Peter's town blames him for the deaths of innocent students and for tearing their town apart. And without the knowledge behind Peter's attack, it would make sense as to why they would believe that. However, there is a story behind Peter's violent attack, further proving why it is so incredibly important for people to be educated about bullying and what takes place in schools. Because after being educated and informed about Peter's side of the story, we should also be blaming other students--even some dead ones--for causing this destuction.
In nineteen minutes, Peter may have shot eighteen people at his school and killed ten of them. But at the same time, it may have only took nineteen minutes for the 'popular kids' to bully Peter and cause him to face the mental problems that led him to the shooting. It may have only taken nineteen minutes to leave him feeling humiliated, unloved, and unwanted. It may have only taken nineteen minutes of bullying to cause Peter to believe that if he did not stand up for himself by fighting back and killing his bullies, he would die.
One point of view this story is told from is Josie's. She was a childhood friend of Peter's, but as they grew up she began to follow along with the popular crowd. Although she secretly cared about Peter and wanted to be friends with him, she recognized that doing so would jepordize her position with the popular crowd. The world of popularity is a vicious one. As Josie's boyfriend Matt tells her, "Because if there isn't a them, there can't be an us" (219). These students that have bullied Peter throughout his life don't bully him because he has ever caused any pain to them. They do it because they need to bring other people down to feel better about themselves. They bully others so that they can be placed on a higher social standing.
What will we do to stay on top? What I found most upsetting about this situation, was that Josie knew that what she was doing was wrong. She had such a strong desire to stand by Peter and stop the bullying that her friends were causing. But she was so focused on staying 'popular' that she was willing to stay friends with people that she didn't even like and people who didn't truly care about her, like Peter did. Josie turned into a person she wasn't in order to be popular. She no longer acted as herself and placed popularity above her true feelings and real friendships. At one point she is talking to Peter in private and he asks her why she acts the way she does towards him, if she doesn't hate him. Josie responds, "I have to act the way people expect me to act. It's part of the whole...thing" (239). Josie feels a pressure to be someone she isn't in order to remain on top of the social circle. In turn, it causes her to turn her back on someone who means a lot to her.
This story shows us that popularity is often a major cause of bullying. Students feel as if they need to have some sort of power in order to be popular. They bring others down so that they can bring themselves up. And the bystanders are just as bad. Students, even the unpopular ones, are afraid to stand up and say "stop, that's wrong," out of fear that then they will become someone like Peter. As humans, we have a constant desire to feel accepted, even by people we don't know or care about. Nineteen Minutes demonstrates that students feel that in order to feel accepted, they must become a person they aren't.
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