Gun Violence in Schools

[Ashot]

In this Topic I would like to discuss about the school violences!

I will list as many cases as I find, along with some detail on what went on and how many victims there has been to the case.

 

The first one on the list would be Jokelan koulukeskus in Finland

 

Pekka-Eric Auvinen committed the Gun Violence - there were 8 victims.

 

The Jokela school shooting occurred on November 7, 2007 at Jokela High School (Finnish: Jokelan koulukeskus), a public secondary school in the town of Jokela, Tuusula municipality, Finland. The gunman was 18-year-old Pekka-Eric Auvinen.

 

The incident resulted in the deaths of nine people: five male students (ages 16-18) and one female adult student (age 25); the school principal, Helena Kalmi (age 61); the school nurse (age 43); and Auvinen himself, who was also one of the school's students. One other person suffered gunshot wounds, and eleven people were injured by shattering glass while escaping from the school building. The day before the incident, Auvinen posted a video on YouTube predicting the massacre at the school.

 

Auvinen described himself as "a cynical existentialist, antihuman humanist, antisocial socialdarwinist, realistic idealist and godlike atheist" on his YouTube user page Sturmgeist89. In the investigation by the police it was confirmed that he had been a victim of school bullying for years.

 

According to one of his teachers, he was above average academically, and took an interest in history, philosophy and both extreme right and left wing movements.

 

He had used selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) -antidepressants irregularly since he was 17 years old. These antidepressants are said to cause suicidal tendencies as a side-effect.

 

The Auvinen family lives in Jokela. The family comprises a father, who is a part-time musician, a mother who was a deputy member of the Tuusula municipal council, and an 11 year old brother.

 

The police found 76 shells and hundreds of rounds of ammunition at the scene. Flammable liquid was found poured on the walls and floors of the second floor, suggesting Auvinen had attempted to set the school on fire. They also found Auvinen's suicide note and have begun analysing his Internet postings. Spokesman for the cyber crime department of Helsinki police has stated that "it's highly probable that there was some form of contact between Pekka-Eric Auvinen and Dillon Cossey." The 14-year-old Cossey was arrested in October on suspicion of planning an attack on his school in a suburb of Philadelphia.

 

Auvinen had received his licence to own a gun three weeks before the school shootings. He was a registered member of the firing range at the Helsinki Shooting Club. A spokesman for the club revealed that Auvinen had only ever attended a one-hour training session.

 

The weapon, which has been described by the media as a "small-calibre handgun", was a SIG Mosquito .22 calibre pistol that had been legally obtained and registered to Auvinen on October 19. He had been given the licence since he was a member of a local shooting club and had no previous criminal record.

 

In Finland the police usually require a shooting hobby to begin with a .22 calibre weapon. The police cannot mandate that sports shooting should take place in a club, or even in any kind of company; in the case of relatively low risk weapons, the permit decision can be based entirely on information provided by the applicant. Membership in a shooting club is nevertheless considered a risk control. Auvinen himself wanted to buy a more powerful Beretta 9 mm pistol, but the application was rejected by police.

 

At approximately 11:44 local time (09:44 UTC) shooter Pekka-Eric Auvinen fired his first shot. Most victims were found in the entrance hallway of the school. At 11:44, following the first shot, school principal Helena Kalmi had ordered all students and teachers to barricade themselves in their classrooms. Instead of doing this herself, the principal placed herself in the way of the shooter and tried to compel him to surrender. Watching from their classroom window, they saw Kalmi first fleeing the attacker, but later she went back. She was shot seven times in front of a group of ninth graders (last grade in junior highschool) in the school yard. Later the school nurse, 43, tried to help injured students, but Auvinen shot her too.

 

The shooter then began walking around the school, knocking and pounding on classroom doors, then firing through the doors and shooting people at random. He shouted orders at some of the students, proclaimed revolution, and urged the students to destroy school property. He also pointed his gun at some people whom he did not shoot. The victims had sustained multiple injuries to the upper body and head.

 

A police patrol arrived at 11:55, followed later by some hundred police officers, including the Karhuryhmä special operations unit, and even off-duty police officers arrived and surrounded the school. When the police tried to start negotiations the shooter answered by firing a shot at the police at 12:04 local time. No officers were hit.

 

The attack ended after 40 minutes when Auvinen turned the gun on himself, inflicting an ultimately fatal wound to his head. He was found in a school toilet still alive but unconscious at 13.53 local time. However, the police, as a precaution in case of other shooters, were not able to secure the building until before 16:00. The police officers did not open fire at any time. Police later stated that some of the victims were shot up to nearly 20 times.

 

The shootings started during a lunch break. The people broke windows to escape through them.Auvinen was taken to the Töölö Hospital of the Helsinki University Central Hospital at 14:45, but died the same evening at 22:15 from his injuries.

Edited February 18, 2008 by Ashot

[Ashot]

Second Case - Heath High School Shooting

 

Michael Carneal left 3 victims dead

 

The Heath High School shooting occurred at Heath High School in West Paducah, Kentucky, United States, on Monday December 1, 1997 when 14-year old Michael Carneal opened fire on a group of praying students that left 3 people dead and 5 injured.

 

On December 1, 1997, Michael Carneal wrapped two shotguns, two rifles and one .22 pistol in a blanket and took them to Heath High School. Carneal had stolen the two shotguns from his father's closet and the two rifles from a friend's home on Thanksgiving Day.

