YOUR COMMENTS

How horrific news travels and about 2500 miles away. My son once worked for the brother-in-law of the poor victim here in Tucson. Now let's play the blame game. Oh my, sad childhood, no friends, drugs and so on BOO HOO. I can't even call them boys, monsters is a better fit. Spare no mercy, Live by the sword and die by the sword. My heart and prayers go out to the victims family.
- Marion, Tucson, AZ

Christa Dacus' daughter does not even attend Souhegan High School...
- Student, Amherst

The students of the Souhegan community are reaching out to rebuild the Mont Vernon community. We are greatly affected by this, as we knew the two involved very well. If you ask anyone who is involved with the current senior class at Souhegan, they would tell you how intelligent and respectful we are. Almost every student is involved in some organization that encourages a form of peer outreach. If you would please watch what you say and how you judge the class as a whole, we would appreciate it. We are reading these comments, too. Our hearts go out to those affected, and we recognize that what these two did was a horrible act of hatred, but we cannot change what happened. As much as we wish we could have done something more, we can't change the past. I just ask that when you submit your comment you double check to make sure that what you are saying is necessary and respectful. Thank you greatly. God Bless.
- Student, Amherst

I understand that some of these kids were involved in drugs and adopted a "darkside" Drugs or alcohol addictions aside, parents have a duty to raise their children until adulthood. No question that some kids will turn out violent regardless of their background. I am not pulling gvt into this since it is not the govt's responsibility to raise children. Where were and are the parents in all of this? Were they so self-absorbed or afraid to pay attention to what's going on under their roof? Wake up people and pay attention. Kids are always telling you something either passive or aggressive - pay attention! Shut off your tv's, computers, crackberries and have a daily dialogue with your children. Get the connection going.
- Cheryl, Manchester

Blame the School? The Drugs? The Parents? The Government? TV? Society? NO.

The Manson family used drugs and did the same. How are these punks any different?

Many, many kids from our state have dabbled in drugs, some have gotten into trouble because of it, but most have straightened themselves out. There is a line that a functioning human being will not cross.

Blame the monsters themselves. These are defective human beings that need to be locked up for the rest of their lives.
- M, Derry

how can you blame an entire school for what happened? it is not souhegan's fault that two bad kids just happened to go there. you cannot honestly think that just because souhegan kids call their teachers by their first names, students are going to go out and start killing people. it is ridiculous that people are willing to start attacking a loving, safe environment and completely overlook the twisted minds of the criminals themselves. stop trying to blame everyone else. it is at the fault of the 4 young men who committed the murder, thats it.
- A Student, Amherst, NH

I agree with Dan. WHERE ARE THE PARENTS? Very sad that parents these days and almost everyone posting here will put the RESPONSIBILITY of raising their OWN child on the weight of the schools or government. For some reason people think they can send their child to school and they will learn all the life lessons there are. Parents needs to take initiative to teach their child what the schools aren't designed to teach them. COMMON SENSE AND MORALS.
- Jay, Manchester

This is for you, Tom from Manchester. This is hard enough for the Souhegan students without people grouping the student population into one category. Souhegan has many bright, positive students who get along well with each other. We have students ready to graduate and join the armed forces, students who have worked hard all four years in order to make it into the most prestigious of schools next fall. You seem to think that we don’t realize that what occurred on October 4th was completely terrible and unforgivable. We knew the two boys personally which makes this even harder to deal with. Students of Souhegan are coping the best they can with the knowledge that two of their own classmates committed such a crime. Maybe you should take your own advice, “think outside the box”, and realize that we are not just some school that has produced two boys involved with this crime. We are a student body made of teenagers who have been greatly affected by this and are reading the opinions of others.
- Student, Amherst

Tom from Manchester: Great posting. Too bad it will never happen. We have big problems in society with people who show no remorse, or respect for life.
How about going back to a time when students didn't call teachers by their first names. At Souhegan the teachers and admin are the students "peers". NO!! I know it sounds insignificant...but to me it is a breakdown in society.
- Phyll, Mont Vernon

cmon. Is this a surprise? The courts don't want to send em to juvie. Th Jpo's are hamstrung and the counselors neutered. If these four had been in service they may not have killed a mother and hacked her child. Society is to blame, as well as th Gov. The Gov pays temps $74 an hour but wants to cut $15 youth counselors. You do the math and see what we will get. More teen crime with greater issues vs intervention.
- da man, Manchester

Mike from Manchester I totally agree. Who cares about these monsters right now. They do not deserve getting this "attention" how about the family, how can they be helped. How are they doing? This is what the media does, looks at the murders not the murdered. I don't care about their favorite color, or what the friend of the friend of the friend said about them, or what they listened to, or what movies or video games they were interested in. I could card less about them, how is the family holding up..?
- Nathan, Jaffrey

Lets continue to glorify the horrific 4 some more. This is exactly what these creatures want: Front Page news. I say enough of putting their mugs on the front page because all the media is doing is glorifying their actions. You can run a story without putting their pictures up there. Run the story with words and keep out the photos.
- Mike, Manchester

Have a child because you got knocked up, not because you planned to. Raise him with little interest in truth or beauty, to have lousy and crass interests like knives and cars, and little interest in education. After you let him drift away into his own troubled world as a boy, say you can't control him. Then, when he blossoms into a troubled and dangerous young man, say you didn't get enough beatings in.
- Ellen, Kingston

