Where are the Parents?

When are the parents going to start being parents and be more involved with their childrens lives. In the story, "Lonely Sophomore Kills Best Friend, Blames Crime on Cult", (http://abcnews.go.com./primetime) a Colorado sophomore student kills his best friend and his best friends grandparents. Reason for the crime; the sophomore student was "brainwashed", in a cult setting, to do anothers bidding.

Now we have all read similar stories about this very topic. Even as far back as the tragedy of the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado. Both of these stories have one very close characteristic. Both tragedies involved teenage kids that felt they belong.

I know that all kids are different. Especially teenage kids. I also realize that all kids want that feeling of belonging. My question is to the parents of the offenders, where were you? Now what I mean from that question is, if you are a parent that is active in your child's life, then why didn't you take a more active role in your child's life? Another question, if you felt like your child was a loner, then why didn't you take a more active approach to get your child involved in some sort of activity that would have provided your child with a sense of belonging?

As a parent myself I take a very active role in my child's life. Now do I believe that he does things behind my back that I'm not aware of, of course I do I'm not naive. However since he was very young I had him involved in various sports, he was even a cub scout, and he is involved in clubs at school. Bottom line is my child created friends by participating in these various activities. He was able to create his own sense of belonging and acceptance.

Now I'm not saying these tragedies in Colorado are not the fault of the parents. However if the parents were more involved with their children, could have theses tragedies have been prevented?