 

When he arrived he inserted earplugs and pulled the pistol out of his bag. He fired 8-rounds in quick succession at a youth prayer group. Five people were hit in their heads and another three were hit in their torsos. Three girls were pronounced dead at a hospital and five were wounded, two critically.

 

Carneal was said to have dropped the gun after being confronted by a member of the prayer group, Benjamin Strong, but Strong eventually testified that Carneal simply dropped the gun of his own accord when he was finished. Carneal placed his pistol on the ground and surrendered to the school principal, Bill Bond.

 

In October 1998, Judge Jeff Hines accepted Carneal's plea of guilty but mentally ill from Michael Carneal. Under a plea arrangement, the judge agreed to accept the pleas on condition that the maximum penalty -- life in prison without possibility of parole for 25 years -- would be imposed. The plea allows Carneal to receive mental health treatment within the prison system as long as he needs it or until his sentence has been completed, according to prosecutor Tim Kaltenbach. Carneal was transported to Northern Kentucky Treatment Center, a maximum security facility for serious offenders where fellow inmate George Mullins assaulted Carneal in 2004, inflicting a major skull fracture and concussion. After the incident Carneal was transported to Eddyville State Penitentary where he remains.

 

 

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Third Case - Virginia Tech massacre

 

Seung-Hui Cho - Killed 32

 

Seung-Hui Cho (January 18, 1984 – April 16, 2007) was a student at Virginia Tech who committed mass murder of 32 people and wounded 25 others in the shooting rampage which has come to be known as the Virginia Tech massacre. Cho committed suicide after law enforcement officers breached the doors of the building where he had killed and injured his victims.

 

Cho was a South Korean national who had permanent resident status in the United States, where he arrived at a young age with his family. He was diagnosed with a severe form of an anxiety disorder known as selective mutism in middle school, as well as depression. That is when he started receiving treatment and he continued receiving therapy and special education support until his junior year of high school. During Cho's last two years at Virginia Tech, several instances of his aberrant behavior, as well as plays and other writings submitted by him containing references to violence and profanity, caused concerns among teachers and classmates.

 

In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine convened a panel consisting of various officials and experts to investigate and examine the response and handling of issues related to the Virginia Tech shootings. The panel released its final report in August 2007, devoting more than 30 pages to detailing Cho's troubled history. In the report, the panel criticized numerous failures — by school administrators, educators and mental health professionals who came into contact with Cho during his college years and who failed to notice his deteriorating condition and help him. The panel also criticized misinterpretations of privacy laws and gaps in Virginia's mental health system and gun laws. In addition, the panel faulted Virginia Tech administrators in particular for failing to take immediate action after the first shootings.

 

Around 7:15 a.m. EDT (11:15 UTC) on April 16, 2007, Cho killed two students, Emily J. Hilscher and Ryan C. "Stack" Clark, on the fourth floor of West Ambler Johnston Hall, a high-rise co-educational dormitory. Investigators later determined that Cho's shoes matched a blood-stained print found in the hallway outside Hilscher's room. The shoes and bloody jeans were found in Cho's dorm room where he had stashed them after the attack.

 

Within the next two and a half hours, Cho returned to his room to re-arm himself and mailed a package to NBC News that contained pictures, digital video files and documents. At approximately 9:45 a.m. EDT (13:45 UTC), Cho then crossed the campus to Norris Hall, a classroom building on the campus where, in a span of nine minutes, Cho shot dozens of people, killing 30 of them. As police breached the area of the building where Cho attacked the faculty and students, Cho committed suicide in Norris 211 with a gunshot to his temple. Cho's gunshot wounds destroyed his face, frustrating identification of his body for several hours. The police identified Cho by matching the fingerprints on the guns used in the shootings with immigration records. Before the shootings, Cho's only known connection to Norris Hall was as a student in the sociology class, Deviant Behavior, which met in a classroom on the second floor of the building. Although police had not stated positively at the time of the initial investigation that Cho was the perpetrator of the Norris Hall shootings and the earlier one at West Ambler Johnston Hall, forensic evidence confirmed that the same gun was used in both shooting incidents

 

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Fourth Case - Hubbard Woods Elementary School shooting

 

Laurie Dann - Killed 1

 

Laurie Dann (née Wasserman) (October 18, 1957 - May 20, 1988) was an American murderer who shot and killed a boy and wounded two girls and three boys in a school in Winnetka, Illinois, then took a family hostage and shot a man before killing herself.

 

During the days before May 20, 1988, Laurie Dann prepared rice cereal snacks and juice boxes poisoned with the diluted arsenic she had stolen in Madison. She mailed some to a former female friend, ex-babysitting clients, her psychiatrist, Russell Dann and others. In the early morning of May 20, she personally delivered snacks and juice "samples" to other friends, acquaintances and families for whom she had babysat, some of whom had not seen her for years. Other snacks were delivered to Alpha Tau Omega, Psi Upsilon and Kappa Sigma fraternity houses at Northwestern University in Evanston. Notes were attached to some of the deliveries. The drinks were often leaking and the squares unpleasant tasting, so little was actually consumed. In addition, the arsenic was highly diluted and as a result nobody was made seriously ill.

