the kids understood what was happening.
When I was in high school there were people who came to talk about the dangers or drugs and drunk driving and they could show the consequences on their bodies. They were not role models. I don't think he should be doing speaking engagements at all. We know a lot about mass shooters I don't think we need to hear from the one who is free because of a happy accident.
You know, people who genuinely feel remorse and want to reform themselves and their way of thinking generally are too busy actually doing the work and don't exactly want to broadcast their shame to the world. Just saying.
And what would "doing the work" look like to you?
And they don’t lie about what they did.
And they are actually conscientious about the harm that their mere presence on a public platform will be triggering and blatantly harmful to a lot of people - that should be enough for someone with actual remorse to keep any good work they want to do much less public.
@@niknikky donating to public schools, anti bullying campaigns, and anti shooting campaigns. Volunteering and living in a completely different town. Doing anything except trying desperately to be seen and 'understood' by people online. Your actions should speak louder than your words when you commit atrocities like this.
I work as a paraeducator in an elementary school...I hate this...we just went through our Critical Incident Training and our first "incident' drill...this individual needs to be de-platformed...he is glorifying himself and being glorified...and his excuse is that he wasn't "good" at school shootings?
What if you just didn't watch things that made you angry?
@@amyfalconer1660Did she say she was angry? She said she hates what Jon is doing and rightfully so. As she should.
@@LethalLemonLime She calls for him to be "Deplatformed" which means taking away other people's rights to information due to personal disgust.
All he is doing is trying to be the person he wanted to be in high school - popular and superior. He continuously seeks it. He sought it as a means to his death. That power will be his life long desire - and these are the top of people who isn't mentally unstable. These are the kind of people who are selfish and evil enough to harm others for selfish gain. Unlike the guy who might've been mentally triggered and went off on dude, shooter boy actively goes after people who has nothing to do with his personal problems. He needs to be separated from society forever.
16:55 -- This clip of Jon Romano talking into the camera exhibits BIG manipulative gaslighty Walter White kinda energy lol. I know this exact tone of voice, this exact fake-crying thing, this exact speech pattern from the abusers in my life. Sometimes when you've been through that your whole life, you can smell the insincerity from miles away.
Honestly maybe this is coming from the wrong place as a white person myself but i always roll my eyes hearing a white person be like "oh i suffered racism" because it literally always feels like theyre using that language antagonistically. Like they were just waiting for the moment they could flip the script and use words against magrinalized people without understanding them. Plus then they get to internally go "oh people don't think it was that? See? They hate me for being white they are the bad guys like i thought!" It just kind of... Somehow always wraps around to them being racist themselves
one of the main problems with social media i have felt is that people think they HAVE to be brands or celebrities but now i'm realizing it's also that they think they have a right to be
Yup. This is further evidenced by the fact that a lot of Romano’s supporters will belligerently respond to anyone questioning whether he should have such a large platform by saying “SO YOU JUST DON’T WANT HIM TO EXIST?!” as if someone not being allowed to garner widespread fame and make money off of the trauma they’ve inflicted is the same as them “not being allowed to exist” 🤦🏻♀️🫠
@@liesbeneathoureyes great point!
No. Just no.
Don't force yourself into spaces where your victims could encounter you unwillingly.
@17:00 That's not an apology. That's a monster "explaining" why they "were" a monster and why they "deserve" to be accepted as an ordinary human now.
The way our society makes it difficult for returning citizens (formerly incarcerated people) to get hired for jobs makes social media influencing very attractive. There are low barriers to entry-no background checks and no boxes to check indicating you are a former felon. A story, a mic, and people ready to be followers (ignorant or not), and you’re in business.
That's actually a very interesting thought.
And i'll be honest, i probably would watch a blog titled "Just Got Out of Prison for Manslaughter | Get Ready With Me"
So what's your point here?
When put through that light him taking up social media seems more defensible but either way he’s still exploitative and narcissistic
@@assassin8636 maybe he wouldn’t even have gotten on the Internet and had a platform negatively influencing people if he had his basic needs covered. Poverty is often a great motivator for bad behavior. In fact I would say that this guy has gotten a decent amount of blow back from this channel. Well deserved blow back by the way. And he might not even be doing this if he didn’t feel he needed the money. Although he also could just be vain to the point where he is more vain than lazy I haven’t known of the person long enough to know which one though either way it’s bad
First, this guy is like all the other people who got in their own head and convinced themselves "No, it's not really my fault. My mental health made me do this" when most people manage to live with mental health problems without hurting or traumatizing people. Second, the bob looks really cute on Kat >.
