1998
Westside Middle School Massacre
- March 24, 1998
- A shooting took place in Craighead County, Arkansas (near Jonesboro) at Westside Middle School
- The shooters were Mitchell Johnson (13), and Andrew Golden (11); they were cousins
- Johnson was going through tough times, divorced parents, teachers who gave him suspensions for getting into trouble, and was going through the wrong path.
- Golden wanted to get revenge and "scare" people who bullied him in school
- 5 deaths (two 11 year olds, two 12 year olds, and one teacher), nine injured students, and one injured teacher
- The boys triggered the fire alarm, and waited for the students to come out into the hallway. It was only then when they began shooting.
- After Johnson's release he hasn't been able to live a "normal" life. People fire him or don't hire him because of who he is and what he did.
1999
1997
"Harris and Klebold killed 13 and wounded 24, but they had hoped to kill thousands."
-USAToday
Columbine High School Shooting
"As a last terrorist act, a pair of gasoline bombs planted in Harris' Honda and Klebold's BMW had been rigged apparently to kill police, rescue teams, journalists and parents who rushed to the school."
-USAToday
"Kill me, please. I can't believe I did that."
-Michael Carneal
Heath High School
- April 20, 1999
- Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado
- Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, were the students responsible for committing the crime
- Many believe it was because they were bullied and left out, but according to USAToday, psychologists believed they were students with serious, well-hidden, psychological problems
- People now believe that these students wanted to make this shooting some kind of terrorist attack
- Harris and Klebold used bombs and guns in the high school grounds, however, the bombs didn't work
- Killed 12 students and one teacher, and injured 23
- Harris and Klebold committed suicide in the school by shooting themselves in the head
- Both students made a home video before the shooting that hinted what they were going to do; they also kept journals in which "Harris drew swastikas in his journal; Klebold drew hearts" (USAToday)
- Is considered one of the worst cases of school violence in United States history
- Even artists wrote songs in dedication to some of the victims for example, the song, "Cassie" by Flyleaf
Johnson (left), Golden (right)
They were put into into a delinquent facility for minors, and after they turned 18 they were treated as adults and were kept under custody until their 21st birthday.
- December 1, 1997
- A shooting at Heath High School in West Paducah, Kentucky
- Michael Carneal (14)
- He opened fire on a prayer group, killing three girls of ages 14, 15, and 17
- Carneal stated, “It was like I was in a dream, and I woke up.”
- "The quote is eerily relevant to a scene in the movie Basketball Diaries. In the movie, a character played by Leonardo DiCaprio carries out a school shooting in a dream sequence." Not only do people believe he was influenced by this film, but also from Stephen King's novel, "Rage," which was found in the boy's possession. It was after several cases such as this Stephen King wanted to stop more copies of "Rage" from being published.
- He was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and is allowed to receive that medical help.
- He was sentenced to life in prison
"Had the bombs exploded, they'd have killed virtually everyone eating lunch and brought the school's second-story library down atop the cafeteria, police say. Armed with a pistol, a rifle and two sawed-off shotguns, the pair planned to pick off survivors fleeing the carnage."
-USAToday
Harris (left);
Klebold (right) in both pictures
Video of the 911 call from a teacher at the library
during the shooting
The home tapes Harris and Klebold released before the shooting, The Basement Tapes, haven't been released for the public to see. Many say that the 911 call itself was edited and extremely shortened as well.
"I didn't realize that you shoot somebody, they die."
-Evan Remsey
"I honestly believed that if you shoot somebody, that they would get back up."
-Evan Ramsey
Bethel High School
Central High School:
"Suicide Pact"
It sounds a lot like a story students read in high school.
- February 19, 1997
- A shooting took place in Bethel High School at Bethel, Alaska
- Evan Ramsey (16)
- Killed the school's "basketball star" age 15, and the school principal
- The student said he had a lot of anger, and asked his friends for a gun and to teach him how to use it. Instead of the friends persuading Ramsey not to commit the crime, instead they threw out suggestions on who to shoot while he was "at it."
- According to the student, he didn't think anyone would die from getting shot at. The public doesn't exactly believe he is telling the truth.
- He is serving a sentence of 210 years in prison
- Carrollton, Georgia
- Friday, January 8, 1999
- Andrea Garrett (15) and Jeff Miller (17)
- It was a shooting in one of the girls restrooms in Central High School and it was considered to be a "suicide pact," since the weapon used was taken by the safe of Garrett's parents. However, it is also believed that it was more of a murder-suicide, since the gun was found beside Miller.
