Parkland high school student Isabelle Robinson deserves high praise for her New York Times essay debunking the vile suggestion that it was persistent bullying that made school shooter Nikolas Cruz snap and go on a killing spree. As with most conspiracy theories that hatch after tragedy, this one distorts reality and is disrespectful to both the victims and survivors of the Parkland school shooting.

Yet Robinson’s story provides a window into another very important but overlooked factor that contributed to the tragic events in Florida: lax discipline policies that permit dangerous students continuous contact with others and allow their pathologies to fester.