That's really not true at all.
Yep. I've got a whole basket of mental health problems and I've never hurt anyone. People need to stop blaming mental health, it just victimizes innocent people and dissuades them from seeking help for fear of judgement.
@@chickensalad3535 ?
@@chickensalad3535A lot of kids are mentally ill. Not a lot of kids go to school strapped, ready to kill. Hush.
Ya know I believe in rehabilitation and restorative justice for everyone. Even school shooters as absurd as that may sound. I would love to live in a world where the worst ppl find a way to grow and change and become better. HOWEVER, if you do some messed up unforgivable stuff, I think it's ok for the internet to collectively say "no thanks, could you please go away" haha. You can hold space for rehabilitation and also not fuck with ppl all the way (or at all 😂). We can hold that space for this man and also hey let's not give this guy a platform or present him as an authority. And if you've truly grown and changed you'd understand that.
Exactly this
exactly! restorative justice requires the consent + participation of all parties.
you can't force it on people who don't want it. 💁🏾♀
I came to say something like this, because 💯 if he’s truly changed, he would have a deeper understanding of how he continues to be part of the problem.
Notice how all the restorative justice people are nowhere to be seen when a woman is incarcerated for killing her abuser....but they always emerge when people feel uncomfortable around a violent man.
@@redmaple1982 uh yeah that’s because nobody talking about restorative justice believes there needs to be a replacement for jail for those circumstances. There’s a reason the discussion is focused on people who do harm done unto others such as abuse, r*pe, etc, and not self defence.
SCHOOLS LET HIM ON CAMPUS TO TALK ABOUT IT??? WTF???
Everyday I’m more grateful to myself for never signing up for TikTok.
Tik tok is actually way better than you think. Its a great place for feminism and left thought. The algorithm is way better than this shit, its the new twitter in terms of reach and political impact.
Same man.
Honestly, same
TikTok’s great if you train your algorithm to stuff you like! There’s so many sides on TikTok, I’d say don’t knock it till you try it
Same. Not interested.
what's wild to me is when he showed the guy "saying he attacked him for racist reasons" but then shows the guy not saying that lmao
Yeah he shows him saying that he said he was racist lol
Just fuel for fox news to make him the victim and demonize black people. White devil is right.
Crazy how John got 22 years for actually harming someone, premeditated murder, bringing an illegally obtained firearm on school grounds with intent to cause mass casualty, and he got 22 years and got out in 17 years. But the black man who attacked him gets 25 years. And John wants him to do longer time……….. veryyyyy interesting
Because john was only 16 at the time
I'm at 2:07. I get you Kat, I'm a gen Z, a 18 years old one and I technically should understand and fall into the TikTok category, but I just can't do that to myself mentally. I just see young girls repeating the pattern of pro ana social media there, the sexist teenage boys, people making fun of everything and everyone to the point where recording people in public is very normal. Maybe I'm a little harsh on this, but it's totally wild west there imo!
YT's not much better, Eugenia Cooney is literally a dancing skeleton and she's gonna die while streaming. 😰
@@annjepsen1621 While that's true, I feel like most people agree on the fact that she shouldn't have a platform and I just don't see as much diet culture, pro ana content on youtube, but it may be just personal bias. Also while Eugenia's activity on the platform is dangerous, she's an adult, I think she's around 30. So I assume she's been there to experience the tumblrification of eating disorders. I don't condemn TikTok as a whole, I just can't really watch all this romantization of mental illness etc. all over again. Especially knowing, that TikTok is really heavy on their teenage audience.
I'm on tiktok and I never see any of this stuff unless its someone stitching the video in complete shock and bewilderment
there is no reason to use tiktok at all. anything of worth that is posted there will be reposted to other apps.
Some of the students he went to school with and traumatised will not be parents sending their children to school in the neighbourhood he still lives in. I cannot imagine what they are going through knowing their monster is out in the community.