 

At about 9 am, the 30-year-old Dann arrived at the home of former babysitting clients in Winnetka, Illinois to pick up the youngest two children. The family had just told Dann that they were moving away. Instead of taking them on the promised outing, she took them to Ravinia Elementary School in Highland Park, Illinois, attended by her former sister-in-law's two sons, and left them in the car while she entered the school and tried to detonate a fire bomb in one of the school's hallways. The small fire she set was quickly extinguished by a teacher. She then drove to a local daycare attended by her ex-sister-in-law's daughter, but was prevented by staff from entering the building with a plastic can of gasoline. Returning her two passengers to their home, she offered them some arsenic-poisoned milk, but the boys spat it out as it tasted strange. Once at their home, she used gasoline to set fire to the house, briefly trapping the mother and her two children in the basement. She then drove three and a half blocks to the Hubbard Woods School carrying three handguns. She wandered into and observed a second grade classroom for a short while, then left and finding a boy in the corridor, pushed him into the boys' washroom and shot him with a .22 semi-automatic Beretta pistol. Her .357 Smith and Wesson Magnum revolver jammed as she tried to fire it at two other boys in the washroom, and she threw it into the washbasin along with the spare ammunition she had brought. The boys ran out of the washroom and raised the alarm. Dann then re-entered the same second grade classroom where the students were working in groups on a bicycle safety test. She ordered all the children into the corner of the room, but the teacher refused, and attempted to disarm Dann, managing to unload the Beretta in the struggle. Dann drew a .32 Smith and Wesson from the waistband of her shorts and shot at several groups of the students. She killed eight-year-old Nicholas Corwin, and wounded two girls and two boys before fleeing in her car.

 

Dann was prevented from leaving the area by closed roads due to a funeral cortege. She abandoned her car and, taking off her bloodstained shorts, tied a blue garbage bag around her waist. Together with her two remaining guns she made her way through some woods before reaching the house of the Andrews family. She entered the house and met a mother and 20-year old son who were in the kitchen. Dann claimed that she had been raped and had shot the rapist in the struggle. The Andrews were sympathetic and tried to convince her that she need have no fear of the police since she had acted in self-defense. Mrs. Andrews provided her with some of her daughter's pants to wear. While she was putting them on, Philip Andrews was able to pick up and pocket the Beretta. He suggested that she call her family, and she agreed, calling her mother and telling her that she had done something terrible and that the police were involved. Philip took the phone and explained about the rape and shooting and suggested that Mrs. Wasserman come to pick up Laurie, but according to Philip Andrews, Mrs. Wasserman said that she could not come as she did not have a car. After Mr. Andrews arrived, they continued to argue that Dann should give up the gun. Dann called her mother again and this time, Mr. Andrews spoke to Mrs. Wasserman and asked her to persuade Dann to give up the gun. While Dann spoke again to her mother, Mrs. Andrews left the house and alerted the police. Mr. Andrews told Dann that he was not staying if she did not put down the gun, and also left the house, but Dann ordered Philip Andrews to stay. Just before noon, seeing the police advancing on the house, she shot him in the chest, but he managed to escape out the back door before collapsing and being rescued by the police and ambulance personnel. The house surrounded, Dann went upstairs to a bedroom. The Wassermans and Russell Dann were brought to the house, and at about 7:00 pm, an assault team entered the house while Mr. Wasserman attempted to get her attention with a bullhorn. The police found her body in the bedroom: she had shot herself in the mouth.

 

 

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Fourth Case - Concordia University massacre

 

Valery Fabrikant - Killed 4

 

Valery Fabrikant (born 28 January 1940 in Minsk, USSR), is a former associate professor of mechanical engineering at Concordia University. He was the gunman in the school massacre referred to as the Concordia University massacre in which he killed four colleagues.

 

Born in the Soviet Union to a Jewish family, he immigrated to Canada in 1979 and began teaching at Concordia in 1980. Fabrikant blamed his colleagues for his being denied tenure on four successive occasions and for attempting to have his employment terminated. He also accused the university of tolerating the practice of academics being listed as co-authors on papers to which they have not contributed; in 1992 he went to court to try to have the names of several colleagues removed from research papers he had written in the 1980s. The case was to be heard in November of 2007, but the judge recused himself. On November 26, 2007, his case was dismissed by Quebec Superior Court Judge Nicole Morneau. Morneau used a provision of the Quebec Code of Civil Procedures to dismiss cases that are found to be frivolous or unfounded.

 

A contempt of court charge and threat of being killed in jail culminated in a shooting rampage on August 24, 1992 on the ninth floor of the Henry F. Hall Building at Concordia. Killed in the shooting spree were Departmental Chair Phoivos Ziogas and professors Matthew Douglass, Michael Hogben, and Jaan Saber. A departmental staff secretary, Elizabeth Horwood, was injured. Fabrikant believes that these killings were justified and that anyone else faced with a similar situation would have followed his actions. Fabrikant writes on his website: "I hope to be remembered as a person who had enough courage to fight lawlessness with deadly force and I hope to encourage others to do the same."

 

Fabrikant represented himself at his trial. After several weeks of eccentric behaviour, the judge suspended the proceedings in order to conduct a hearing into Fabrikant's mental fitness to stand trial. He was eventually found fit and after three months of proceedings by two psychiatrists, the judge stopped his defense and he was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.

