School shooting-- at my high school

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Oh, god. I grew up in a quiet little town where nothing bad ever seemed to happen. People still leave their doors unlocked.

But today, my alma mater is the site of the most recent school shooting. Holy crap. The gunman is dead, the girl he shot is in the hospital.

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

I saw that on the news. What a screwed up world...

[LSPoorEeyorick]

No kidding. So weird--- such a small town, such a small school. I mean, I know it's often the small ones. I'm just kind of shocked, because--you know-- it was mine, and that's supposed to happen elsewhere. Sigh.

[CoasterMatt]

I guess my "school shooting" tour t-shirt is out of date again...

[blueerica]

It's amazing what can happen. I should dig up the story, but at my high school (not the one I ended up graduating from) during my Sophomore year, we had someone transfer in. Kid had a locker next to me, seemed nice. Red hair... That's about all I remember. I knew he found a girlfriend who was a Freshman, and then one day they didn't show up to class. A couple of days later, there were reports of a Bonnie & Clyde style spree, couple of hold-ups with some other people carjacked/killed along the way. It was the two of them. I should dig up the story sometime.

Again, small town, good neighborhood - never, ever, ever would have suspected. To me, it just goes to show - you're safe nowhere, so why hide from life?

[Gemini Cricket]

Yikes! That's really sad.

[MouseWife]

These school shootings are freaky, especially since kids have to go to school. Okay, there is homeschooling but that isn't always do able.

I have two shooting connections {of sorts, nothing like yours}.

The first one, the one the Boomtown Rats made 'I Don't Like Mondays' about. My sis went to school with the girl, Brenda Spenser {Spencer?} but she moved to another area where she went on her rampage. That was many many years ago. {not sure if it was the first school shooting?}

Secondly, and oddly I think P.O.D. is said to have made a song about this one as it is local {but, I think the timing is wrong}, a shooting at the Santee High school. A young relative of ours went there and was there in the courtyard {open area} of the school when it happened. I can't clearly remember what happened to her so I won't speculate but I do believe the person next to her was shot, a friend of hers was shot in the leg.

I am so saddened by this sort of acting out. Why do children get to this point? It can't just be video games, as some would suggest. Or music. It has to be something missing in thier lives? I don't know. But, it is scary sending your kids off to school and never knowing if someone elses' 'bad day' is going to affect your child.

[Strangler Lewis]

Originally Posted by LSPoorEeyorick

Oh, god. I grew up in a quiet little town where nothing bad ever seemed to happen. People still leave their doors unlocked.

Maybe it's my having been born in New York, but I don't understand this attitude. It's a modest precaution, like washing your hands, that can prevent a lot of grief.

Or was everybody in your town armed to the teeth?

Sorry to hear about your school. If something like that happened at my school, it wouldn't surprise me. I must be getting old. On the other hand, if something like that had happened at my school back in the day, it wouldn't have surprised me either.

[Alex]

I grew up in a regular-sized town with methlabs within blocks and we still never locked the doors (when we went on vacation we always left a window open so that that the cats could get in and out).

We also never locked the car doors either.

My theory on life is "it'll suck to get robbed and it'll really suck to get robbed and have to buy a new door or window." That said, I've not yet been married to a person who shares this philosophy and they always win.

[RStar]

Violence should not happen at school and people should not die at Disneyland. But it happends, and it sucks big time.