Police have thwarted an anticipated high school attack in Maryland. What makes this case unusual is that the suspect’s father read her diary and called the school. School notified the police. They searched the home and found lots of bomb making equipment and a gun…all purchased legally.
Because the suspect is 18 her name has been released.
My heart goes out to the family. It took guts for the dad to “do the right thing” and notify authorities. I think a lot of parents would have tried to talk their child out of it rather than notify authorities. ( Attack was scheduled for April 5.)
It’s also unusual because females rarely commit mass shootings.
I wonder if her parents are going to regret calling the police. They may have thought that being a teenager and having mental health issues would have kept her name out of the press.
Sad and disturbing, but I’m so glad the parents did blow the whistle and prevent a huge tragedy. They also apparently prevented their daughter’s suicide.
She is facing criminal charges. I wonder if there was another option - take her out of school - psych evaluation/hospitalization, etc. Not sure calling the police was the best choice.
She is 18. The patents’ options were quite limited. And the school psychologist would have likely alerted the authorities anyway because she actively planned causing death and bodily harm to her fellow students.
I am happy that a huge tragedy was averted and sad that this young woman’s life took such a terrible turn that she felt compelled to shoot her classmates.
BB beat me to it. Since she’s a legal adult, the parents likely had no options other than this course of action.
My first thought with this story is how the heck did she hide those materials?
I’m glad lives were likely spared but I don’t know if criminal charges were necessarily the right course of action. Even with super detailed plans, that doesn’t mean she would actually do it. She needs help and I hope a psych eval is done before the charges go forward.
My heart bleeds for her parents. Clearly they did the right thing for their D as well as all concerned. It is regrettable that her name is out there, but better to have her name out there as having planned a school shooting than to have her be the next Adam Lanza.
The news report says she is hospitalized. Now the struggle of the parents will be to keep her there as long as she really needs. As anyone who has been involved in the unwilling hospitalization of a mentally ill person knows, it is extremely difficult.