 

Despite two psychiatrists ruling in his favor, Fabrikant thought he was insulted by these two psychologists, and, according to Dr. Louis Morisette, asked to meet with Morisette, working at Philippe-Pinel Institute specializing in legal psychiatry (prison for the mentally disturbed) where Fabrikant spent several days during the time of his trial. Morisette spent several hours over a few days with Fabrikant. "Fabrikant wanted my help to counter argue the two psychiatrists opinion on him in court, and to help him argue that psychology has no scientific basis and proves nothing.” Morisette does in fact disagree with the two psychologists, noting that co-workers' and students' satisfaction reports had always been fine until Fabrikant’s leave of absence for a heart attack. Problems reported by students coincide with his return in 1992. "Mr. Fabrikant suffers, in my opinion, from more than a simple personality disorder, he could be treated by pharmaceutical products, a treatment he always refused.” “We often push the trial dates of people who suffer from complications because of heart attacks. In my opinion Fabrikant is not fit to stand trial.”

 

Fabrikant is serving his sentence at Archambault Prison in Sainte-Anne-Des-Plaines. He continues his academic research from within prison. Recently he published a paper in IMA Journal of Applied Mathematics. The author's address was Prisoner #167932D, Archambault Jail, Ste-Anne-des-Plaines, Quebec, Canada J0N 1H0.

 

Fabrikant is a usenet user known for posting in newsgroups, particularly can.general and can.politics, claiming that he is the innocent victim of a conspiracy against him.

 

The Fabrikant incident resulted in a series of investigations and a formalization of research ethics guidelines by Canada's research funding agencies. An investigation on the conduct of the faculty in Fabrikant's department revealed that some of Fabrikant's claims were indeed true. The three researchers who were the primary target of Fabrikant's allegations have since then had their research accounts frozen by NSERC for misappropriating research funds and have been forced to take early retirement.

 

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Fifth Case - Dawson shooting

 

Kimveer Gill - Killed 1

 

Kimveer Singh Gill also known as Kimveer Gill of Sikh origin, on (July 9, 1981 – September 13, 2006) was the shooter involved in a school shooting referred to as the Dawson College shooting at Dawson College in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on September 13, 2006. He injured at least 20 people, killed one, then committed suicide by shooting himself in the head, after being shot in the arm by police during the incident.

 

On September 13, 2006, Gill arrived at Dawson College in Montreal and opened fire on students within the main building, killing Anastasia De Sousa, 18, and wounding nineteen other people before officer Denis Côté and other police officers shot him in the arm. Gill then turned his gun on himself and committed suicide, according to witnesses, authorities, and the autopsy report. Authorities concluded the attack was premeditated, after a short suicide note was found on Gill's body.

 

 

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Sixth Case - Jonesboro massacre

 

Andrew Golden and Mitchell Johnson - Killed 5

 

The Jonesboro school massacre occurred on Tuesday, March 24, 1998, in Craighead County, Arkansas, near northwestern Jonesboro. Four female students and a teacher were killed, and nine other students and a teacher were wounded, by two armed middle school boys: Mitchell Johnson, age 13, and Andrew Golden, age 11.

 

On the morning of the massacre, the boys, both dressed in army-style camouflaged clothes, stole a van from Johnson's home and loaded it with camping supplies, food, and 7 weapons (two semi-automatic rifles, one bolt-action rifle and four handguns) which had been stolen from Golden's grandfather's house.

 

When the boys got to the school, Golden set off the fire alarm while Johnson took the weapons to the woods near the school. Golden then ran back to the woods where Johnson had taken the weapons. When children and teachers came out of the school, the two boys opened fire. 13 students and 2 teachers were hit, 5 of whom died. Afterwards they attempted to run back to the van and escape, but were apprehended by police.

 

The two youths were among the youngest ever charged with murder in American history. The Jonesboro prosecutor later stated that were it not for their ages, he would have sought a death sentence for the pair. In August 1998, they were both sentenced to confinement until they reached the age of 21, the maximum sentence available under Arkansas law. They would have served until only 18 had federal authorities not added additional confinement for weapons charges. Judge Ralph Wilson commented "this is a case where the punishment will not fit the crime." This case led to a wide public outcry for tougher sentencing laws pertaining to juvenile offenders. Since then, the laws regarding young offenders have changed in Arkansas. Had Johnson and Golden committed their crimes several years later, they could have both been charged as adults and imprisoned for life.

 

Mitchell Johnson was released from custody on August 11, 2005, his 21st birthday. Andrew Golden followed on May 25, 2007. Many members of the Jonesboro community have since expressed outrage, citing the facts that they will not be placed under any supervision and will be able to legally purchase firearms.

 

Mitchell Johnson was arrested on New Year's Day 2007 while riding in a van with his roommate, Justin Trammell, who was convicted in Benton County, Arkansas, for killing his father in 1999 with a crossbow. Trammell was the first youth in Arkansas convicted under the Extended Juvenile Adjudication Act. The law allows for combined juvenile and adult sentences upon conviction of those younger than 18. It was passed in response to the Jonesboro school shootings. Johnson was arrested on misdemeanor charges of possessing a controlled substance (marijuana) and carrying a prohibited weapon (loaded 9mm pistol). (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Date:2007 Jan 10; by Michelle Bradford and Kenneth Heard). Golden's whereabouts are unknown.

