Today there was an anonymous shooting threat at my daughter's university. I am angry. Angry that someone would think it was funny, angry that students, parents and faculty have to worry about things like this, and angry that it has come to this in my children's lifetimes.
While rationally I felt my daughter was safe in her dorm room, I could not stop thinking about all the times the real thing has occurred - not only in the U.S., but around the world. And I could not help but acknowledge the reality - that the last 2 school shootings were prefaced by false alarm threats in the month(s) before.
I am angry that I am afraid but worse than that - I am angry that my daughter has to be.
Feb. 2, 1996 | Two students and one teacher killed, one other wounded when 14-year-old Barry Loukaitis opened fire on his algebra class. |
March 13, 1996 | 16 children and one teacher killed at |
Feb. 19, 1997 | Principal and one student killed, two others wounded by Evan Ramsey, 16. |
March 1997 | Eight people (six students and two others) at two schools killed by Mohammad Ahman al-Naziri. |
Oct. 1, 1997 | Two students killed and seven wounded by Luke Woodham, 16, who was also accused of killing his mother. He and his friends were said to be outcasts who worshiped Satan. |
Dec. 1, 1997 | Three students killed, five wounded by Michael Carneal, 14, as they participated in a prayer circle at |
Dec. 15, 1997 | Two students wounded. Colt Todd, 14, was hiding in the woods when he shot the students as they stood in the parking lot. |
March 24, 1998 | Four students and one teacher killed, ten others wounded outside as |
April 24, 1998 | One teacher, John Gillette, killed, two students wounded at a dance at |
May 19, 1998 | One student killed in the parking lot at |
May 21, 1998 | Two students killed, 22 others wounded in the cafeteria at |
June 15, 1998 | One teacher and one guidance counselor wounded by a 14-year-old boy in the school hallway. |
April 20, 1999 | 14 students (including killers) and one teacher killed, 23 others wounded at |
April 28, 1999 | One student killed, one wounded at |
May 20, 1999 | Six students injured at |
Nov. 19, 1999 | Victor Cordova Jr., 12, shot and killed Araceli Tena, 13, in the lobby of |
Dec. 6, 1999 | Four students wounded as Seth Trickey, 13, opened fire with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun at |
Dec. 7, 1999 | One teacher and three students wounded by a 17-year-old student. |
Feb. 29, 2000 | Six-year-old Kayla Rolland shot dead at |
March 2000 | One teacher killed by a 15-year-old student, who then shot himself. The shooter has been in a coma ever since. |
March 10, 2000 | Two students killed by Darrell Ingram, 19, while leaving a dance sponsored by |
May 26, 2000 | One teacher, Barry Grunow, shot and killed at |
Sept. 26, 2000 | Two students wounded with the same gun during a fight at |
Jan. 17, 2001 | One student shot and killed in front of |
Jan. 18, 2001 | One student killed by two boys, ages 17 and 19. |
March 5, 2001 | Two killed and 13 wounded by Charles Andrew Williams, 15, firing from a bathroom at |
March 7, 2001 | Elizabeth Catherine Bush, 14, wounded student Kimberly Marchese in the cafeteria of |
March 22, 2001 | One teacher and three students wounded by Jason Hoffman, 18, at |
March 30, 2001 | One student killed by Donald R. Burt, Jr., a 17-year-old student who had been expelled from |
Nov. 12, 2001 | Chris Buschbacher, 17, took two hostages at the |
Jan. 15, 2002 | A teenager wounded two students at |
Feb. 19, 2002 | Two killed in Eching by a man at the factory from which he had been fired; he then traveled to Freising and killed the headmaster of the technical school from which he had been expelled. He also wounded another teacher before killing himself. |
April 26, 2002 | 13 teachers, two students, and one policeman killed, ten wounded by Robert Steinhaeuser, 19, at the Johann Gutenberg secondary school. Steinhaeuser then killed himself. |
April 29, 2002 | One teacher killed, one wounded by Dragoslav Petkovic, 17, who then killed himself. |
October 28, 2002 | Robert S. Flores Jr., 41, a student at the nursing school at the |
April 14, 2003 | One 15-year-old killed, and three students wounded at |
April 24, 2003 | James Sheets, 14, killed principal Eugene Segro of |
Sept. 24, 2003 | Two students are killed at |
Sept. 28, 2004 | Three students killed and 6 wounded by a 15-year-old Argentininan student in a town 620 miles south of |
March 21, 2005 | Jeff Weise, 16, killed grandfather and companion, then arrived at school where he killed a teacher, a security guard, 5 students, and finally himself, leaving a total of 10 dead. |
Nov. 8, 2005 | One 15-year-old shot and killed an assistant principal at |
Aug. 24, 2006 | Christopher Williams, 27, looking for his ex-girlfriend at |
Sept. 13, 2006 | Kimveer Gill, 25, opened fire with a semiautomatic weapon at |
Sept. 26, 2006 | Adult male held six students hostage at |
Sept. 29, 2006 | A 15-year-old student shot and killed |
Oct. 3, 2006 | 32-year-old Carl Charles Roberts IV entered the one-room |
Jan. 3, 2007 | Douglas Chanthabouly, 18, shot fellow student Samnang Kok, 17, in the hallway of |
April 16, 2007 | A 23-year-old Virginia Tech student, Cho Seung-Hui, killed two in a dorm, then killed 30 more 2 hours later in a classroom building. His suicide brought the death toll to 33, making the shooting rampage the most deadly in |
Sept. 21, 2007 | A Delaware State Univesity Freshman, Loyer D. Brandon, shot and wounded two other Freshman students on the University campus. |
Oct. 10, 2007 | A 14-year-old student at a |
Nov. 7, 2007 | An 18-year-old student in southern |
Feb. 8, 2008 | A nursing student shot and killed two women and then herself in a classroom at |
Feb. 11, 2008 | A 17-year-old student at |
Feb. 12, 2008 | A 14-year-old boy shot a student at |
Feb. 14, 2008 | Gunman kills seven students and then himself, and wounds 15 more when he opens fire on a classroom at |
That is a horribly long list. I agree. It is completely senseless.
