Posted on 10/11/2007 10:12:06 AM PDT by DCBryan1
Student gunman in Ohio warned of attack,
By JOE MILICIA, Associated Press Writer
Thu Oct 11, 7:42 AM ET
CLEVELAND - A 14-year-old student who opened fire at his high school, wounding four people before killing himself, had a history of mental problems and was known for cussing at teachers and bickering with students.
Asa H. Coon, who had been suspended for fighting, warned classmates of an attack — but none took him seriously.
"When he got suspended, he was like `I got something for you all,'" said student Frances Henderson, who said she often got into arguments with Coon. "I guess this is what he had."
Police believe Coon targeted the two teachers he shot Wednesday. He also shot two students while others hid in closets and bathrooms or ran out of SuccessTech Academy alternative school. Students gathered outside, many in tears, hugging one another and talking on cell phones.
Parents were angry that firearms got into a school equipped with metal detectors that students said were intermittently used.
Coon's troubles seemed to come to a tipping point this week when he was suspended for fighting outside with a classmate. Students said Monday's fight was over God — Coon told his classmates he didn't believe in God and instead worshipped rocker Marilyn Manson.
Armed with two revolvers Wednesday, Coon fired eight shots, Police Chief Michael McGrath said. Police found a duffel bag stocked with ammunition and three knives in a bathroom, but no suicide note, he said.
Math teacher David Kachadourian, who was treated at a hospital for a minor wound to the back of one shoulder, knew of no reason why Coon might target him. Coon was a student in his beginning algebra class.
"I never felt personally threatened or personally at risk," Kachadourian said. "I had concerns about him, yes. He seemed like an angry young man. I did not fear for my own safety."
Kachadourian said he was struggling to make sense of the shootings.
"At the time it didn't seem real," he told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Thursday. "It didn't seem real until they told us that other people had been shot and that he had died and then it became really awful."
Coon had mental health problems, spent time in two juvenile facilities and threatened to commit suicide while in a mental health facility, according to juvenile court records obtained by The Plain Dealer newspaper.
The Department of Children and Family Services was called to Coon's home in 2000 because he had burns on his arms and scratches on his forehead, the newspaper said.
Mu>When he was 12, Coon was charged in juvenile court with domestic violence. His mother, Lori, had called police and told them her son slapped her and called her a vulgar name. She had been trying to intervene in a fight between Coon and his twin sister, The Plain Dealer reported.
He was also suspended from school last year for attempting to hurt a student, the newspaper said.
"He used to cuss all the teachers out," said Henderson, 14.
Coon, who was white, stood out in the predominantly black school for dressing in a goth style, wearing a black trench coat, black boots, a dog collar and chains, she said.
Henderson, who is black, she said she didn't believe race played a role in the shootings.
"He's crazy. He threatened to blow up our school. He threatened to stab everybody," said Doneisha LeVert, 14. "We didn't think nothing of it."
People at Coon's home late Wednesday declined to comment.
All classes in the city school district were canceled Thursday, and school officials said counseling would be available for students at recreation centers throughout Cleveland.
Witnesses said the shooter moved through SuccessTech, a converted downtown office building, working his way up through the first two floors of administrative offices to the third floor of classrooms. He was wearing a Manson shirt, black jeans and black-painted finger nails, police said.
Charles Blackwell, president of SuccessTech's student-parent organization, said he did not know how Coon got into the building.
Blackwell said there was a security guard on the first floor, but that the position of another guard on the third floor had been eliminated.
The first person shot, 14-year-old Michael Peek, had punched Coon in the face right before the shootings began, student Rasheem Smith said.
Coon "came out of the bathroom and bumped Mike and he (Mike) punched him in his face. Mike started walking. He shot Mike in the side," said Smith, 15.
Darnell Rodgers, 18, was walking up to another floor when the stairway suddenly became flooded with students. "They were screaming, and they were saying, `Oh my God! Oh my God!' I knew something was wrong, but thought that it was probably just a fight, so I just kept going," Rodgers said.
