http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Minutes
In the book,
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, an inductive leap too far ends up being a disaster destroying the lives of many friends and families of a whole school. Peter Houghton, the main character, is stuck in a position of being a victim to bullying...and more bullying...and more bullying. Throughout elementary school, Peter gets bullied for his appearance but his friend, Josie Cormier, backs him up and is a support system to him. But, when Josie leaves him to be friends with the "popular kids", his support is gone and he becomes more insecure. Then, the popular kids and Josie continue to tease him about his looks, him being gay and him not being "cool"in general. These small attacks each day add up to enough pressure and Peter takes the inductive leap in being the school shooter killing 10 and injuring many others. Peter kills many of the kids who had bullied him and after the shooting, while in high security jail, Peter realizes himself that this inductive leap was too far and wasn't the appropriate way to handle the situation. For Peter, the facts he collected were these small attacks that built up and hurt him physically and emotionally. The outcome of the deaths and injuries, overall Peter discovered (and the audience discovered too) that the amount of pain that he caused to the students and teachers, the families and the rest of the town was not worth it for Peter to feel better about himself.
In all honesty, I can understand completely all of the factors that led Peter to make this inductive leap. When every single day you cannot go about your way without being mocked or made fun of no matter what you try to do to make it better, what other options would there be? Clearly, murduring people is not a reasonable answer for any dilemna someone comes accross, but to Peter it was all he had left. Peter didn't have a support system, he had already lost his brother to a car crash and no matter how hard Peter tried, being "cool" was something Peter simply wasn't. Overall, Peter was so insecure about himself that he was led to make this inductive leap too far.
After reading the novel, I have a much more open eye to these people possibly suffering from bullying at my own school. These inductive leaps too far can lead to many outcomes which could be harmful to the victim or really anyone. People like Peter Houghton are very lonely and I think that students need to see this. That their words hurt and bullying needs to become a thing of the past.
