Thankfully They Couldn't Keep A Secret

So I was reading this article about some kids in Kansas that were planning to shoot up their high school on the anniversary of the Columbine shootings.
(As an aside, back when Columbine happened the press latched on to the 4-20 Day aspect, citing it as drug-related…until it was pointed out to them that the timing was based on it being Hitler’s Birthday. I notice that this time around they made the proper connection.)
A couple of things about the article stood out for me.
First up was this:

He was an “oddball,” student Trenton Berry told ABC. “Everybody picked on him
and everything.”

How dumb are kids that, in a post-Columbine world, they would continue to antagonize the weird kids? No wonder they fail standardized tests: they can’t even figure out that the nerds they pick on might be ticking time bombs.
Obviously there is no justification for the way these kids act out in response to their torment, but come on, if you’re one of the tormentors how do you not see it coming?
(Personally, I think that kids who do resort to this kind of thing deserve no sympathy, no matter what they went through. I’d be willing to bet that I suffered much worse treatment in school than they ever did, but I never even considered taking a gun to school.)
The one good thing in all this was that the kids planing the massacre couldn’t keep their mouths shut about their plans.
The other thing that stood out was the odd demographics of the town. The community has a population of 600, yet the high school has 270 students. How do you end up with a town where nearly half the residents are under 18? Do they just set their old people adrift on ice floes? Or, since it is Kansas, abandon them in the cornfields? Wait a minute...is this the Children of the Corn town?