School shootings

[waltky]

Hero teacher stops school, shooter...

Teacher Hailed as Hero for Subduing School Shooter
September 22, 2017 - A teacher who subdued a school shooting suspect acted on her “strong Christian instincts,” the teacher's mother said Thursday.

“I'm sure she didn't think about it; it was just a gut reaction,” Barbara McQueen of rural Marshall, Illinois, said of her daughter Angela McQueen, a math and physical education teacher at Mattoon High School. “We're just glad that nobody was seriously hurt. She did the right thing and it worked out fine,” added Tom McQueen, Angela's father. Angela McQueen did not respond to a request for comment about her actions in Wednesday's incident in the school cafeteria that Mattoon Police Chief Jeff Branson credited with saving lives. “The school resource officer was nearby; he also helped subdue the individual, but I've got to tell you it was the school employee who took this on. I can't tell you how impressed I am with her,” Branson said.

Authorities have asked the McQueen family and others close to the incident to not comment on the shooting itself because it remains under investigation. Angela McQueen may eventually speak out, although “she is a very quiet person and does not like the limelight,” her mother said. A 1995 Marshall High School graduate who holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Eastern Illinois University, Angela McQueen has been in the limelight before, but for a much different reason, her mom noted. She scored more than 1,000 points during her time as a scholar-athlete with the Lions basketball team.

Angela McQueen, a math and physical education teacher at Mattoon High School, helped subdue a gunman this week.​

One student was hospitalized following the shooting and another suffered minor injuries when he was apparently grazed by gunfire. The suspected gunman, a 16-year-old male student, faces a juvenile detention petition in Coles County Circuit Court. He has not been identified because of his age. A student in the cafeteria at the time of the incident told WCIA-TV the gunman's finger was on the trigger when the teacher tackled him and shots were fired into the ceiling. More than 100 police officers from as far as 30 miles away responded to the shooting and parents rushed to the school, which serves about 1,100 students.

Tom and Barbara McQueen were in Kentucky at the time, visiting the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter. On their way home, they stopped to see another daughter in Evansville and Angela called that daughter to get word to her parents that, while there had been a shooting, she was safe. The parents, who are retired teachers, granted at least three interviews Thursday but stressed, “We are here to tell everybody about her character and that she was born on the altar,” said Barbara McQueen. “My mother said, and I've passed it on, that Satan makes a mess and God cleans it up. Angela was there to clean up Satan's mess. We couldn't be any more proud of her and her three sisters.”

Teacher Hailed as Hero for Subduing School Shooter

 

[waltky]

A sad state of affairs...

School Shootings Are Sad, But No Longer Surprising
January 27, 2018 - Bailey Holt and Preston Cope were killed in their high school this week. They were both 15 years old. But has the news of students being killed in their school lost the power to shock and sober us?

At least 16 other students, all between 14 and 18, at Marshall County High School in Kentucky were injured when another student, age 15, opened fire in their school on Tuesday. "Bailey Holt and Preston [Cope] were two great people," their friend, Gabbi Bayers, said on Facebook. "It hurts knowing we won't be able to share the laughs anymore." And Jasen Holt told WKRN in Nashville of his daughter, "She was an angel here on Earth." That's how parents feel about their children in their souls. To report that two students were killed in their school was once the kind of story that would dominate the news of a week. And to be sure, the deplorable deaths and bright lives of those two youngsters have received intense attention. But the killings in Kentucky were the 11th school shooting of the year, and the first month of the year is not over.

People attend a vigil on Thursday for the victims of a fatal shooting at Marshall County High School in Benton, Ky.​

There have been almost 300 school shootings in the United States since 2013, according to the gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety. While we may remember some of the names of places where students died — Santa Monica, Calif.; Roseburg, Ore.; Rancho Tehama Reserve, Calif. — and many of the names of the victims, those harrowing statistics suggest school shootings now occur at the rate of almost one per week. If another school shooting takes place next week, we may be shocked and saddened all over again. But not surprised. School shootings have become commonplace. News organizations now know whom to call for reflections on how families and towns can try to contend with loss and grief, and on counsel and care for sad and traumatized students. And of course, we know who to call to hear from those who dispute even the most modest regulation on guns. We have had to make those calls time and time again.

