School Spirit

It’s _:__ * P.M. Do you know where your kids are?

Well these days they never leave their rooms, but do you know where our kids are?

Stuck in between the channels, caught in a world wide web, living in an alternate reality

Have we taught them the value of family?

Do we value their humanity?

Are we teaching them?

No, I don’t mean spewing out lessons. I mean… are we reaching them?

They say the youth of today is lost. I say who gave them those directions?

Are we busy giving answers when we should be asking questions?

Do you know where our kids are? Can they learn from you?

When it all gets to be too much, can they turn to you?

…”But they’re just kids. What do they know about stress”?

Funny how quickly we can forget

What it’s like to be a kid

When you don’t fit in, but you don’t stand out

Just another face in the crowd

Just another seat in the class

Just another target of ridicule

Just another kid who isn’t cool, enough

At a time when being cool is everything

There’s a bully in every class

They wonder why you ain’t passing

You bastards making the school look bad

We need a quick fix, give him a quick fix

Just another kid diagnosed with A.D.D., so pay him no attention

You’re probably also bipolar, oh and did we forget to mention?

You’re most likely depressed, but don’t worry…there’s a pill for that

Sure there’s some side effects, but don’t worry… there’s a pill for that

You’ll experience a few headaches, don’t worry there’s a pill for that

You might get the shakes, but don’t worry there’s a pill for that

You’ll develop facial ticks, don’t worry there’s a pill for that

See, we don’t really give a shit…and I don’t think there’s a pill for that

But would you like a refill for that?

Remember kids, drug-free is the way to be

But it’s okay if you’re addicted to the prescription written by your physician

See your physician, he’s just addicted to business

Dedicated to keep you medicated instead of taking the time to just listen

Too bad there’s no pills you can pop to make you popular

But your Pop’s got something you can pop that’s guaranteed to make the bullies stop

Send a click to every clique that thought they were just too fucking cool

Bet your name will ring bells all over the school

A national catastrophe, how could this be?

All-American boy raised on American TV

Brought up with American views

Now his face is all over the American news

How’s that for a taste of fame?

How’s that for the American Dream?

It seems everyone’s looking for someone to blame

Was it movies? Music? Video games?

Parents? Peers? Teachers?

Or was he just a victim of an uncaring system?

It takes a village to raise a child

It takes a nation to destroy him

It takes a tragedy for us to notice

So go ahead and point your finger at the one with the gun pointed

Now all rise for a speech from the one with the bomb pointed

“So, what your point is?”

Nothing, just keep waging your war on drugs, war on bullying, war on violence in the media

And kick your feet up

I’m sure the results will kick in eventually

Generation Y, they ask us why

And we’ll say X marks the spot

But they don’t hear us

By Generation Z…Z…Z…

We’ll be too asleep to even see

Hey, did you watch the news today?

Aren’t you going to ask us what we learned in school today?

No? See, every day the bell rings…and everything’s the same

If we can’t see the problem then it’s never going to change

We watch and cry, then we recover

But never do we anticipate another

The victims and the shooter will never have a future

We can wipe away the blood, but there’s a cut that’s left un-sutured

These are your kids… don’t disown them now

That’s just their school spirit… aren’t you proud?

They never noticed, noticed you

They never noticed, now they do

But not until you brought your gun and your rage and you shot up the school

Now that school spirit haunts them… but aren’t you cool?