Yancey, actually Debbie is correct. Oxy withdrawals are much worse than heroin. Heroin comes out of ones system much quicker so the time and pain is less when compared to OxyContin. There is a time release in them as well that does not help the withdrawals. Debbie the signs I can tell you are pinned pupils, weight loss, drowsiness, nodding off, (depending on the person, some people have adverse effects), financial problems, & mood swings (severe in some cases). Someone who asks others for pain killers or visits the ER allot, shops for Doctors. People would be amazed with how many people take pain killers on a regular basis and an opiate is an opiate, some are just stronger than others. I am speaking from my own experience as a recovering addict. I began on legal prescriptions after an accident and became dependent on opiates. I did not admit it for many years and maintained some normalcy for years. At the time there was little help, most people addicted end up at some point wanting to stop but are faced with things such as paying bills,work, and shame of addiction itself. Then it is hard to get into many places, which presents a problem. You do not die from opiate withdrawal, but mentally you want to die. It is a very tough thing to overcome. The person has to really want to change and get help to accomplish it. My first attempts were cold turkey and after making it the longest 6 days I would use to stop the pain. Most addicts once addicted only use to keep from withdrawals as the high is only real the first few times because you build up receptors that require more and more of the drug. After trying cold turkey many times I went through a ten day outpatient program and failed, these do not work well because of the high cost and the lack of real treatment, my opinion of them are they are just making money. Then I found a Doctor who cared greatly and invested much of his time. I went to weekly groups and at first only went to get the medication (suboxone) that stops your withdrawals. But once I had been going for a bit it really made a difference. Suboxone is similar to Methadone except you don't get the high you get from methadone. It has naltrexone which blocks opiates from being absorbed so if you have a weak day it is useless to use because you will not be able to absorb any opiate, and using while on naltrexone will cause one to become sick. This Doctor, A good friend, and medication saved my life. But I was very lucky in the respect that I had some strong support from a friend and my Doctor. Many people do not have this and it is why there is a low success rate of recovery. It takes giving up your job, some friends, in my case family, and getting out of the environment. If your surrounded by others who use you cannot get clean and I moved to get my life straight. I could have never done it without the help and support I had. People need to be open about that, but addicts need to hit bottom too and everyone is different. It has to sometimes get to a desperate point to make someone change. I went from low level opiates (Vicodin,Percocet) to Oxycontin and heroin. I have gone through withdrawals from all of these and the Oxycontin was the worst. I think I would have come close to suicide if a good friend did not intervene and help me. And recovery is not over when the withdrawals stop, you have long term effects in your brain from these drugs. Now all this being said, my honest opinion at least concerning opiates and crack (i used this as well), is that they are no excuse for this crime. No setting of needing drugs could ever make me hurt a person in this way no matter how desperate I might have gotten. I deceived and lied to get my drugs, but never did this make me want to commit violence and I cannot believe it is any kind of excuse. I think you have to have something truly wrong with you drugs or no drugs to commit such a heinous crime. In my opinion anyone that does anything like this and tries to blame it on drug use is looking for an excuse. Some addicts steal and lie, and some do much worse but they must have a personality flaw, because I know I could never have hurt anyone no matter how desperate I became. But that is opinion I am no expert. I just do not think drugs can explain this, I don't think anything can. Evil, and that is the only word that seems to fit in my opinion.
- SW, Manchester

deb, pelham: i am happy to inform you that you are quite off base with your heroin oxy comparison. are you a physician? scientist? drug counselor? psychologist/iatrist? former addict? where are you getting this information from? have you ever seen a heroin addict going trough withdrawals? something you might want to see before you trivialize it next to oxy. they are virtually the same thing only one is natural and the other is synthetic. i once saw a heroin addict going through withdrawals beat his head against a concrete wall until he knocked himself out just so he didn't have to deal with the pain. just some food for thought.
- yancey, deerfield

It's funny how none of these people giving quotes and interviews ACTUALLY knew Steve or Chris, and ALL of this is 100% speculation. Having known these two personally, I know that most of the quotes given from "friends" are false, so don't buy anything you read in these articles.
- C. M., Groton, MA

Why blame drugs? Wear are the parents? If it were my child, I would have him out in the wood shed, he would straighten out one way or the other. The parents need to get more involved
- Dan, Manchester

Strange in a way, Amherst, NH. Old historic homes. Is there an apartment building in the whole town, there must be a couple. Best Halloween night in New Hampshire. The common with the band stand. The little town store. Drugs, rock n roll, stupidity. Might be a good idea to gather the town together, the high school kids, and have a little chat. Maybe rather than Halloween, a night of introspection.
Get together at the ballfield or someplace, invite speakers, listen to what a day in Iraq is like, or a night in Afganistan. Or, what a real "ghetto" feels like with gangs, violence, no hope.
Parents should attend. Have a week where the kids aren't allowed to drive their cars to school, have them all wear a uniform or sorts, tie/shirt/dress up for a week.. Make the athletes march with the band, and tell the rock n roll heads to sit on the bench with a team. What is that 21 century expression? "think outside the box"..
- tom, manchester,nh

There is a HUGE drug problem in the southern NH area. Oxy is all over the place and no one wants to face the issue. Drug deals have moved from the herion days of street corners to the medicine cabinets of our homes. The addictive qualities of herion look like a play date next to Oxy withdrawals. Union Leader please help educate the public. Can we have some reports on this problem? How to spot thie drug use in people we know and how we can work with the medical community to get it under control?
- Deb, Pelham