The woman at the end who says the right way for him to heal the hurt he's done is to work privately is 100% right. I do believe people can change and make amends, but it sure doesn't look like he has!
I hadn't heard that additional context about the incident where he was assaulted by that homeless man until now.. Jesus. I think you really did sum it up best in this video, and putting it all together like that, how after everything he's done, he's maneuvered himself into a position of power where he can ruin the lives of marginalized people so easily.. It literally made me grimace and shiver. And on top of that position of power, he has this platform (Which obviously comes with INNUMERABLE other problems, as was stated in the video) that's allowing him to warp this incident into another "but what about racism against white people? 😔" story for conservatives to wave around and water down discussions about violence affecting people of color. Disgusting.
if he really changed he wouldn’t shout it from the rooftops. true change comes when you realise that others’ perception of you has no bearing on your ability to grow. you have to change for yourself, not others, otherwise you haven’t really changed.
absolutely insane that the man who attacked him got more prison time than the school shooter
Ita not called "insane", it's called "racism". It's the proof his statement on reverse racism, better yet, universal racism is pure bullsh!t in the real world. That Google definition is absolutely ridiculous. That's not what racism is and he knows is but he is still claiming ALM and victim playing like the school shooter he is.
True crime as entertainment is disgusting and this is another example of why. The fact anyone sees it as normal to platform him is a nasty symptom of commodified true crime. What a shame
The man served his time. I don't think the man is necessarily being honest about his motives, but if I believe felons who've served their time should regain their voting rights, I'm not going to turn and say an ex-convict shouldn't have the same First Amendment rights as anyone else.
I'd never heard of this man before watching this video. If TikTok wants to ban him, that's their right, but no one who doesn't want to see him is being forced to watch his videos.
@@VonWenki think it's more that he doesn't seem truly reformed than people saying there CAN'T be reform. i mean he's still lying about his crimes. how can you call him reformed when he won't even take accountability for what he did, yk?
His victims need to live the rest of their lives with the trauma he caused them, but he thinks that just because he got a second chance at freedom he is owed to live it like he never did anything. No. He ALSO needs to live the rest of his life with the crime he committed. He should be thankful every day that someone let him out of jail and he should use this gratitute to be fucking quiet and leave that community alone.
My ex used to tell me that they hurt me because they were masochistic and the only person they loved more than themselves was me, so hurting me was to hurt themself. They didn't stop even after I kept pointing out how wrong that was (wrong as in incorrect & as in inappropriate), so I eventually got them to stop telling me that, because they knew that I knew that it was BS. Bryan going into his school to "hurt himself" has that same slimy icky feeling to it.
the way he makes jokes about it....interesting
... the more i live the less I understand
I can understand people being curious and watching his videos to see wtf is going on with this weirdo, but there are people who have SUBBED/FOLLOWED him. But we can't really be surprised in this day and age. I don't even know if we can be further disappointed in society than we already are....
That father had it ABSOlutely right when he said that lots of people have messed up lives and childhood trauma and intrusive thoughts but what separates the rest of us from school shooters is that MOST people have even a modicum of restraint, logic and empathy even at 16, most people do not act on these thoughts
This is one of the many problems with social media. It gives a platform to people who should not have one at all.
As Kat said, his crime is his brand and he definitely hasn't healed.
John needs therapy to work on himself and if he wants to atone for his crime he can volunteer or work in different communities without posting about it.
his desire to be tik tok famous is very telling of his character and i think you’re right about how it reeks of the same mentality that shooters have to want to be known.
This attempted murderer (I hope) wanted fame and attention for killing people and now he is using that attempt to get fame and attention. He doesn't deserve a platform. Very terrible precedent for TikTok.
"selfish" is probaby the best word to describe Jon Romano's behavior on TikTok. If you really want to atone for hurting so many people, keep a very low profile for all the reasons Kat mentioned.
I also wonder how prison may have affected his worldview. Ive read that prison can further radicalize violent racists.
A friend of mine survived a work place shooting, she got hit with some of the shot gun bbs or whatever is in it, it’s still in her arm. She has ptsd everytime someone acted violent when getting fired or walked out. She was friends with the man who shot up the place, she has fond memories of him but she can’t think of anything about it with out remembering the fear and remembering all the blood everywhere
I’m all for people growing, changing, and owning up to their horrible actions, but I have no obligation to be a part of that process
I don’t think many people are going to follow his TikTok. Dude will be obscure in a week
the fact that someone like him is allowed to hold a large tiktok platform while black, brown and/or queer creators always have their content suppressed and are susceptible to mass hate reports, which often ends in account termination? foul.
