You have to wonder what is going on inside the head of eighteen-year-old Ryan Schallenburger, who smiled and waved at the judge and courtroom when he appeared on Tuesday for his hearing.

The teenager who was found with a journal with detailed plans for detonating a WMD at his local high school in Chesterfield, S.C., along with a video to be played after the execution of the plan, was turned in by his parents when they received a notice for ten pounds of amonia nitrate delivered to their home. That's the same compound used in the Oklahoma City bombing, by the way. It seems to fit into a larger trend of teens/young adults seeking celebrity status through violent crime or suicide, like the string of teen suicides in Wales that have been commemorated, and, in a twisted sense, celebrated through online venues similar to MySpace.

But then again, maybe I'm not helping matters by writing about all this.

(Image © AP)

Comments

[cici]

From what I understand from those present in the courtroom, he was not smiling and waving at the judge but at some classmates that were in the courtroom to let him know they cared and were praying for him. The media just presented a small clip out of context. At any rate he is a sick young man who once had a bright future with college scholarships and all. Now he has quite a different future. We and our society have really blurred the lines in right and wrong on so many levels and it filtters down.

[cfieldrez2005]

Its just So funny how the media make assumptions about Ryan and Im sure the people WHo run their mouths didn't have to go through anything remotely close AS to what he had to go through. I knew him and his So called family give him a break oh and by the way the evidence recovered from the house were you there to SEe that material recovered didn't think So.