ReplyDeleteHorrible , must be there sitting in the pit of your stomach all the time .
ReplyDeleteIts not something that even crosses our minds here in the UK but I'm sure that in ten years time , or sooner , perhaps around the time my daughter goes off , it will be the same here .
Scary numbers there - as MsCatcalls said its not something we've really had to think about here.... YET - in the UK it seems to be knives not a week goes by with a fatal stabbing of a teenager :(
ReplyDeleteNo. It's not funny at all.
ReplyDeleteMy nephew (other sisters son) goes to Virginia Tech and was in his dorm during the shootings. My sister was in Kansas when it happened and she didn't hear from him for a little while....she was going completely crazy until she heard his voice.
I cannot believe the length of that list. All those parents, family and friends entwined...all those lives. It's just too much. Even with the list, I don't consider that anything could really happen when I send mine to school.
I'm glad that DDaughter is okay...praying that it remains just a threat.
I'll never ever understand people.
And where are these kids getting guns from?
ReplyDeleteThere are so many more things to have to worry about these days than when I was going to school. I know they implemented a warning system at my son's college after the Virginia Tech shootings. So far they only had to use it when they closed down the campus because of bad weather. The school text, emailed and called everyone to let them know not to go to classes and it worked really well. I think they also have a siren too. It is sad that we have to resort to these kinds of things to keep our kids safe.
ReplyDeleteEXPERT GROUP DISCOVERS 5 REASONS WHY COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES ARE NOT SAFE
ReplyDeleteThe SERAPH Research Team, consisting of education and law enforcement experts, has discovered five reasons for unsafe college campuses.
The SERAPH Research Team provides a bi-yearly school-safety report for Congress and in 2006 prepared an assessment of the “The Virginia Tech Review Panel Report”.
In its analysis of security concerns at colleges and universities across the country, SERAPH has determined:
1. Since the Columbine massacre in 1999, police departments across the United States have been training in “active shooter” response. This has been a well-established practice for use in public [K-12] schools.
However, our survey of college and university security directors and police chiefs shows that few have had this training. Two reasons were given: Administrators often do not want to pay for the training or in some cases bar campus security/police from participating in training to avoid what they perceived to be a "militaristic campus atmosphere”.
2. College administrators have no training in security or police operations and as a result micromanage security operations on their campuses. This is problematic because of the obvious delay it causes in response time. In addition, when a college or university has a police department, administrative micromanagement can violate state law regarding obstruction of justice.
3. A proper security audit is vitally important to campus security. However, our survey of security directors / police chiefs indicates that most college administrators will not allow these assessments to be done out of fear of liability exposure and the chance the audit would require changes in management systems.
4. Threat assessment as a science has existed in the United States since the early 1940s. Predication and prevention of violence is a critical aspect of campus security and one that, in SERAPH’s experience, seriously is lacking on higher-education campuses. All Resident Assistants, security / police and department administrators should be trained to identify violent behavior in students, staff and visitors.
A lack of systematic monitoring of people on campus contributes to crime.
5. An emergency plan is only as good as the data in it and the ability of key personnel to use it effectively.
Training is important for the effective management of an emergency by key personnel. You cannot ask untrained people to do what trained people do.
SERAPH Research Team: http://www.seraph.net/about_seraph.html
Sad and oh so so scary, I don't understand what makes these people act the way they do...... It leaves me speechless really.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to be knives here, teenagers carrying knives for "protection"..........
xxxx
The whole thing is beyond me. I will say the school reacted well, my daughter received a text page on her cell phone that morning with the warning. Classes are as normal today with a heavy police presence on campus.
ReplyDeleteThere is something incredibly difficult for parents in this situation - for most of us this is the first place our children go where they are entirely beyond our protection.
I know, they are beyond our protection a block down at the elementary school too - but there is something about them living away from home that makes it more frightening. I sincerely hope I will have no reason to bring this up again, it makes me so sad and so angry.
I appreciate everyone's responses - I just don't think any of us will ever make sense of these senseless threats or when the unthinkable actually happens. I cannot imagine how the parents who have had to deal with such incredible anguish, loss and pain do so without losing their minds.
I would be so scared myself if I was in your situation. Why oh why are people so messed up to even threat such stuff let alone commit such atrocities.. Such sad times we live in..
ReplyDeletehere in UK almost everyday is yet another stabbing, it's not a good feeling having young ones out there in this climate..
When my daughter called and said "I'm calling cause I don't want you to hear it somewhere else and get freaked out ..." I was like - uh oh - did she get a ticket for trespassing again? When she said there had been a threat, a shooting threat at her school - my heart sank into my stomach. Horrible feeling, so so scary.
ReplyDeleteit's very scary and i totally understand your anger. my son was about 20 feet away when his principle was shot (2003 red lion, pa). a scary day and a scary time. if you need to vent, go right ahead. i'll listen. your blog is beautiful. i'm glad i was on the hunt for some new reads this evening.
ReplyDelete