17:43 "I also didn't want to be forgotten, I wanted people to see me." It seems that he hasn't changed in the slightest in regards to this and him starting a tiktok tells me all I need to know. He's not remorseful at all and even after nearly 2 decades later, he's still seeking that attention. The ABSOLUTE audacity of it all is astounding.
He’s lying about what he wanted to do when he walked into that school. Maybe he’s lying to himself as well, it would be understandable to want to downplay something so horrendous, but it’s even in the way he says “I didn’t want to die alone… I wanted people to see me.” Someone who can’t be bothered to educate himself on racial issues, and who can’t understand why victims of people like him may not want to be around him, should NOT be in a position of power around vulnerable people (including folks at the shelters where he is working, and folks getting exposed to his tik toks.)
If you lie about what you did, then that shows you haven’t truly repented and don’t truly have remorse and I don’t see how you can expect forgiveness in that situation. Even for people who really are remorseful should understand if people don’t want to forgive them. This person has no business acting in any sort of counseling capacity.
The things that people get away with on tiktok truely baffle me. This, the kia/Hyundai car theft challenge and "Gnome hunting" truly just make me feel like we're going backwards.
I’m scared to ask what “Gnome hunting” is.
@@sillylittlejenn it's antisemitism disguised as cryptid hunting. :/ really effed up.
@@sillylittlejenn Its an antisemitic thing. Know that if someone uses that phrase around, to be careful of that person. Its a big red flag.
If you won't take full accountability for your actions, you don't get to claim redemption. And if you are doing it for public praise, that's terrible
I don't understand why people who did terrible things get way more praise when they change and acting differently, than people who never did anything awful at the first place
I don’t believe a word John Romano says because in his most candid moments, the moments when he doesn’t get to narrate the story and craft his image, he chooses to cause the greatest damage possible. He hates his school principals? He’s going to shoot them and anyone he sees on the way. A black man at the shelter he volunteers for acts up somehow? He strips the man of the only shelter he has. Any person with an actual ounce of sympathy wouldn’t even think of doing either of these things.
He’s had 17 years to sit and think of how he was gonna rephrase his story.
If a yt person says they’re the victim of a hate crime you know they’re lying. 😐 cuz prejudice is a preconceived opinion not based in reason or actual experience. Most of what people think about them is based on our ACTUAL EXPERIENCES & REALITY of what they have done & still do. They documented all of it & happily tell us of their atrocities but think we shouldn’t be wary of them? 🙃 insanity.
Not everyone knows every TH-camr. You can be a YT content creator and still be treated poorly largely due to your race.
It might be less common, but I wouldn't hardline that it's impossible.
Thank you so much for talking about this !! I’m incredibly shocked and disturbed by this man glorying his crime so publicly as a free man. You’re right about him, the man is still his teenage self and is clearly still in that violent mindset. He acted on his actions, he’s not helping no one !!
No one is a bigger believer in the power of forgiveness and redemption than me. With that said, some people absolutely weaponize the empathy of others. They perform actions to show remorse, but if you scratch the surface just a little deeper, you can see that the person has no remorse for the hurt they caused. Why come online and risk the chance of re-traumatizing the individuals who he attacked?
the caucasity. this story was wild from start to finish.
While I‘m a teacher, I live and work in Switzerland and can thus but imagine what being at school feels like in the US.
I‘m sorry you guys have/had to go through this.
As someone with depression who was in high school when Columbine happened, it sickens me that he's blaming what he did on mental illness while pretending to be a mental health advocate. People with mental illnesses are much more likely to be the victims of crime, not the perpetrators, because it's easier to isolate and take advantage of you. Mental illness only got more stigmatized in the era of mass shootings. When I went through a mental health crisis in high school, they tried desperately to get rid of me by sending me to a special needs school, where I would have to start over and be separated from the few friends I had. They saw me as a liability, not a human being. As a result, I internalized this narrative and became terrified, not that I would be shot in school, but that I'd become the next shooter myself. This is how bullying victims end up being punished more than the bullies, and how society justifies taking the rights away from people with mental illnesses "for your own good."