Many U.S. schools now have routine drills on how to take shelter if a gunman bursts into their school. Parents may worry if those drills do more to prepare or panic their children. But it's hard to say training to hide from a shooter doesn't make as much sense as fire drills, when the tragic and outrageous fact is that more youngsters are injured or killed in school shootings each year than in school fires. The fear of children dying in their classrooms has become an everyday fact of our lives. But have we stopped being shocked?

School Shootings Are Sad, But No Longer Surprising

 

[Vastator]

 

[frigidweirdo]

They don't seem to be happening in the UK..... oh wait, they don't have many guns in the UK.

 

[waltky]

School shooting in Maryland...

Two Hurt, Gunman Dead in Maryland School Shooting
March 20, 2018 - A school resource officer shot the student gunman, who opened fire at Great Mills High School.

Two students were injured and a third, the gunman, has died in a shooting in a hallway at Great Mills High School in Southern Maryland on Tuesday morning, according to the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office. A school resource officer shot the student gunman, who fired back with a handgun, Sheriff Tim Cameron said. The school resource officer was not injured, Cameron said. “He pursued the shooter and engaged the shooter,” Cameron said of the school resource officer, whose identity has not been released. The two students who were injured — a 14-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl — were being treated at local hospitals, officials said. Neither their identities, nor the shooter’s, were released Tuesday morning. The boy is in good condition and is being treated at MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital. The girl was initially brought to MedStar, but was later stabilized and transferred to University of Maryland Prince George’s Hospital Center. The shooting happened just before 8 a.m. at the school at 21130 Great Mills Road, county spokesman Tony Jones said from the emergency operations center. The St. Mary’s County school was on lockdown and students were being evacuated, Jones said.

Cameron said multiple law enforcement agencies and fire departments assisted in the “mass response” at the school. “This is what we train for. This is what we prepare for and this is what we pray we never have to to,” Cameron said. “And on this day we realized our worst nightmare that our greatest asset — our children — were attacked in a bastion of safety and security, one of our schools.” Parents are being asked to meet their children at a reunification site at Forrest Career Technical Center in Leonardtown. Details about any injuries or the person who fired shots was not immediately available. “There has been an incident at Great Mills High School,” the department tweeted. “Parents please DO NOT respond to the school.” Senior Terrence Rhames was standing with his friends outside their first-period class around 8 a.m. when he heard a shot. He said he knew instantly what the loud crack meant. He started running, heading to a first-floor bathroom before thinking to himself, “This is a dead end.” He turned to instead sprint toward the nearest exit. Out of the corner of his eye, Rhames said, he saw a girl fall. “I just thank god I’m safe,” said Rhames, 18. “I just want to know who did it and who got injured.”

Great Mills, which enrolls about 1,600 students, is about 90 miles outside of Baltimore. St. Mary’s Ryken High School, a private school about 15 minutes northwest of Great Mills, went into lockdown around 9 a.m., according to Brad Chamberlain, dean of academics. “We’re getting conflicting reports,” Chamberlain said. U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, a Democrat who represents Southern Maryland, said his first reaction to hearing of a school shooting in his district was “a deep sense of loss.” As a father, grandfather and great-grandfather, Hoyer said it’s important to keep children safe in schools. The incident comes just over a month after a deadly rampage in a Florida high school. Seventeen people died in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, catalyzing a national conversation about gun violence in schools. Last Wednesday, Great Mills students participated in a nationwide “school walkout” on the one-month anniversary of the Parkland shooting. The students called for an end to gun violence and more school safety measures, according to local news reports.

