School Shooting Examples

Hello fellow readers!

Today I will talk about some past school shootings that I will use as examples in future blogs.  Some of these past events you may know, while some you may not.  I have chosen these events because they will provide a wide variety of sub-topics to discuss in the future.  With that said, here is my first example:

In Denver, Colorado two students, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris (17 and 18 years old, respectively) had created several home made videos containing content about what they were planning to do.  What would later happen, however, was something no one would see coming.  On April 20th, 1999, Dylan and Eric brought several weapons to Columbine High school, where the two boys attended.  Around 11:19 A.M., they opened fire on several students and teachers, which resulted in the deaths of 12 students and one teacher, and 23 students wounded.  The two later committed suicide around 12:08 P.M. just before the police entered the school ("Columbine High School…").  

When it comes to school shootings, people usually expect to hear about numerous victims.  However, that is not always the case.  On December 8th, 2009, Northern Virginia Community College student Jason Michael Hamilton was waiting outside of room 412 at the Woodbridge Campus.  When students were asking him why, he simply stated that he was waiting for Professor Tatyana Kravchuck.  When the class started, Hamilton walked in with a rifle that was concealed in a duffle bag.  Jason fired two shots at Professor Kravchuck, with one hitting the whiteboard and the other stricking a hole in the wall.  Luckily, the Professor hid behind her desk in time to dodge the bullets (Stewart).  

As Jason Hamilton was about to fire a third time, the rifle fortunately jammed, giving Professor Kravchuck and the students enough time to safely exit the classroom.  Amanda Stewart wrote that the police arrived shortly thereafter to find Hamilton "sitting in a chair outside the classroom" and admitting that he was "the shooter" ("Detective: NVCC shooter…").  After pleading guilty, Jason Hamilton was scheduled for sentencing from two to 20 years in prison on September 9th (Stewart).

The third and final example is more recent.  On the morning of December 14th, 2012, a 20-year old boy named Adam Lanza murdered his mother, Nancy Lanza, in Newton, Connecticut, by shooting her with a .22 caliber Savage Mark II rifle ("Connecticut Shootings…").  Later, Adam Lanza traveled to the Sandy Hook elementary school via his mother's car.  Around 9:30 A.M., Lanza fired his way into the school, killing the school psychologist Mary Sherlach and Principal Dawn Hochsprung while wounding Vice Principal Natalie Hammond.  Adam proceeded to the classroom that Lauren Rousseau taught in, and fired at her, a teacher's aide, and 14 young students.  Later, Adam walked into Victoria Soto's classroom, shooting at her, another teacher's aide, and 6 young students.  He then took his own life when the police arrived ("Connecticut Shootings…").    

As stated before, I plan on using these three tragic and heart-breaking events as examples for future blogs.  I hope that further research and analysis will shed more light on school shootings.

CNN Library.  "Columbine High School Shootings Fast Facts."  CNN.  Turner Broadcasting System, 19 Sep. 2013.  Web.  29 Jan. 2014.

CNN Library.  "Connecticut Shootings Fast Facts."  CNN.  Turner Broadcasting System, 29 Dec. 2013.  Web.  29 Jan. 2014.

Stewart, Amanda.  "Detective: NVCC shooter had 'pent-up anger'."  Stafford County Sun.  BH Media Group Holdings, Inc., 21 Dec. 2012.  Web.  29 Jan. 2014.

Wave of Emotions Everyone Feels

With the media ramping up its reports on school shootings, how does one react when they hear about the event?  Is there sadness for the victims and the victim's families, or is there shock that an event like that could occur in the area it did?  In reality, there is no one answer, because so many thoughts go through someone's mind.  It does not matter if a person has a possible relation to the victims or that the person is watching it on the news half way around the country.  Everyone experiences more than at least one of the same emotions everyone feels.

For example, when the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting occurred, I was just in disbelief that something like that had to happen at an Elementary school, where there are little children who could be scarred for life.  Despite all the hiding drills me and my classmates participated in during Elementary school, I always believed that a scenario used in the drill would never occur in real life.  In hindsight, I could not believe how wrong I was.  No child should ever have to witness a classmate being murdered or be nearby when a shooter is in the vicinity.  Another emotion I felt was grief for the parents.  After hearing the fear, worry and sadness my parents had when I was diagnosed with a heart condition after being born, I could not even begin to imagine what the parents of the students felt when they found out that there had been a shooting at their child's school.  

The Wastick family's interview on CNN clearly show this when the father mentions that finding out a shooting occurred at his daughter's school was "shocking."  He also reveals that he was "shaken up" and was worried about "who else was in the building."  To the mother, she says that "it didn't even seem real" to her.  She later mentions "you read it in the papers, see it in the news and you're like, "oh my god, that poor family", but then something happens so close to home that it's like I think I'm still in shock."

As the reports were coming in throughout the agonizingly long day, I also felt a bit anxious hoping that they would eventually reveal not only the identity of the shooter, but also the motivation as well as the reason why he or she did this.  Deep down inside, I knew that the shooter was not just some psychopath who decided to just go on a rampage.  There had to be a specific reason why he or she has done this.  Ever since then, I would always ask myself this when I would hear about a shooting on the news.  With this blog, hopefully not only I, but everyone else will realize the impact school shootings have on the victims and the shooters.

Introduction

Greetings everyone!

This is my first time blogging in general so it is an experience that I am interested in partaking in.  However, I hope everyone will keep in mind that I do not like having personal information about me on the internet for the world to see, hence the pseudonym "Steve Watson" and the lack of information in my blog profile.  With that said, here is my introduction.

I am currently a full time student at the local community college working towards a degree in Administration of Justice.  I am seeking this degree because I was inspired by a very close family member who worked in Federal Service.  This family member would tell me about all the exciting investigations, hard work, and sacrifice that he experienced.  It made me want to follow in their footsteps and continue the family honor of protecting America and her interests.  As I grew up, I started thinking about serving in the military to gain work experience and then apply for a federal agency that involves work overseas.  However, with the current job situation as it is, I realized that I shouldn't place all my eggs in one basket and consider the possibility of working with a local or state police.  Then, when the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school occurred, I started wondering why people could bring themselves to taking the lives of youthful students and/or faculty members.  The thought just never left my subconscious.

With the announcement of blogging on a topic in English 112, I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to finally answer some questions that have been going through my mind for the last year.  In this blog, I plan on discussing some school shootings that have occurred in America, what brought these people to attack students at a school, and what could have been done or what I believe should be done to prevent these events from occurring again.  I am very eager to begin learning about this topic and sharing it with everyone.

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