See here: http://www.wkrg.com/news/article/high_school_in_lockdown/11123/
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,335673,00.html
Posted on 03/06/2008 9:44:11 AM PST by Howdy there
A male student shot himself in the head at the Davidson High School gymnasium this morning in front of about 150 other students, according to Mobile police.
The unnamed boy walked into the gym shortly before 10 a.m. and fired one shot with a revolver into the ceiling before shooting himself, said Deputy Chief James Barber. The student died at the scene.
The school temporarily went into lockdown.
Davidson will remain open today and extra counselors are being brought in, according to Nancy Pierce, a school system spokeswoman.
Parents can pick their children up if they want, she said, and some parents began arriving at the school following the shooting report.
Well, it’s about time somebody shot themselves BEFORE shooting the other students.
Alabama?
At least he had the decency to shoot himself first, instead of a bunch of other kids first.
I bet it’s a lot less traumatic for the 150 students than if he had shot a half dozen or more students before shooting himself.
Jeremy spoke in class today
I have no idea how I made it through my childhood education without the services of counselors. No wonder I am such a mess. God help that poor kid, whatever was troubling him.
Yes, Alabama.
The simple fact that he only shot himself reveals that he was probably a decent kid. RIP.
More chlorine in the gene pool.
Do you know anything else about this?
Damnit, beat me to it.
That’s a line in a song by Peral Jam about a kid that kills himself in front of his class.
So was he one of the routinely medicated boys? What a sad state of world offered to young people.
That's a lyric from a Pearl Jam song about a kid who shot himself in front of the class.
It was based on a true story.
Seems like at least one major “event” per week since the Supremes accepted the Heller case…
My heart breaks for a kid like this. Guessing that he was an outcast who has been teased and picked on.
“That’s a line in a song by Peral Jam about a kid that kills himself in front of his class.”
Great song from a great album done before Pearl Jam turned political and went down the tubes.
Back on subject, others beat me to it but I agree that the only good news from this story is that he did not take anyone else with him.
Prayers for his family and may God have mercy on him since he didn't physically harm others.
Copy cats. Let’s keep this in front of ALL UNSTABLE TEENS. I think I’ll pack plastic sheeting in my daughter’s backpack.
One of the problems now days is every thing can be cured with a counselor or meds. I have seen many things in the Corps and LEO work and never needed a counselor, then again my wife says “I ain’t right”.
Teach these kids some self reliance with respect to their feelings.
Arm all teachers. This could have been much worse.
Probably something one of the counselors said...
Why? In case the gun got up and shot someone else???
When PJ was a great band...
Must have been dyslexic.....
“...extra counselors are being brought in...”
This just shows what a weak-minded nation we have become that we need grief counselors.
I have the following questions:
1: What credentials do these counselors have to qualify them in providing psychological help?
2: What will happen if the sh*t really hits the fan (and it will happen, guaranteed)? Will there be enough counselors available in that emergency?
3: Who will counsel the counselors when we reach the nutcracking stage?
4: How much does it pay to be a counselor? Is it a career or just a hobby?
5: What do counselors do when they do not counsel?
6: Will these kids be able to function without counselors in the future?
7: Why were there no grief counselors 50 years ago, and all went well with the country?
Please, you FReepers, counsel and enlighten me.
Yeah, really.
When Eddie Vedder started getting Bush Derangement Syndrome, they lost me.
Since I went to Catholic school, we did not need to have counselors “brought in.” Prayers were said and students were urged to discuss their feelings with their parents at home, and that life goes on. Of course in the 1960s we did not have people shooting each other or themselves in school. Our traumas were usually the deaths of students in car accidents caused usually by drinking (the NYS drinking age was 18 in those days, which meant most drunks were 15) and excessive speed.
Back in 1981 or 2 a guy did the same thing at my school. But with a shotgun to the chest. His girlfriend had broke up with him. He shot himself in front of her and the other students. He walked up and said Kim I live you” and blew himself away. My little sister was there. Instead of grief counselors and anti=gun rhetoric the other students were mad and thought he was an idiot. Times have changed children.
Back in 1981 or 2 a guy did the same thing at my school. But with a shotgun to the chest. His girlfriend had broke up with him. He shot himself in front of her and the other students. He walked up and said Kim I live you” and blew himself away. My little sister was there. Instead of grief counselors and anti=gun rhetoric the other students were mad and thought he was an idiot. Times have changed children.
That was very considerate of him!
I don’t recall shootings in schools before they removed prayer. Maybe my memory is just bad. I remember kids actually having hunting rifles in their pickup trucks (yeah, I grew up in the South) parked in the school parking lot. It never occurred to anyone to bring them in and use them on other students. The worst thing we had happen was someone put a dead skunk in one of the bathrooms.
I honestly believe that schools have removed the ability of students to believe in something greater than themselves and when you’re a teenager, that’s not much.
50 years ago, most children had access to a clergy member who they had at least passing acquaintance with. Said clergy members usually had some training in “counseling” people re traumatizing life events. Now most children don’t have this, and often their parents aren’t particularly well-equipped to deal with it (especially in situations that may also traumatize the parents to some degree). So counselors are provided instead.
I think the old way was better, and that people who are agnostic or atheist or just don’t subscribe to any organized religious groups would do well to form other types of organized associations that provide this sort of social support in a way that’s consistent with their beliefs. These paid counselors that get sent into schools may be better than nothing, but they’re complete strangers to the children they’re counseling, and have no background knowledge of each individual’s situation and life experiences. Most well-trained clergy would have a hard time providing any benefit in a setting like this.
The student’s name is Jajuan Homes, 18.
I was a medic in the 82nd. After PT and on my way to the mess hall, I saw a crowd at a old WWII barracks door. Troops told me a troop, a new guy, but ‘odd’ had off’d himself a la pistola. I pushed up the staircase and a couple of fellow Aid Shack hangouts were doing CPR. Fair size head mess. I asked if they need my help and they said no they were just doing the drill ‘till the ambulance came. I pushed back down the stairs and some troops asked me where the heck I was going, leaving the guy all shot and such. I said breakfast, “I'm hungry and he's dead”. I kind of got a rep as a cold doc for that incident. On the positive side, the mess hall was empty and everything was plentiful and fresh.
Union repair of the roof, hazmat clean up outsourced. Good for a $5K bump to the GDP.
See here: http://www.wkrg.com/news/article/high_school_in_lockdown/11123/
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,335673,00.html
Yes.
"Why? In case the gun got up and shot someone else???"
Unfortunately, the only action the school knows how to take is a RE-action.
sad
The same experience here. I attended a large subsurban HS in Houston during the early 1970's. The student parking lot across the street in front of the school was just a muddy field. Half the vehicles were pickup trucks [another 1/3 were VW Beetles] and half of those had rifle racks in the rear window. Very often those contained shotguns for dove hunting after school. We thought nothing of it and obviously neither did the school administration. Today I feel like I'm living on another planet. I want America back! Change -- yeah, I want it alright.
When teenagers see a kid blow his head off that is a powerful situation that they need to get a handle on. Don’t downplay the crises management that needs to happen.
First of all, they absolutely HAVE to be liberals. That is a requirement.
Som years ago I worked for a man who was one of those volunteer counselors. He specialized in counceling teens and pre-teens who thought they might be gay.
You do NOT want to know anything else about that man.
Ha-ha you said "suspect". Ha-ha.
“You do NOT want to know anything else about that man.”
Larry Craig?
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