Nature vs. nurture: Bullies are product of their environment

When I describe my hometown of Lancaster County, Pa., to people who don’t know it, I tend to make it sound as “Little House on the Prairie” as possible: beyond rural, with inescapable Christian values and cornfields coating the landscape.

Inevitably, my high school was very small. I knew everyone in my graduating class, and they all knew me. Of course this allowed little room for privacy, as everyone was aware of everyone else’s business, gossip ringing constantly throughout the halls. This is part of the reason I chose to go to a large college such as Pitt. Honestly, though, rumors just happen to be one of the few sources of entertainment in a small town, and one cannot really help but partake in spreading them. I still find myself Facebook creeping on random people from my high school, and I really couldn’t tell you why I’m still interested in my hometown scandals — they’re usually extremely ordinary. I suppose it’s true that old habits die hard.

In fact, as much as I hate to admit it, I imagine that the majority of the habits I developed in my years coming of age in Lancaster County are still with me today. They most likely formed when I was attempting to conform to certain social cliques, or in other words, when I was doing my best to “fit in.” Consequently, a good many of my mannerisms and social cues that evolved during this time haven’t gone away. And I think this is true for many others: Personality tends to reflect a person’s surroundings during these sensitive years in life.  

Needless to say, my home is a hugely significant part of my life. But, about two weeks ago, when performing my daily Facebook newsfeed scan, I noticed not all was right back in Lancaster. Many of my former classmates were clamoring for biblical-style retribution against two other former peers of mine. I was shocked — my friends were literally demanding “an eye for an eye” from two kids I used to encounter on a daily basis. So naturally, I looked into the situation.

I almost wish I hadn’t. Two men, Adam Lynch, 21, and Ryan Schannauer, 19, were charged by local police with the killing of Ashley Kline, 23. The murder allegedly occurred after the three got in an argument on their way to the movies, prompting Lynch to pull over in a secluded area, after which Schannauer reportedly pulled her out of the car. According to the affidavit, “Lynch told the troopers that he made sure Kline did not escape while Schannauer pushed her under the fence. Lynch then told police he observed Schannauer stab Ashley Kline multiple times.”

Further in the affidavit, “Schannauer admitted to police that he and Adam Lynch conspired to ‘scare’ Ashley Kline … [He] then admitted to … dousing Ashley Kline with gasoline while she was still alive. He then stated Lynch ignited Kline and then both men left the area.”

Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman commented on the case, “Who exactly did what is under some question. What is beyond clear is that [Lynch and Shannauer] both participated.”

This was extremely unnerving for me. I did not know Lynch very well — he was a grade above me — but Schannauer was in a good number of my classes in high school. Granted, we were not friends, but just knowing I sat in class for years with someone accused of such a heinous crime is hard to fathom. But then I got to thinking: What could possibly drive someone to do something so disgustingly horrible to another human being?

I did not know Schannauer personally, but I was well aware of his reputation, which is something hard to shake in a small high school. He was, unfortunately, not well liked. He did not have many friends, and other students tended to abuse him for his weight.

I remember one particular instance when he fell while running the mile in physical education class. He broke his elbow, and an ambulance came to take him to the emergency room. Initially, instead of helping, most students stood and laughed at his misfortune. It was a running joke for weeks: Overweight kid falls in the gym while running the mile. It was so hilariously cliche to all of the mean-spirited kids in my school that they refused to let it go for the rest of Schannauer’s high school career.

Even when these same mean-spirited kids found out about his alleged crime just two weeks ago, they continued to make remarks about his weight in light of the grim act. I’ll paraphrase some of the subsequent Facebook statuses: “I always knew that fat kid was worthless” or “He won’t get nearly enough food in jail.” I felt as though this was hardly the time or the place, considering the seriousness of the situation.

As I mentioned before, I’m a firm believer in the idea that people tend to be the products of their environments. I do not think Schannauer was born a murderer, just as I don’t think a drug dealer was born destined to sell mind-altering substances. I think both crimes are the results of a culmination of unfortunate circumstances, the latter, to use an example, being poverty and the former being bullying.

Schannauer was not born evil. No reports I found mentioned any psychological disorders, and he appeared to be fairly normal in school. Rather, evil grew inside of him as a result of being deprived of friendship and being verbally tormented by his peers. Consequently, Schannauer turned to hard drugs and alcohol, only adding to his unstable emotional state. Perhaps if someone had stood up for Schannauer in high school and attempted to be his friend, they would’ve prevented the gruesome death of Ashley Kline.

Maybe I am wrong, and he was truly destined to commit such an evil act, and there was nothing anyone could have done about it. But it’s worth thinking about. If people in high school were less concerned about reputation and the social pecking order, maybe they would reach out to someone like Schannauer and would then be able to keep a fellow student from becoming so emotionally damaged that he ends up taking the life of an innocent person.

Of course, this issue concerns not only my former high school, but high schools across the country. Bullying is still very prominent: A fact sheet from the National Association of School Psychologists states that there are more than 3.2 million student victims every year. And there unfortunately is a suspected correlation between bullying and violent crimes. For instance, 75 percent of school shootings have been linked back to bullying and harassment, according to Dosomething.org.

Therefore, if high schools do not take bullying as a serious issue, I fear that we may see more cases like this involving Schannauer. Hence, the mentality must be that if we want our students to be happy with their future selves and the world around them, we must prevent them from growing up in a hateful environment that promotes the opposite. 

Write to Nick at njv10@pitt.edu.