 

 

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Seventh Case - Dunblane massacre

 

Thomas Hamilton - Killed 17

 

The Dunblane massacre was a multiple murder-suicide which occurred at Dunblane Primary School in the Scottish town of Dunblane on 13 March 1996. Sixteen children and one adult were killed, in addition to the attacker, who committed suicide. It remains the deadliest attack on children in United Kingdom history.

 

On 13 March 1996, unemployed former shopkeeper and former Scout leader Thomas Hamilton (born Thomas Watt 10 May 1952) walked into the school armed with two 9 mm Browning HP pistols and two Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum revolvers. He was carrying 743 cartridges, and fired 109 times. The subsequent police investigation revealed that Hamilton had loaded the magazines for his Browning with an alternating combination of fully metal jacketed and hollow point ammunition.

 

After gaining entry to the school, Hamilton made his way to the gymnasium and opened fire on a class of five- and six-year-olds, killing or wounding all but one person. Fifteen children and a teacher, Gwen Mayor, died at the scene. Hamilton then left the gymnasium through the emergency exit. In the playground outside he fired a number of shots into a mobile classroom. A teacher in the mobile classroom had previously realised that something was wrong and told the children to hide under the tables. A number of bullet holes were found in the children's chairs. He also fired at a group of children walking in a corridor, injuring one teacher. Hamilton went back into the gym and fired one shot with one of his two revolvers pointing upwards into his mouth, killing himself instantly. A further eleven children and three adults were rushed to the hospital as soon as the emergency services arrived; one of these children was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

 

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Eight Case - Columbine massacre

 

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold - Killed 13

 

The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in unincorporated Jefferson County, Colorado (the CDP of Columbine) near Denver and Littleton. Two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a shooting rampage, killing 12 students and a teacher, as well as wounding 23 others, before committing suicide. It is the fourth-deadliest school killing in United States history, after the 1927 Bath School disaster, 2007 Virginia Tech massacre and the 1966 University of Texas massacre.

 

The massacre provoked debate regarding gun control laws, the availability of firearms in the United States, and gun violence involving youths. Much discussion also centered on the nature of high school cliques, subcultures and bullying, as well as the role of violent movies and video games in American society. The shooting also resulted in an increased emphasis on school security, and a moral panic aimed at goth culture, social pariahs, the gun culture, the use of pharmaceutical anti-depressants by teenagers, violent films and music, teenage internet use, and violent video games.

 

Note: This massacre was a long planned and a very long story behind it. For the full article please Click Here

Edited February 18, 2008 by Ashot

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Ninth Case - Thurston High School shooting

 

Kip Kinkel - Killed 4

 

Thurston High School is located in the Thurston area of Springfield, Oregon in Lane County. The school's mascot is the colt.

 

On May 20, 1998, student Kipland "Kip" Kinkel killed his parents, William and Faith, both Spanish teachers at local high schools. On May 21, 1998, he arrived at class at Thurston and murdered two classmates, Ben Walker and Mikael Nicklauson, and injured 25. Kinkel was subdued by fellow students, at least one of whom had himself been shot. Kinkel had brought three weapons to the high school, a .22 caliber rifle, a .22 caliber handgun, and a 9mm Glock semi-automatic pistol. His case has become one of the standard case studies in profiling students who bring guns to school for purposes of murder, a prelude to the Columbine High School massacre.

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Tenth Case - Ecole Polytechnique massacre

 

Marc Lépine (Gamil Rodrigue Gharbi) - Killed 14

 

The École Polytechnique Massacre, also known as the Montreal Massacre, occurred on December 6, 1989 at the École Polytechnique in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Twenty-five year-old Marc Lépine, armed with a legally obtained semi-automatic rifle and a hunting knife, shot twenty-eight people, killing fourteen (all of them women) and injuring the other fourteen before killing himself. He began his attack by entering a classroom at the university, where he separated the male and female students. After claiming that he was "fighting feminism", he shot all nine women in the room, killing six. He then moved through corridors, the cafeteria, and another classroom, specifically targetting women to shoot. He killed fourteen women and injured four men and ten women in just under twenty minutes before turning the gun on himself.

 

Lépine was the child of a French-Canadian mother and an Algerian father, and had been physically abused by his father during his childhood. His suicide note claimed political motives and blamed feminists for ruining his life. The note included a list of nineteen Quebec women whom Lépine considered to be feminists and apparently wished to kill.

 

Since the attack, Canadians have debated various interpretations of the events, their significance, and Lépine's motives. Many feminist groups and public officials have characterized the massacre as an anti-feminist attack that is representative of wider societal violence against women. Consequently, the anniversary of the massacre has since been commemorated as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. Other interpretations emphasize Lépine's abuse as a child or suggest that the massacre was simply the isolated act of a madman, unrelated to larger social issues. Still other commentators have blamed violence in the media and increasing poverty, isolation, and alienation in society, particularly in immigrant communities.

 

The incident led to more stringent gun control laws in Canada, and changes in the tactical response of police to shootings, which were later credited with minimizing casualties at the Dawson College shootings.

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Eleventh Case - Frontier Junior High shooting

 

Barry Loukaitis - Killed 3

 

Barry Loukaitis (born February 26, 1981) is a convicted American murderer, who killed three people in a school shooting at Frontier Junior High, in Moses Lake, Washington on February 2, 1996.