MORE

See also:

Maryland School Resource Officer Stopped Gunman
March 20, 2018 - St. Mary's County Deputy First Class Blaine Gaskill responded quickly to the scene in a first-floor hallway at the school when he exchanged gunfire with 17-year-old Austin Wyatt Rollins.

A teenage boy who fired at classmates and exchanged gunfire with a school resource officer at Great Mills High School in Southern Maryland is dead, and two other students were injured in the incident, officials said Tuesday. Investigators with the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office were still sorting out which bullets hit which individuals, as the investigation into the nation’s latest school shooting continued. Officials identified the alleged shooter as Great Mills student Austin Wyatt Rollins, 17. They said he fired a Glock 9-millimeter gun at a 16-year-old girl, who was critically injured, and a 14-year-old boy, who was listed in good condition Tuesday. A school resource officer, Deputy First Class Blaine Gaskill, responded quickly to the scene in a first-floor hallway at the school, the sheriff’s office said. As Gaskill fired at Rollins, Rollins almost simultaneously fired his gun. Gaskill was not injured in the shooting.

St. Mary’s County Sheriff Tim Cameron said said there is an “indication that a prior relationship existed between the shooter and the female victim.” Officers are working to determine if that was part of the motive, and they are trying to determine which shots struck which individuals. "While it’s still tragic, he may have saved other people’s lives,” Gov. Larry Hogan said of Gaskill, who has been assigned to Great Mills since the start of the school year. The male victim is being treated at MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital. The girl was taken to University of Maryland Prince George’s Hospital Center, and is battling life-threatening injuries, Cameron said. The shooting happened in a first-floor hallway just before 8 a.m. at the school at 21130 Great Mills Road, county spokesman Tony Jones said from the emergency operations center. The St. Mary’s County school was placed on lockdown and students were evacuated, Jones said.

Cameron said multiple law enforcement agencies and fire departments assisted in the "mass response" at the school. "This is what we train for. This is what we prepare for and this is what we pray we never have to do," Cameron said. "And on this day we realized our worst nightmare that our greatest asset — our children — were attacked in a bastion of safety and security, one of our schools." Officers from multiple agencies assisted with the investigation into the shooting, which included searching a car and a home, combing through social media accounts, interviewing witnesses, reviewing footage from surveillance cameras and tracing the ownership of the gun used by the student. Cameron said there weren’t any immediately obvious warning signs on social media, but that investigators still needed to take a deeper look at social media.

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Doing It Right On the Nightmare Scene
March 20, 2018 - When it happens in your child's school, what will your agency's response be? How will it be handled? Have you talked to your kids?

It’s the phone call / text that no parent ever wants to receive from their child. “Dad/Mom… there’s been a shooting at my school. I’m scared.” I’m thankful that my children are all out of high school but realistic enough to understand that doesn’t mean they are free of danger. In this case, there are some things to be learned from the event circumstances, the response and the mitigation/recovery.

Deputy Blaine Gaskill​

First, I’m talking about the “school shooting” that occurred at Great Mills High School in Lexington Park, Maryland on March 20th. I put school shooting in quotes because it is NOT the “typical” what you’ve come to expect as a reported school shooting. This was not a mass attack. At the time of this writing, the indications are that it may not ever have intended to be such. It may well have been a murder attempt with a single intended victim. We’ll never know because the shooter was quickly neutralized by the School Resource Officer on site. Also, if this had happened in a department store parking lot, the number of dead/wounded would likely have remained the same but since it wasn’t on a school’s property, the mainstream media wouldn’t give it the time of day.

Second, the mainstream media representatives, as I watched them during the two press conferences I attended today, kept looking for a hook to make this bigger news. The expected politicians showed up to express their concern and shock to those in attendance. One or two of them tried to leverage the event into a greater call for gun control and bans on semi-automatic rifles. That proved a challenge since the shooter didn’t use a rifle and the only casualty reported (as of this writing) was the shooter himself. The female victim is reportedly in ICU at the PG County Shock Trauma unit. The male victim was shot in the leg and is in stable condition at a local hospital.

