If Scott Dyleski inscribed a cross on school grounds, carried around a Bible to class, and dressed in eccentric religious gear, one of his public school teachers might have sensed something was amiss. But because Dyleski drew a pentagram on school grounds, read the Satanic Bible, and dressed like the Undertaker, no one intervened--at least enough to derail him from becoming charged with murder. One man's fanatic is another man's free spirit.

Kevin Etheridge, also 16, explained to the Associated Press of his Lafayette, California classmate, "He was really Gothic, always wore a long, dark jacket." So did Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. The lesson of Columbine, some claim, was that teasing causes school-house massacres. A more apt lesson highlights the not-so-fine line between individuality and anti-social behavior. In a perverse way, the "teasing" theory transforms murderers into victims. But murderers are the murderers, not the victims. And the cruelty of students teasing them hardly matches the cruelty of teachers ignoring them. At least students notice, even if announcing it in an unkind way, the unhealthy behavior of the teenaged misanthropist. Just because a kid dyes his hair black, paints his fingernails black, wears black clothing, and listens to Slayer (or even The Cure) doesn't mean he's going to murder his neighbor because he mistakenly believes she's ruined his fledgling pot-selling business. It does mean that responsible adults should guide him in a better direction.

pot? who said pot?

Sad and sick, another 'crazy Bay Area' tale. At least the guy didn't kill himself after the murder (in fact he took a shower in the woman's home and left the murder weapon on the scene (!), so now the state can hold him up to scrutiny and shame.

Mr. Horowitz, are you for or against the death penalty?

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