He realized he had been shot when he felt his arm burning.
Rodgers was released from a hospital after treatment for a graze wound to his right elbow. He told NBC's "Today" on Thursday that he didn't believe he was targeted and that the shooter didn't speak as he fired.
"He just fired the gun," Rodgers said. "He didn't say anything."
The other student shot was taken to a children's hospital, which would not release the student's condition.
Michael Grassie, a 42-year-old history teacher, was hospitalized in fair condition late Wednesday after about 90 minutes of surgery. Without naming Grassie, emergency room physician Thomas Collins told "Today" that the teacher who underwent surgery had sustained "some pretty significant injuries" to his spleen and pancreas, "but he's a very tough man."
SuccessTech Academy, with about 240 students, is an alternative high school in the public school district that stresses technology and entrepreneurship.
Associated Press writers James Hannah, Terry Kinney, M.R. Kropko, John Seewer and Thomas J. Sheeran and Andrew Welsh-Huggins contributed to this report.
While I’ve often read that black people, as a whole, are dedicated Christians, I’m sorry to say that well-known facts seem to prove this false. The disproportionate number of children born to single mothers and the high percentage of blacks in the prison population hardly describe “dedicated Christians”.
My first comment on that: On my very first day in first grade, a long time back, Pauline was brought into class by an older sister. Pauline was the only black child in our Catholic school class. She tried to run out the door but was blocked by her sister or the nun. Pauline settled in.
I have no memory of any animosity against her, ever.
Could there be more resentment against a white person in an all-black classroom? From what I've read on the subject, Asa Coon's homelife may have been a breeding ground for producing messed-up kids. Social workers were involved where they previously lived, the home was badly kept, dog feces all over the yard, and the father's whereabouts appear to be unknown.
An older brother was arrested the day after the shootings on other charges. Since the mother's last name is Looney (don't laugh!), was she ever married to Asa's father?
Then we read he was abusive to his mother. Was he mentally unstable (I would be with the life he may have had), or did he have a deep resentment towards her?
I'm sounding like a bleeding heart liberal and I'm a true conservative. I don't know if all I've read is factual, but if it is, the culprits are most likely those who don't have a sincere desire to respect marriage and family.
Justice (a value barely respected today) tells me that I should have some say over how my own money, which is demanded in taxation, is spent, and not thrown away.
In other words, do not use MY money to pay for school dancing classes, brainwashing students to accept "mom and mom" or "dad and dad" households as equal to a family headed by a female mother and a male father.
I disagree that homosexuals, whether female or male, who engage in perverted and unnatural same-sex relationships, shoud be bringing up children. I'll even go as far as to say that "cooking classes" are a waste of taxpayer's money.
My mother told me years ago, "If you can read, you can cook." Absolutely true.
It's just plain wrong.
The education system has gotten way off track. Their only mission is to teach English literature and grammar, mathematics, geography, history, civics.
Anything else is not their business.
I've thought about that also. How many 14-year-olds have $ to buy them (they wouldn't be eligible anyway)? As the facts evolve, we may find out.
“Marilyn Manson hasn’t been relevant to young people since 1997. His heyday as a popular artist has long since ended.”
Well apparently in 2007, THIS kid, Asa Coon was very impressed with him and he is NOT alone. Hay day or not it is his PERVERTED INFLUENCE that this kid ENJOYED.
“The interview he gave in Bowling for Columbine indicates Marilyn Manson knows EXACTLY what he’s doing. His exploitation of the tyranny of the appetite is not substantially any different from that of the consumerism that he rails against. He is a parasite and a hypocrite.”
I agree ... he’s dressed for the part for where he is headed when he dies if he doesn’t clean himself up and change his message.
“LOL! That’s not what I’ve heard. If 5% of the stories I’ve heard from other musicians are true, he’s very far from conservative!”
No kidding - in the days when I watched, social liberal O’Reilly, he had him on as a guest. He claimed to be doing this stuff for FUN!