- According to a friend of the teens, Garrett had told her that her parents forbade her to be with Miller, so, "the girl told friends she and the boy might commit suicide rather than end their relationship" (Alexis Smith, 15; CNN).
Within the five year period, 1996 - 2000, there have been many cases of school violence, several of them quite severe, including one in particular which is considered to be one of the worst cases in the history of the nation.
From many cases, you will encounter seven cases in this presentation that all contain one thing in common, the usage of a deadly weapon that many children and teens have fallen victim to. They are all severe, and they have all gotten mass responses from the public and mass media - this includes responses from TIME magazine, USAToday, The New York Times, CNN, Ex-President Clinton, Stephen King, and people surprised about some quotes from the students themselves right after they committed the crime.
The outcomes of so much school violence in today's world, with a lot of the worst being done with guns, has caused some people to agree with "Gun Control," and the idea of no longer having the right to bear arms.
It has also lead to the State of Texas to allow guns on campuses of higher education.
References:
http://www.columbine-angels.com/School_Violence_1996-1997.htm
http://www.columbine-angels.com/School_Violence_1997-1998.htm
http://www.columbine-angels.com/School_Violence_1999-2000.htm
http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/19/us/u-s-school-violence-fast-facts/
http://www.rand.org/pubs/issue_papers/IP219/index2.html
http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/18/us/columbine-high-school-shootings-fast-facts/
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-04-13-columbine-myths_N.htm
http://criminalminds.wikia.com/wiki/Eric_Harris_and_Dylan_Klebold
http://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/a-boy-killer-speaks/Content?oid=934386&storyPage=2
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/a-school-shooting-in-jonesboro-arkansas-kills-five
http://listverse.com/2012/05/09/top-10-chilling-quotes-during-school-shootings/
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=5040342
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/03/01/us/boy-6-accused-in-classmate-s-killing.html
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,40342,00.html
http://www.cnn.com/US/9901/08/school.shooting.04/index.html
“This sure beats the hell out of algebra, doesn’t it?”
-Barry Loukaitis
Note: The following incidents presented in this Prezi are all cases of school shootings that have taken place from 1996 - 2000.
This presentations is formed up in a kind of pattern. For example, you will find that in 1996, a middle school case will be covered, and in 1997 two high school cases will be covered. It goes on just like that for the first four years presented. 2000 is the closing case, therefore, it's the only one in which you will find an elementary school case.
1996
President Clinton, in Florida for a Democratic fund-raiser, said: ''Why could the child fire the gun? If we have the technology today to put in these child safety locks, why don't we do it?''
2000
Buell Elementary School
(President Clinton's response to the Buell Elementary incident)
- February 29, 2000
- A shooting took place in Buell Elementary School at Mount Morris Township, Michigan
- An unnamed 6 year old boy shoots his playmate, a 6 year old girl, Kayla Rolland.
- The community believed that investigations should be made on the boy's family because he was too young to take such actions by thinking them out for himself.
- The boy was already "basically living in hell" (Genesee County Sheriff Robert Pickerell). This is because of all the negative surroundings of drugs, weapons, and unhealthy living environments at home. Apart from that, " He called out [to Kayla], "I don't like you." She had her back to him, then turned and asked, as a challenge, "So?" The boy ... swung around and fired a single bullet that entered Kayla's right arm and traveled through her vital organs ... He had attacked Kayla before and, on the day prior to the killing, tried to kiss her and was rebuffed" (TIME).
- February 2,1996
- A shooting at Frontier Middle School in Moses Lake, Washington
- Barry Loukaitis (14)
- The student, Loukaitis, had apparently been greatly influenced by Stephen King's novel, Rage (however, he put it under the name Richard Bachman).
- In listverse.com we can find that Loukaitis started in court that he wanted to model his life like the protagonist of the story, Charlie Decker.
- "Loukaitis was dressed in a wild west-style gunslinger outfit and had a black duster on. He was armed with a hunting rifle and two handguns. Upon entering the classroom, Loukaitis attacked the students in a fit of rage" (listverse.com). After the killings, he held the classroom hostage for several minutes until a coach went in and wrestled him.
- He was treated as an adult in serving justice and was sentenced to life in prison
Occurrences of School Violence: 1996 - 2000
Samantha Holguin