I'm younger, but same. When many people find out I have mental illnesses one of the most common first questions I get is if I'm violent, even if they only know I have anxiety. The stigma is insane. Even doctors play into this. You're having symptoms that are clearly a physical health problem but you also have depression? Whelp, better up the antidepressants and start working out.
You stated a concern of mine, that existed in the back of my mind but I couldn't quite articulate until now.
And that is these shooters often inspire one another. Someone looking at this man and the platform he has and seeking to emulate it? A very real possibility.
One of these shooters in the past few years even streamed on Twitch. Attention is definitely a part of it and that's what people miss.
And a part of realising you've done something wrong? Is knowing you are not owed forgiveness. That someone has a right to feel negatively about your wrongdoing. I hate people are judged for essentially having boundaries and wanting their peace.
I had the exact same thought about a copycat who seeks Jon’s sort of clout by brining a gun to school & feigning regret claiming that they “didn’t come there to kill” & trying to pivot their actions into “inspiring penitent criminal”.
Hell, worst case: someone could be inspired to go even further than Jon & kill all the people they want at their school & comfortably believe they can pull a Romano & just fake some regret to build an audience of sympathizers duped into thinking they’ve grown into a saint despite the trail of bodies that paved their road to social media stardom. At best this entire project by Romano is grossly short-sighted & oblivious to the reality & impact of the crime he committed which would be wild despite having nearly two decades of time for self-reflection & consideration to give his victims
insane video title and content of this video aside, kat’s looking really good lately-clear skin, gorgeous makeup, like c’mon now
Honestly considering how open he is about his school shooter status, i am surprised that he thinks this is a hate crime and not maybe someone reacting to the fact that he is a school shooter
Wow... he really centers himself in his poor-16-year-old-me-who-almost-killed-several-people story...
Came across his TikTok before and remember how jarring it felt but I’ve just realised how odd it is that someone with his record is permitted to work with vulnerable people in the first place.
This whole time, I was thinking about how he traumatized people. No one died, and the person that got hurt probably made a near full recovery, but not only his peers at the time, but the adults that worked at his school must have been horrified, petrified, and again, traumatized to step foot into their jobs and their ticket to future success. Can you imagine being afraid to further your education, or, if you're a teacher, being afraid to provide for your family because some kid couldn't reel in his emotions? Trauma isn't something that the people around him that day chose, but to be infamous? This John character deff chose that.
not ashamed to admit I clicked the thumbnail exclusively because of how gorgeous your hair looked in it
He claims he's such an advocate for mental health, but conveniently doesn't mention the fact that the guy who attacked him was a mentally unstable homeless man. He claimed that the guy didn't know about his past, but this is the same community where he committed mass violence, I feel like most people around him would probably be aware of that fact. Like, that's not something people just forget about. Watching his statement about the supposed hate crime against him, it just felt off the entire time. A guy who was genuinely remorseful of his own acts of violence, probably wouldn't be so quick to point fingers at other violent, mentally ill people, glass houses and all that.
I'm really sick of all these dudes causing so much trauma and then just getting a pass.
10:57 “I’ve always believed that people can change, but I don’t believe that we need to be required to participate or observe that change.”
I’m so glad someone finally said it. I don’t care how much of a “better person” you are, the people you have negatively effected are NOT obligated to just open arms and forgive you all of a sudden or hype you up or input you back into their lives because you’ve decided to turn a new leaf. And I absolutely hate that narrative, it’s basically telling you to be passive aggressive lol.
You’ve effected these people negatively, so if they choose not to have anything to do with you, by all means, they have every right. Trying to “prove” to them how much better of a person you are and lowkey showcasing it too is pretty weird and kinda performative
but that’s just my personal opinion. 😭
My cousin was on his list and eventually I went to the same high school. We heard the story over and over and once I heard his story, I was like 😒
We were told that he hid in one of the bathrooms for the first period or two and texted his friends to leave school or not be there, something like that. They told on him because they had a feeling they knew what that meant. Trench coats were still not allowed by the time I attended and it was because of him.
I really appreciate that you took the time to empathise as much as you were able to. I feel like you approached everything with so much more humanity than many would even try to. Thank you.
