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.