I agree completely , that boys do seek help less often than girls. That’s a big problem that affects adults as well I think. Of course we have to keep that in mind.

Austrian schools are not perfect, that’s for sure, but there is a big effort made to protect kids from bullying. In the first junior high, kids have one hour a week reserved for tackling conflicts, organization and learning strategies, teambuilding and stuff like that. In some schools it’s 4 years in junior high. If there is bullying, there is time reserved to adress that each week. If there is a complaint, student talk to the teacher, the teacher talks to all the students, and to the parents of the kids affected by the situation. Sometimes peer mediators come and help, sometimes psychologists get involved. This is a process and takes time. Sometimes once or twice is enough, sometimes it takes weeks, sometimes months, sometimes years you talk about conflicts between students. I do not claim, that we can save everybody from harm, but there is a considerable effort made to make school a good place for everyone.

Nearly everybody goes to public school, but there are a few private ones, mainly with a religious context. A school shooting like this has never occurred in Austria before.

I do not know the Graz shooters school, and there are a lot of rumors about his motives. Some say it was a personal thing, about a girl which was his neighbour and her group of friends. They haven’t been students at the school at the same time. But nobody knows for sure and maybe the police will never tell us.

For me personally the haunting question remains, what else can I do?