 

On February 2, 1996, Loukaitis dressed as a wild west style gunslinger and used a duster to conceal a hunting rifle and two handguns. He was carrying almost 80 rounds of ammunition. Rather than taking the bus, he walked the distance between his house and the middle school.

 

Loukaitis opened fire on his algebra teacher as soon as she opened the door and hit her with one round in the chest. She died immediately. He then fired at students, killing two, one of whom had bullied him in the past. He also shot a girl in the arm.

 

Loukaitis took hostages for a short amount of time, but released the wounded. The hostage situation was stopped when teacher Jon Lane came into the room, assisted in the evacuation of injured students, then tackled Loukaitis, keeping him there until police arrived. Loukaitis had been convicted of three counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, 16 counts of aggravated kidnapping and one count of aggravated assault and is now serving two mandatory life sentences without parole plus 205 years at Clallam Bay Corrections Center in Washington State.

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Twelfth Case - Bethel High School shooting

 

Evan Ramsey - Killed 2

 

Evan Ramsey (born 1981) is a convicted American murderer who committed a school shooting at Bethel High School in Bethel, Alaska on February 19, 1997. Some believe this shooting was the beginning of a chain that would later sweep schools across America. However given the location and nature of the murder it did not receive the same airtime and media coverage as other shootings in other states did.

 

Ramsey was reportedly picked on frequently at school. According to friends, Ramsey wasn't very smart and was often called names such as "retard", "spaz" or "braindead".

 

He was not the first in his family to bring a gun into a public place. In 1986, Evan's father Don was nicknamed "Rambo of Alaska" after an incident in which a newspaper refused to publish his letter, he went to the newspaper's office armed with an .223 semi-automatic rifle and a .44 magnum revolver and over 200 rounds of ammunition. After a short stand-off, Don Ramsey surrendered, and was imprisoned.

 

Two weeks after his father was paroled, Ramsay perpetrated the school shooting. Reports say over 20 people knew of Ramsey's plan to shoot up the school, and two actually helped him, one by teaching him how to use a shotgun, and the other telling him of the infamy that would come. Reports say one student even brought a camera to school on the day.

 

On February 19, Ramsey entered the school lobby brandishing a shotgun, and killed 15-year-old student Josh Palacios. This shot to the abdomen of Palacios also injured two other students. He then shot the principal, Ron Edwards, in the hallway of the school. The principal died later on the floor of his office. Ramsey then put the shotgun barrel under his chin, but couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger. When police arrived on the scene, he placed the gun on the ground and surrendered.

 

Ramsey was charged as an adult, sentenced to 200 years in a maximum-security prison, and is eligible for parole in 2066, when he will be 85 years old.

Edited February 18, 2008 by Ashot

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Thirteenth Case - Amish school shooting

 

Charles Carl Roberts IV - Killed 5

 

On the morning of Monday, October 2, 2006, a gunman took hostages and eventually killed five girls (aged 6-13) and then killed himself at West Nickel Mines School, a one-room schoolhouse in the Old Order Amish community of Nickel Mines, a village in Bart Township of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. Police report that the gunman was Charles Carl Roberts IV, a 32-year-old milk-tank truck driver who lived nearby.

 

The emphasis on forgiveness and reconciliation in the response of the Amish community was widely discussed in the national media. The West Nickel Mines School was torn down, and a new one-room schoolhouse, the New Hope School, was built at another location.

 

 

 

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Fourteenth Case - Richland High School shooting

 

Jamie Rouse - Killed 2

 

The Richland High School shooting occurred on Wednesday, November 15, 1995, in Lynnville, Tennessee, a small town located in Giles County. One student and a teacher were killed, and another teacher was seriously wounded by a shot to the head. The perpetrator was high school student Jamie Rouse, age 17. Rouse used a .22-calibre Remington Viper semi-automatic rifle. Rouse was convicted as an adult of two counts of first degree murder and one count of attempted murder, he was sentenced to life in prison without a parole.

 

Stephen Abbot was also charged with criminal responsibility and sentenced to a 40 year life term for driving Rouse to school with ammunition and knowing his intentions to shoot instructors at his school.

Edited February 18, 2008 by Ashot

[Ashot]

Fifteenth Case - W. R. Myers High School shooting

 

Todd Cameron Smith - Killed 1

 

The W.R. Myers High School shooting occurred on April 28, 1999, at W. R. Myers High School in Taber, Alberta, Canada when a 14-year-old walked into his school and randomly shot at three students, killing Jason Lang and injuring another. This shooting took place only eight days after the Columbine High School Massacre, and is widely believed to have been a copycat crime.

 

Crown prosecutors attempted to have Smith, still a minor at the time, tried as an adult with the potential for a life sentenced due to the severity of the crime. The Crown also argued that an adult prison would offer greater educational programs than a youth facility could provide. The court denied the motion and he was tried as a minor.

 

Following the arrest and prior to trial, a medical examination discovered Smith had a heart condition that required open heart surgery. During the surgery, he suffered a stroke and fell into a coma. After awakening from the coma, he had problems speaking and eating and suffered from diminished mental capacity

 

His case was suspended until he recovered, as both the Crown and defense agreed he was unable to stand trial. Following a "remarkable recovery", he was declared fit to stand trial, and was scheduled to go to court in September of 2000.

 

At his trial, Smith pled guilty to all three counts, and was sentenced to three years in prison, and was ordered to spend seven years under community supervision upon his release.