I believe he’s got demonic issues ... to parade around like that and ACT like that ... not a conserative guy or at the very least a hypocrite.
That was my thought too.
After reading some of “gracesdad” previous posts, he appears to be an instigator, troll, or worst yet, RINO.
Our high school is a gun-free zone as well. You'd think those signs would have worked.
Anyway, teachers should be allowed to carry concealed weapons, if not to prevent another Beslan, at least to prevent another Columbine.
When I was in high school, I sat next to a kid who thumbed through still photos of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre every day, for a full year. No teacher ever so much as spoke with him. Where is he today?
He was homeschooled? Yea that is the type of kids I want homeschooled? Homeschool is not good for social skills as this proves!!!!
You might have missed the first line in the story.
A 14-year-old student who opened fire at his high school, wounding four people before killing himself, had a history of mental problems and was known for cussing at teachers and bickering with students.There is another current story about a 14-year-old homeschooler who was found with an arsenal of weapons, and who was threatening to attack a school.
'Bullied' Home Schooler Arrested After Cops Find Weapons Cache in Pennsylvania.
Well, since he says he “Hated God”, at least this incident can’t be blamed on him being an Atheist, since he seems to have believed that there was a God for him to hate.
Oh please, that is the best you can do? You got to be kidding right? Your hung up on the absence of an apostrophe??? The first thing I notice from liars and leftest (not claiming that you are one) is that they revert to attacking the person and not the argument. Sad commentary. Anyway I went to an almost all black grade school for a couple of years and yes I was bullied a lot for being white. Do I blame the children who did it? No, I blame the white leftest who breed this hate and the black leaders/politicians who promote it to further their cause. I believe that all people are created equal however I also believe that the black community is much, much more overt in their racist beliefs. It is however supported by the media and in part by RINOs and some conservatives which do not speak out.
As I have said before race trumps character and pride trumps humility. This is the new paradigm being taught to our generation. You are to be proud of your race and celebrate even taunt others EXCEPT if you are white.
I believe your daughter’s experience might be the rule for certain parts of the country and mine might be the rule for other locations. Either way we are only provided the plight and oppression from a black point of view in the media - which I believe is rare and sensationalized. I spell checked it this time, try to stay on target, if you seriously care to debate.
Any parent who sends their white kid to a 90% black school is either desperately poor or very very foolish.
All I'm saying is that blacks need to have the mirror shown to them. As a group they have become immune to the fact that they act, vote and support causes which show that, as a group, they only care about blacks. This is wrong, but it is understandable given that the leftist have promoted the lie that all whites are bad. Unfortunately this is the premise that too many believe and promote. If you dont believe me, look at any and I mean any diversity program at a university or company. The whole intent is for white males to feel sorry and apologize for all of the ills of society. Such programs again only serve to promote and divide us by race. It is working. Why do you think that 80% blacks believe OJ was innocent or why they vote 90%+ for democrats, or why the Duke Boys were considered guilty, or why Oprah gives money to Barak or builds a school for predominantly black African children, or why Bill Cosby is booed when he tells the black community they have to quit blaming whitey, etc. etc. etc......
It is not coincidence, it is deliberate and calculated and it is generated by hate and distrust. Very little of which is founded in truth.
You are trolling these school shooting threads with your asinine and ignorant comments attacking your own imaginary strawman.
The public school is a socialist experiment that went bad a long time ago. Read some Dewey.
There is violence even in your vaunted “Catholic” schools (nothing bad ever happens there - barf). Try the shooting at the Williamsport, PA Roman Catholic School in 2001.
Homeschoolers are socialized all the time in group settings involving multiple ages - not simply an age segregated classroom. The shooter was not a product of homeschooling - but had been pulled out one year prior to the shooting after a lifetime in the “publiK sKooL” system - He’d been socialized really well.
The brutalization and regimentation of the public school system is not socialization, its indoctrination.
You are anti-homeschooling and ‘socialization’ is a red herring you are dragging around FR. You may bow the knee to nanny state, others of us never will.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.