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[Viacheslav]

Is there any research about school shootings?
In the US happened a lot of such sadness accidents List of school shootings in the United States - Wikipedia and I was wondering whether there is a serious scientific study that includes a psychological portrait of criminals, social circumstances, family problems for each shooter. Because I think that these shooters generally should have some common "reasons", "problems" in life or with healf, which "force" them to school shooting.
In Russia we recently have had tragedy , when teenager as it is reported has been given bad mark, broken into the school and he was armed with an ax and a Molotov cocktail and so he tried to "take revenge" on the teacher, who had given him a bad mark.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Is there any research about school shootings?
In the US happened a lot of such sadness accidents List of school shootings in the United States - Wikipedia and I was wondering whether there is a serious scientific study that includes a psychological portrait of criminals, social circumstances, family problems for each shooter. Because I think that these shooters generally should have some common "reasons", "problems" in life or with healf, which "force" them to school shooting.
In Russia we recently have had tragedy , when teenager as it is reported has been given bad mark, broken into the school and he was armed with an ax and a Molotov cocktail and so he tried to "take revenge" on the teacher, who had given him a bad mark.

They are all nuts!

 

[protectionist]

They don't seem to be happening in the UK..... oh wait, they don't have many guns in the UK.

They have other problems. Especially when all of England is a gun-free zone, and everybody (even the cops stand around defenseless (and looking stupid)

 

[protectionist]

A sad state of affairs...

School Shootings Are Sad, But No Longer Surprising
January 27, 2018 - Bailey Holt and Preston Cope were killed in their high school this week. They were both 15 years old. But has the news of students being killed in their school lost the power to shock and sober us?

At least 16 other students, all between 14 and 18, at Marshall County High School in Kentucky were injured when another student, age 15, opened fire in their school on Tuesday. "Bailey Holt and Preston [Cope] were two great people," their friend, Gabbi Bayers, said on Facebook. "It hurts knowing we won't be able to share the laughs anymore." And Jasen Holt told WKRN in Nashville of his daughter, "She was an angel here on Earth." That's how parents feel about their children in their souls. To report that two students were killed in their school was once the kind of story that would dominate the news of a week. And to be sure, the deplorable deaths and bright lives of those two youngsters have received intense attention. But the killings in Kentucky were the 11th school shooting of the year, and the first month of the year is not over.

People attend a vigil on Thursday for the victims of a fatal shooting at Marshall County High School in Benton, Ky.​

There have been almost 300 school shootings in the United States since 2013, according to the gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety. While we may remember some of the names of places where students died — Santa Monica, Calif.; Roseburg, Ore.; Rancho Tehama Reserve, Calif. — and many of the names of the victims, those harrowing statistics suggest school shootings now occur at the rate of almost one per week. If another school shooting takes place next week, we may be shocked and saddened all over again. But not surprised. School shootings have become commonplace. News organizations now know whom to call for reflections on how families and towns can try to contend with loss and grief, and on counsel and care for sad and traumatized students. And of course, we know who to call to hear from those who dispute even the most modest regulation on guns. We have had to make those calls time and time again.

Many U.S. schools now have routine drills on how to take shelter if a gunman bursts into their school. Parents may worry if those drills do more to prepare or panic their children. But it's hard to say training to hide from a shooter doesn't make as much sense as fire drills, when the tragic and outrageous fact is that more youngsters are injured or killed in school shootings each year than in school fires. The fear of children dying in their classrooms has become an everyday fact of our lives. But have we stopped being shocked?

School Shootings Are Sad, But No Longer Surprising

Maybe THIS has something to do with it >>

1. https://www.realclearinvestigations...cipline_policy_and_the_parkland_shooting.html

2. https://www.realclearinvestigations...oward_countys_jail-to-classroom_pipeline.html

3. https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2018/03/02/broward_timeline.html

 

[waltky]

SRO saves day at Illinois high school...

