This just makes me so sad.
The Parkland kids are going to be very upset too.
NYtimes is reporting at least 3 deaths. At least one police officer was shot. So horrible.
8 deaths.
Or as we call it in America- just another day that ends in y.
And now the clock once again sadly starts ticking on what politicians say that “this isn’t the time to talk about gun control, thoughts and prayer are what’s needed.”
Police press conference—8 to 10 dead. No breakdown between students and adults. One is in critical condition and is being operated on—or was at the time of the conference. Suspect in custody and an additional “person of interest” has been detained. (So, POSSIBLE that one person did the shooting, but someone else assisted.) Suspect is current student. School district has 9 police officers. The one who was at the high school at the time of the shooting was injured–no word yet as to what kind of injury or how severe.
The school involved had no incidents involving firearms in at least the past 3 years.
Lessons learned: kids and teachers were well trained. It sounds as if the training did limit casualties. (From reports it seemed most of the victims were in the same art class.) When you build a new high school, make sure you have some place choppers can land. Several victims were evacuated by air, giving them better chances of survival.
This is insanity. It has to end.
This is 11 miles from my home. We know multiple students at this school. We are currently holding our breath.
So incredibly sad.
Update: The school safety officer was a retired Houston Police Officer who recently took this job as a second job. He is in critical condition and is the person in surgery.
Explosive devices have been found in the school and in surrounding areas. A home is surrounded by police cars. Family living there hasn’t been identified, but it is believed to be the home of the shooter.
A student who was interviewed said a friend saw the gunman and pulled the fire alarm. If that’s true, kudos to that kid.
So sad, prayers for the families. There seem to be so many troubled kids in this country, I really hope we can find a way to help them and prevent future tragedies.
Another case of pulling the fire alarm to get everyone out of classrooms. DIL is a middle school teacher and their protocols were changed. Now when the fire alarm goes off they are required to visually search the halls before letting students exit.
Meh. Another day, another mass shooting.
Is that a good idea to pull the fire alarm? Does that create more targets for the shooter?
These poor kids had participated in the national school walkout to end gun violence just last month.
There is troubled youth in all corners of the world, but only our country is where they have access to guns. I’m so tired about debating this issue of gun control…it really comes down to common sense. This news in TX saddens me to no end.
In this case, pulling the fire alarm was a good idea. No way to know in advance, of course.
But…in THIS case, it appears that the gunman thought there would be a lockdown and planted explosives in the school and adjacent areas A different kid pulled the alarm and most of the kids ran out of the school. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44173954 BEFORE it was reported that explosives had been found, one student, who was hysterical, said she ran for the woods and stopped there. From there, she said she heard loud booms. No word yet on whether those were explosions.
At the very least, it allowed the student to “spread the word” that there was a serious problem. In a large school–and physically, this is a large school campus–how else could one kid who had seen the gunman let everyone know there was a problem?
If the interview was correct, the kid who pulled the alarm, saw the gunman go past him with a shotgun. He didn’t think the shooter saw him. He pulled the alarm.
So…not an easy choice.
There is a festering sickness in the zeitgeist of America. These shootings are but a symptom, of this I am convinced. This is the twenty-second school shooting this year. As long as we JUST make this about guns (which have ALWAYS been a huge part of America’s collective self identity), these massacres will continue. This is NOT to say that I don’t think we should be doing more to make guns and large magazine ammunition less readily available to people who might carry out these heinous acts. I definitely think we should. But I think we can walk and chew gum at the same time. That we’ve adopted an attitude of learned helplessness is what has me feeling so demoralized. My only hope is that the generation most affected by these shootings (such as the Parkland students) will be the one that finally does more than handwringing and pontificating. This is a socially complex phenomenon. Addressing it will take the courage to take on ALL the variables that account for these types of shootings.
Excellent points.
Collective will is definitely the driver for all significant social change. #Civil Rights. #Anti-Vietnam War. #Womens Rights. #LGBT Rights. #Marriage Equality. All changes driven by a shift in the prevailing zeitgeist… I must hold onto hope that we won’t allow this madness to continue unabated. Surely we won’t always accept this type of violence as SSDD…Right? (Note: Please let’s not let this discussion descend down the rabbit hole of divisive politics. I’d like to see this thread thread the needle of helpful discourse).
Voting is a civic duty. Please ask every high school senior you know if they are registered to vote yet, and if not, help them to register.
"Jugulator20: And now the clock once again sadly starts ticking on what politicians say that “this isn’t the time to talk about gun control, thoughts and prayer are what’s needed.”
And once again, everyone will pretend it isn’t relevant what psychotropic medications the shooter was taking. When it most likely is the case. Who hasn’t heard the numerous warnings on the ubiquitous and inexplicable hawking of their wares on TV to a public who can’t buy these medications anyway? Perfectly competent people are warned to beware of thoughts of suicide and self-harm and anger and all kinds of nasty symptoms. And those are the more benign ones hawked on TV.
Let’s resolve both problems. Let’s keep weapons out of the hands of people who should never be near them. Let’s get our nation off drugs (except insulin, antibiotics, and other drugs of necessity, when required). Let’s fix our families.
There have been multiple school shootings every year for at least 30 years. What has happened in the last 30 years.
The shootings are indeed a symptom of so much more going wrong in this country than just the ongoing presence of weapons, a fact that has always existed since pioneer days. We are failing our kids and we need to fix this.