I just can't get over his dramatic poetry voice when retelling his SCHOOL SHOOTER story. That's so wild, it's so obvious he just wants clout from his past crimes, I wonder if he even has remorse for the person he shot, or the trauma he caused to the people there.
Here's the thing: I was raised Catholic. Of course I want to believe in forgiveness. I'm sure he has changed in the past two decades and I would love to believe anyone who can make a decision like that once will change and know why they would never, ever do it again. Thing is... I don't think that equates to giving him a platform. I just don't think that's the same thing.
We're in an age where deplatforming is a serious conversation topic. It used to be easier to shoot that down immediately, especially when social media made a hell of a lot less money than it does now. The stance used to be, well, hey, anyone can come onto Facebook or TH-cam and speak their mind, but we're at a point where some individuals attract such a large audience and manipulate it, and at that point, it needs to be stopped. They need to be cut off from abusing others with their power and their platform. We have this conversation, for the most part, about people who've never tried to kill anyone... and I think that's the way it should be. I understand the subject of this video to some extent probably really does want to be part of the solution, but his personal and private reformation should be his full contribution. Be the change. Leave the survivors to lead this conversation, not the offenders. Their fullest contribution should be as a changed individual and an audience member.
the part with the former teacher really broke me. ive never been one to really cry over sad stories but hearing her speak out on her experieance as a teacher really got to me
This is a bit of a tangent, but as someone who was diagnosed with autism and spent years and years of my childhood in Special Classes and Special School and Special Afterschool Activities and Special Camp against my best wishes, it just feels SO TYPICAL that this guy ends up working at a homeless shelter, ie a position where he holds a tremendous amount of power over vulnerable people - and I think that another aspect that plays into this is how our culture sees social work and "charity" work as a means of personal development and virtue. There's a space where I think people like him really thrive, because not only is he given that power, but he's also praised for taking care of those scary scary untouchables that everyone else just wants out of sight. It's so paradoxical and frustrating - giving that much power to someone who has demonstrably proven that they'll use it to hurt people is such an obviously bad idea, but in cases like this, somehow that power imbalance instead cleanses his soul and makes you the ungrateful and bitter one if you don't respect him? It's like some twisted version of purgatory, but the torture is to interact with the people we as a society find icky and weird and scary, and the reward is trust and respect and plausible deniability and assumed innocence and a relief from transparency. The bigger the power imbalance, the more spotless his character, and the more he is absolved of suspicion and guilt.
As a white person I'm definitely missing the racism perspective that comes from a life lived as a person of color in a white supremacist world, and this comment is just me relaying what I personally related to, from a limited incomplete perspective. That said, the guy with the sword did nothing wrong and "white devil" was just an accurate observation 💀
"Isolated incidents."
how many incidents can be isolated?
I honestly think he cares more about rewriting his own story to create a better image for himself rather than helping people. Not saying that for sure bc I don't know him but it wouldn't surprise me if that was his real intent for making a platform on tiktok.
We can't really prove that , I think what we can do is teach him better , he needs to be more self-aware and better educated. He is very involved with preventing school shootings (that is great!) but the issue of healing for the victims of past shootings is still an issue, he may need to be pushed a little, like rather than branding his face he could work with an organsation.
The issue with tiktok is that it can give a lot of fame to a face making them a kind of brand , this can work well fro some kinds of actvism but in the case of a person who shot up a school how a person becomes branded could cause more truama to the victims of a real school shootings, their feelings should be considered , he may never be truly able to atone for the trauma he caused even if he did not kill anybody , he can accpet that and still make great change in the world but he needs to understand that what he has done makes him a symbol of pain for some any people and he needs to work around that in a way that shows respect, kindness and consideration.
So yeah I am not completely on the anti train for him like I don't want him locked up for the rest of his life and I applaud him for any good work he does, he is a human being , we all have flaws but what he did was evil and although I want him to change and be a better person and do good I think it is fair to say some forms of evil we can never undo and we can never make up for even if we become better people who would never do what we did then. When we consider atonement and forgiveness we need to consider the limits which means how he brands himself needs to be appropriate.
I mean, on Elon Musk's Twitter they where openlly making posts gloryfying n4zz1s and calling collonizers heroes. So sadlly, it doesn't surprise me 💔