Illinois School Resource Officer Stops Shooter
May 16, 2018 - School Resource Officer Mark Dallas, who was working at Dixon High School on Wednesday, shot and wounded a former student who fired a gun near the school’s gym on Wednesday.

The incident began about 8 a.m., according to officials speaking at a late-morning news conference. Students had gathered at the gym for graduation practice. Dixon police Chief Steven Howell said the suspect, a 19-year-old male, “fired several shots” near the gym. The school resource officer, identified as Mark Dallas, confronted the suspect, who then fled from the school with the officer in pursuit, Howell said. During the pursuit, the suspect fired several shots at the officer but did not strike him. The officer returned fire and struck the suspect, who was then taken into custody just west of the school, Howell said. He was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. No one else was injured. An earlier news account said the gunfire exchange took place in the gym.

Howell and other officials praised the officer for saving lives. “From the angle I’m looking at right now, at lot of things went right today when a great many of them could have (gone) wrong,” Dixon Mayor Liandro Arellanno Jr. said. “Things could have gone much worse.” “He saved an enormous amount of lives,” Lee County Sheriff John Simonton. Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, in a statement credited “school resource officer Mark Dallas for his bravery and quick action to immediately diffuse a dangerous situation.” Authorities have not provided the gunman’s name.

School Resource Officer Mark Dallas, who was working at Dixon High School on Wednesday, shot and wounded a former student who fired a gun near the school’s gym and later tried to shoot the officer Wednesday.​

Devin Scott, 18, a senior, said he and 150 others students were in gym at 8. They heard what sounded like firecrackers. Gym teacher Andrew McKay came running into gym and shouted that everyone should get out, Scott said. “We all got up and everyone started running toward the doors,” Scott said. “Some people didn’t take it seriously. They thought it was firecrackers. Some people did. They started crying as they were running.” The students ran out of the building and went to a National Guard armory a short distance from the gymnastium. They didnt know if the shooting was real or not until other students started pouring into the armory. Scott said that the experience didn’t begin to sink in until his adrenaline began to wear off. “I almost started crying,” he said. “It was scary. My life could have ended.” He and his brother, Skylar, 16, a junior, credited Officer Dallas and their teacher, Mr. McKay, for preventing what could have been a horrible tragedy. “I feel like he (Dallas) is a hero. I feel like Mr. McKay is a hero,” Devin Scott said.

Russ Shuck, 65, owner of Russ’ Automotive Service & Towing, said he began to notice something was amiss when students started pouring out from between the houses that separate him from the high school. “I was sitting here in the office with a couple of other guys drinking Pepsi and shooting the bull,” he said. “We were wondering what was going on. Then we heard the sirens.” Shuck expressed surprise that a school shooting could happen in a town like Dixon. “It’s just kinda of shocking that it happened in Dixon,” he said. “Never thought I’d see it around here.”

Authorities say students did exactly as they were trained to do in such situations. Officials said they were pleased to discover that students had barricaded themselves into classrooms by blocking doorways with chairs, desks and other furniture. Police have not said why the former student came to the school. Police said they believe the gunman acted alone and that there was no further threat to anyone in the area. Howell declined to discuss why the former student brought a gun to the school. According to the city of Dixon website, the school resource officer position was started by the Dixon Police Department in 2000 to help prevent school violence. Officials said all schools in Dixon, which is about 80 miles west of Chicago, were placed on lockdown in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. The other schools re-opened after officials determined the gunman acted alone.

Illinois School Resource Officer Stops Gunman

See also:

Off-Duty Officer Stops Gunman Targeting School Children in Brazil
May 16, 2018 - A Brazilian mother's police training suddenly kicked in as a gunman rushed at her and a group of parents waiting for their kids to get out of school.

