Our country is no stranger to horrific crime fueled by the criminal's tragic past. The loss of his teenage son to suicide certainly seems to have played a role for Rainer Reinscheid, the UC Irvine college professor at the heart of a suspected arson and murder plot at a California high school. The dad is accused of setting fires in an attempt to burn down the school, and that's just the beginning.
Cops said Reinscheid had a plot cooked up to murder students and school staff, commit sexual assaults, and then burn down the place where his son was once a student. It never got that far: despite fires at the University High School administrator's home, a nearby park, and the school itself, the professor was arrested before anything else happened. Coming off such a recent and devastating loss, I feel for the man. But I can't understand any of these allegations.
The police say the accused arsonist just lost his child in March. Sometime after being disciplined by school officials (for what we don't know), the boy committed suicide.
OK, you might say, so Dad was grieving. Dad snapped.
But that's just it. This father is grieving. And if the charges lodged against him are true, he intended to cause grief for hundreds more parents, wives, husbands, uncles, aunts, cousins, friends ... The list goes on.
It's the height of hypocrisy to claim that your grief somehow justifies criminal behavior. It's grief that should put the delicacy of life in perspective, should make you a champion of all that is good and safe in this world. A grieving parent may find it hard to look at happy parents -- that I can understand. And yet, they should be the fiercest protectors of other people's children.
What do you make of the accusations against Rainer Reinscheid? Do you chalk it up to grief?
Image via Samuel M. Livingston/Flickr
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Comments 11
Uh, no. Duh?
I guess I understand burning the school down..since that could be the "cause" of the suicide according to the dad but sexual assaults? Thats just kind of weird. Not saying this is okay but different people handle their grief in a different way and he obviously needs alot of help. We dont know how he is feeling and maybe he just lost it. That is a VERY hard thing to go through. I cant even imagine all the emotions he must be feeling. Still he shouldnt be planning to harm others and needs professional help
I know what it's like to lose a child, I know how it feels to hate, and be so angry you just snap! I can imagine what must have been going thru his mind when he did all of those awful things. I think what he did was horrible but I can still understand. If you have never lost a child you will never get it.
The father blames the school as a whole, meaning every single teacher, students, the principle and even the janitor, he hates them all cause his son is gone! I remember when I lost my little baby boy, I HATED ALL pregnant women, I hated new mothers, I couldn't look at them withut getting so angry and grief filled I had to walk away. That hate is hate I have never ever felt before and am glad to be rid of now. Right after my sons loss a friend, who was pregnant, knowingly came over to "break he news" and flaunt. People had to remove her from my house I was ready to beat her ass. (Her face ain't pregnant), it's really hard to describe how hateful a grieving parent is... I think he snapped, end of story. I am not sure of his criminal history, but to do something that awful and sick he had to have snapped.
So sad
dammit... I wrote "it's really hard to describe how hateful a grieving parent can be" I meant to say it's really hard to describe how painful being a grieving parent can be..
Unbunch panties
Zuri you do not know what you are talking about!! I bet you do not have children because not parent worth a crap would ever compare loosing a dog to a parent loosing a child!! I do not know how I would handle it I don't even want to think about it!!! But you need you reallyhink before you let your fingers run off a the hand!!!!!!!