 

 

[Ashot]

Sixteenth Case - Erfurt massacre

 

Robert Steinhäuser - Killed 15

 

The Erfurt massacre was a school shooting that occurred on April 26, 2002 at the Johann Gutenberg Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany. Sixteen people were killed before the perpetrator committed suicide. The victims comprised 13 school staff (12 teachers and one administrator), two students and one police officer. In addition, seven people were injured.

 

On the day of the shooting, Steinhäuser left home the same time he always did, and told his parents he had an exam. Steinhäuser got changed into a black ninja-style outfit in the lavatories of his school and started the shooting at approximately 11:00am.

 

He moved from classroom to classroom, pausing briefly each time in the doorway to shoot the teacher, then moving onto the next room. According to students, he ignored them and aimed only for the teachers, although two students were killed by shots fired through a locked door.

 

Five minutes after the shooting began, police were arriving on the scene. Soon after, Steinhäuser aimed from a window and shot a police officer in the head, killing him instantly. Before his suicide, he was confronted by one of his teachers, Rainer Heise, who was said to have stopped Steinhäuser with the words, "Drück ab! Wenn du mich jetzt erschießt, dann guck mir in die Augen!" ("Pull the trigger! If you shoot me now, then look into my eyes!"), Steinhäuser is said to have pulled off his mask and answered, "Für heute reicht's, Herr Heise!" ("That's enough for today, Mr Heise!").

 

According to Mr Heise, he then talked to Steinhäuser for a short amount of time, luring him into the doorway of an empty room. When Steinhäuser was in the doorway, Heise pushed Steinhäuser into the room and quickly locked the door. Steinhäuser committed suicide shortly after and his body was found by police a few hours after the shooting.

 

Steinhäuser's last words were Für heute reicht's ("this is enough for today") and are also the title of a very controversial book about the massacre written by Ines Geipel, that revealed several mistakes made by the police on the case.

 

Heise was considered to be a hero by some for locking Steinhäuser in a room and stopping the killing, but later began to receive some backlash from the public.

[Ashot]

Seventeenth Case - Red Lake High School massacre

 

Jeff Weise - Killed 9

 

The Red Lake High School massacre was a school massacre that took place on Monday, March 21, 2005 in which Jeffrey Weise, a student at Red Lake High School in Red Lake, an unincorporated section of Beltrami County, Minnesota, killed seven people including a teacher and a security guard before committing suicide.

 

The incident began on the afternoon of March 21 when Weise shot his grandfather, Daryl "Dash" Lussier, with a .22 pistol while Lussier was sleeping. It is not known how Weise got the pistol, but he is believed to have possessed it for as long as a year before the shooting. Weise then stole Lussier's two police-issue weapons, a 9 mm Glock17 and pump-action shotgun. He shot Michelle Sigana, Lussier's girlfriend and police partner, when she returned home.

 

Weise then drove his grandfather's squad car to school, arriving at around 2:45 p.m. Central Standard Time (19:45 UTC). Passing through the building's main entrance, he encountered unarmed security guard Derrick Brun, who was manning the school's metal detector. Weise fatally shot Brun, and then proceeded down a hallway firing at students, killing five students and a teacher (Neva Rogers) and injuring seven others. Witnesses say he smiled and waved as he shot at people. In an incident reminiscent of the rumours that spread after the events that took place during the Columbine High School massacre, one witness said that he asked a victim if he believed in God, before killing him.

 

 

 

[Ashot]

Eighteenth Case - Santana High School shooting

 

Charles Andrew "Andy" Williams - Killed 2

 

On Monday, March 5, 2001 at 9:20 a.m., 15-year-old Williams began firing a .22-caliber revolver in a boys' bathroom at Santana High School, killing two students. He then left the bathroom firing the revolver indiscriminately at other students. According to one witness, Williams repeatedly walked out of the bathroom, fired shots, then went back into the bathroom. The scene soon turned chaotic as students and teachers ducked or scrambled to safety. Williams reloaded his revolver at least once. A student teacher and campus security supervisor Peter Ruiz walked into the bathroom to try to stop Williams, but Williams aimed the revolver at them and forced them out. As the student and supervisor walked out Williams fired and hit Ruiz in the back. Two off-duty police officers who were visiting the school were alerted to the shooting, however, they were at different ends of the school. One of them approached the bathroom and called for backup. Police officers quickly arrived and charged the bathroom; they discovered Williams kneeling on the floor with the weapon in his hands. He told officers that he was by himself.

 

Williams surrendered and was taken into custody. He shot and killed two students, 14-year-old Bryan Zuckor and 17-year-old Randy Gordon. Thirteen others suffered gunshot wounds and were transported to various local hospitals.

 

On June 20, 2002 Williams, in an effort to avoid a trial, pleaded guilty to all charges against him. On August 15, 2002 a California judge sentenced Williams, as an adult, to 50 years to life in prison, and ordered him to serve his time in the Youth Offender Program at CCI, Tehachapi until his 18th birthday, at which time he would be transferred to adult prison.

