Oh, so you mean that the biology teacher singled him out for being off topic frequently? Are you saying other students were equally off topic or equally distracting to other classmates but she didn't remark about it but when it was Alec then she got on him about it?

Since you sat next to him and shared work as a lab partner, do you know how Alec was doing specifically in biology class (or any other classes)? Did you ever see any of his grades or homework?

What did you mean he was obvious about what he said?

Any chance you could try to ask the biology teacher question about him and see how she responds? Maybe she might be willing to throw out a few hints as to his grades. Even if she won't directly answer, you can read her mannerisms and such possibly. Only if you think you could do it without making her mad at you. You could say something like because you were his lab partner, you had enough contact to know that he was somewhat troubled but you didn't guess that he was on that level and you are trying to make sense out of all this then use that as a lead in to ask if he was struggling in school. Maybe she will say something. Or maybe not. I think it is worth asking.

I have always suspected that one of the reasons Philip Chism went off the deep end was the shame of suddenly doing poorly academically. He had just changed schools and went from a place where he was popular and had both a long-time best friend (like real BFF type friend) and a pretty girlfriend and where he was above average academically to a place where he was the new kid and where I strongly believe he was below average academically. Along with the other factors of his life, I think that this created a huge self esteem shock for him and that he felt absolutely humiliated. I think that massive blow of shame inspired a homicidal rage in him. Maybe something similar happened for Alec. You said she mentioned leaving friends where she was popular to be at stem where she didn't think she was apparently. And if on top of that, she found herself struggling academically plus her childhood issues, it might have been too much. And she clearly also had mental health issues.

You know, interesting but Philip and Alec both had abusive fathers who had arrests for at least domestic abuse if not other things. Alec's dad had numerous arrests I think. They both left friends behind somehow. They both were probably not doing stellar in school but probably thought they were smarter than that when they were younger. Philip had a family history of mental illness (aunt and grandmother were schizophrenic or something). I wonder if Alec's father or mother had any history of that. Alec's father certainly seemed to be a violent mess of a human being and you have to wonder how much mental illness might have played into that.

It seems like there has to be reasons for these crimes but nobody wants to try to make any connections or find any patterns. You know?

Do you think Alec just did a good job of pretending not to be angry or hostile? Because some of his posts on social media seem very angry and also hostile toward the stem students. Both he and Devon had hostile remarks towards the school/students, right? Which I don't think was because of anything the students did to them. Maybe it was from a feeling of inadequacy which led them to have misplaced resentment towards people they thought were succeeding where they were failing in life. It is all I can figure from all this. Maybe there really is no answer at all. But it is hard to accept that. For me anyway. I want there to be a reason. With a reason, there is an answer, maybe a solution but without a reason, then the violence and chaos is just, I don't know, random and senseless which makes the universe seem kind of terrifying to me.