DEAR ABBY: I just finished reading about another senseless crime. A high school student fatally gunned down his high school principal and one of his "tormentors." The most troubling part of the tragedy is that the killer's friends knew that he had frequently made death threats. However, they didn't think he would carry it through because it was "just, you know, teen talk."
Anyone who considers this kind of conversation "just talk" is making a terrible mistake by not confiding in someone who can help. I am out of high school only 16 years, but no one in our school ever spoke that way. Is violence the only way people believe they can solve their problems? -- SCARED MOTHER OF TWO
DEAR SCARED MOTHER: Don't be too hard on teen-agers who may not have realized the seriousness of such a threat. However, let me go on record: Death threats and threats of suicide are both serious, and should be reported to a responsible adult. They are indications of serious underlying problems for which professional intervention is essential.