 

 

[Ashot]

Nineteenth Case - Pearl High School shooting

 

Luke Woodham - Killed 3

 

On October 1, 1997 Woodham, then 16, brutally beat and stabbed his mother, Mary Woodham, to death. At his trial he claimed he could not remember killing his mother. Woodham drove his mother's car to his high school. Wearing a long trenchcoat, he made no attempt to hide his rifle. When he entered the school, he walked toward Lydia Dew and shot Dew as well as Christina Menefee, his former girlfriend. Both girls died. Pearl High School Band director, Jeff Cannon, was standing 5 feet from Dew when she was fatally shot. He went on to wound 7 others before Joel Myrick, the assistant principal, retrieved a .45 pistol from the glove compartment of his truck and subdued Woodham while he was trying to drive off campus. When Myrick asked Woodham of his motive, he replied "Life has wronged me, sir". Woodham had been planning to drive to the Pearl Middle School to continue his murderous rampage; only Myrick's intervention prevented this from happening.

 

Minutes before he started the shooting, he gave the following message to a friend:

 

"I am not insane, I am angry. I killed because people like me are mistreated every day. I did this to show society, push us and we will push back. ... All throughout my life, I was ridiculed, always beaten, always hated. Can you, society, truly blame me for what I do? Yes, you will. ... It was not a cry for attention, it was not a cry for help. It was a scream in sheer agony saying that if you can't pry your eyes open, if I can't do it through pacifism, if I can't show you through the displaying of intelligence, then I will do it with a bullet."

[Ashot]

Twentieth Case - Parker Middle School shooting

 

Andrew J. Wurst - Killed 1

 

On April 24, 1998, Wurst, at the age of 14-years old, shot and killed John Gillette, a teacher, at Parker Middle School, at Nick's Place (a nearby restaurant) during an 8th grade graduation dance. The shooting began on an outdoor patio. Before running out of ammunition, Wurst proceeded to enter into Nick's Place where the dance had been held, and subsequently fired and hit a teacher and two students. Further loss of life was prevented when the owner of Nick's Place intervened and held Wurst at gunpoint with a shotgun for 11 minutes until police arrived.

 

He is serving a 60-year sentence in a prison for young offenders. He will be eligible for parole within serving 30 years for third-degree murder and attempted murder charges.

[Ashot]

The top 20 list is complete, not to mention the rest

 

Over the years school shooting has increased instead of being prevented.

 

Only this month there has been 5 cases

 

Here they are

1) Notre Dame Elementary shooting - Michael Layne - Luckily no death - Suicide

2) Louisiana Technical College shooting - Latina Williams - Killed 2 - Suicide

3) Mitchell High School shooting - Corneilous Cheers - Killed 1 - Arrested

4) E.O. Green Junior High School shooting - Brandon McInerney - Killed 1 - Arrested

5) Northern Illinois University shooting - Ananymous - Killed 5, Wounded 18 - Suicide

 

All of these has happened in a two week time fram.

What has the wolrd come to? Are the children to blame for the society? Are we safe to even walk out of home? Should I not let my family members to go to school?

 

What can be done, how it could be prevented? What are we doing wrong? Will this ever end?

 

There has been 38 school shootings in US, 4 in Canada, and 11 troughout the rest of the world since 1990 -2008, from which 34 of them occured in the past 8 years. Which brings the question - why is it increasing?

 

Note: Case number 13 - Amish school shooting

 

Amish respond with forgiveness

On the day of the shooting, a grandfather of one of the murdered Amish girls was heard warning some young relatives not to hate the killer, saying, "We must not think evil of this man." Another Amish father noted, "He had a mother and a wife and a soul and now he's standing before a just God."

 

Jack Meyer, a member of the Brethren community living near the Amish in Lancaster County, explained: "I don't think there's anybody here that wants to do anything but forgive and not only reach out to those who have suffered a loss in that way but to reach out to the family of the man who committed these acts."

 

A Roberts family spokesman said an Amish neighbor comforted the Roberts family hours after the shooting and extended forgiveness to them. Amish community members visited and comforted Roberts' widow, parents, and parents-in-law. One Amish man held Roberts' sobbing father in his arms, reportedly for as long as an hour, to comfort him. The Amish have also set up a charitable fund for the family of the shooter. About 30 members of the Amish community attended Roberts' funeral, and Marie Roberts, the widow of the killer, was one of the few outsiders invited to the funeral of one of the victims. Marie Roberts wrote an open letter to her Amish neighbors thanking them for their forgiveness, grace, and mercy. She wrote, "Your love for our family has helped to provide the healing we so desperately need. Gifts you've given have touched our hearts in a way no words can describe. Your compassion has reached beyond our family, beyond our community, and is changing our world, and for this we sincerely thank you."

 

The Amish do not normally accept charity, but due to the extreme nature of the tragedy, donations were accepted. Richie Lauer, director of the Anabaptist Foundation, said the Amish community, whose religious beliefs prohibit them from having health insurance, will likely use the donations to help pay the medical costs of the hospitalized children.

 

Some commentators criticized the swift and complete forgiveness with which the Amish responded, arguing that forgiveness is inappropriate when no remorse has been expressed, and that such an attitude runs the risk of denying the existence of evil. Others were supportive. Donald Kraybill and two other scholars of Amish life noted that "letting go of grudges" is a deeply-rooted value in Amish culture, which remembers forgiving martyrs including Dirk Willems and Jesus himself. They explained that the Amish willingness to forgo vengeance does not undo the tragedy or pardon the wrong, but rather constitutes a first step toward a future that is more hopeful.

 

Is this something that will prevent further killings?

 

I want everyone's opinion on the matter!

 

Thank you!