A Brazilian mother's police training suddenly kicked in as a gunman rushed at her and a group of parents waiting for their kids to get out of school. Katia da Silva Sastre, 42, was outside a school in Sao Paulo when the man charged at them. Sastre can be seen drawing her weapon and firing multiple shots.

Off-Duty Officer Stops Gunman Targeting School Children in Brazil

 

[waltky]

Texas school shooting: Arm teachers to stop gunmen...

Texas school shooting: Arm teachers to stop gunmen, official says
20 May 2018 - Arming more teachers could help tackle gunmen targeting students if there were "four to five guns to one", a senior Texan official has said.

Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick was speaking two days after 10 people were killed at the Santa Fe High School, which had an armed guard. He had previously said schools had "too many entrances and too many exits" and their design should be reconsidered. The proposal to arm teachers is not a new idea. After a 14 February school shooting in Florida, US President Donald Trump suggested giving teachers a bonus if they carried guns. But he clarified via Twitter that "only the best 20% of teachers" - those with military backgrounds or special training - should be allowed guns.

Dan Patrick believes gun control would endanger more people​

Mr Patrick, a Republican, told CNN that the best way to stop a gunman was "with a gun". "But even better than that is four to five guns to one," he said. Hours earlier, the police chief of neighbouring Houston said he had hit "rock bottom" over failure to enact gun reforms. Chief Art Acevedo wrote on Facebook that he had "shed tears of sadness, pain and anger" over the shooting. The shooting was the latest in a series of deadly incidents across the US that have reignited debate about gun control.

What happened in the latest school shooting?

Police now say eight students and two teachers were killed when another student opened fire in an art class shortly before 08:00 (13:00 GMT) on Friday at the Santa Fe High School. Thirteen others were wounded in the attack, with two in critical condition. Among the dead are a Pakistani exchange student and a substitute teacher. Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, has been charged with murder after surrendering to police. He later admitted "to shooting multiple people". He allegedly used a shotgun and a revolver taken from his father, who legally owned the weapons.

It was the fourth deadliest shooting at a US school in modern history, and the deadliest since a student opened fire in February at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people. The Florida attack spawned a nationwide youth-led campaign for gun control, and a series of proposed changes, including moves to ban so-called bump stocks used in last year's Las Vegas shooting that killed 58 concert-goers.

What does the lieutenant governor propose?

See also:

Houston Police Chief Says He's Sick Of Inaction On Gun Control
May 19, 2018 - Following another school shooting, this one leaving 10 dead and 13 injured in Texas, Houston’s police chief is calling out elected officials for their failure to protect the children they claim to hold so dear.

Police Chief Art Acevedo posted a pained message on Facebook after Friday’s shooting in the nearby town of Santa Fe, in which a 17-year-old student at Santa Fe High School gunned down his classmates and a teacher.

No one ― not even the terrified kids themselves ― seemed to be all that surprised, with one student telling the local news she felt “eventually it was going to happen here too.” Acevedo said he has had enough inaction when it comes to protecting children. “Today I spent the day dealing with another mass shooting of children and a responding police officer who is clinging to life,” the police chief wrote Friday. “I’m not ashamed to admit I’ve shed tears of sadness, pain and anger.”

Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, Mayor Sylvester Turner, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and student organizers at Houston's March for Our Lives rally on March 24.​

He had a message to those who would choose their guns over the safety of kids. “I know some have strong feelings about gun rights, but I want you to know I’ve hit rock bottom and I am not interested in your views as it pertains to this issue,” he said.


Parkland, Florida, high school that left 17 dead." data-reactid="25">The police chief previously marched with demonstrators during the March 24 March for Our Lives event, held in response to the Feb. 14 mass shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school that left 17 dead. “This isn’t a time for prayers, and study and inaction, it’s a time for prayers, action and the asking of God’s forgiveness for our inaction (especially the elected officials that ran to the cameras today, acted in a solemn manner, called for prayers, and will once again do absolutely nothing),” Acevedo added.

Houston Police Chief Says He's Sick Of Inaction On Gun Control

Related:

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