| Columbus grad talks of thwarting school massacre By Adam Rodewald
Marshfield News-Herald Matt Mineau takes a step towards the students. He takes his left hand out of his pocket, and his right hand grips the microphone.
He's getting to the meat of his presentation.
"It's not what's in a kid's back pack," he says. "It's what's in a kid's heart."
The words are simple but strong, especially in the trail of school violence.
Mineau, vice principal at Green Bay East High School and an alumnus of Marshfield Columbus Catholic High School, spoke at his alma mater Wednesday about the significance of open communication for students' safety.
He was the school administrator to whom a student reported plans for a Columbine-style attack this September. Three students were arrested for the scheme to explode homemade bombs near various bathrooms, block exits with homemade napalm and shoot students before dying at the hands of police.
"Realistically, after seeing all these things, I think it can happen in any school," he says to the student body. "I'm not saying this to scare you, but it can (happen)."
Thankfully, there's a way to prevent attacks of this kind, and it all starts with the students.
"Try to build other people up so they feel part of this school," Mineau says. "You've got opportunities to be a role model in this school that no one else does."
Everyone wants a sense of belonging, so they join in various social groups, he explains. However, those groups all want to be the best and tend to shut others out.
"We never open up ourselves, tear down those walls and let other people in," he says.
Over time, exclusion can cause a student to feel so low they even forget who they are, he says, and they may take extreme actions, like planning a massacre, to regain a place in the world.
"I feel sad for these guys. How could we let them get so low?" he says.
So here's his advice: Don't follow others simply for acceptance. Remember that little things matter. Be open to people with differences and listen to them. Serve others before yourself, and most of all, remember your values.
Katie Miller, a 15-year-old Sophomore at Columbus, sat on the bleachers after the presentation. She found the message something all students could relate to.
"I think we all just assume there are people like that, but to really think about it and the thoughts that would go through their head is really strange," she says.
In 80 percent of school shootings, at least one person knows about it ahead of time, Mineau says. | 
