Bill of Rights
10-11-2007, 10:05 AM
Hi all,
I've just read this story and well, I'm going to pick it apart.
Student gunman in Ohio warned of attack
By JOE MILICIA, Associated Press Writer
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.
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.
( http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071011/ap_on_re_us/school_shooting )
OKay:
*Point one: he was 14. It was not lawful for him to have a gun at all, anywhere, unless under parental supervision.
*Point two: he had known mental problems-so why was he not in an inpatient facility to treat these problems?
*Point three:he was known for cussing at teachers and bickering with students, and was suspended for fighting-Sadly, I don't think that cussing, bickering, or fighting are so unusual anymore. Anybody got a big hickory paddle? No? Didn't think so. HE sure didn't get enough of one.
*Point four: "I got something for you all." Not even considering his sentence structure, would anyone have taken this as anything more than teenage boy bravado? I can't say I would have.
*Point five: He targeted teachers. Why could they not target back?
*Point six: Students hid in closets and bathrooms, others cried and hugged outside, on cell phones. Why did they have to? Why was there no one there who could stop this little puke?
*Point seven: "Parents were angry that firearms got into a school equipped with [intermittently used] metal detectors" What, the guns got in by themselves? Sneaky little devils, ain't they? I suppose it just doesn't make any sense to be angry at the criminal (you know, a person?) who brought the guns in?
*Point eight: The fight supposedly was over God. The kid said he didn't believe in God, but rather in Marilyn Manson. Some of you will disagree with me, but so what? Why is it a matter to fight over? More people's deaths have been blamed on God than anything or anyone else in history. I can't speak for anyone else, but MY God is a God of love. If someone else chooses not to believe, I think that that's his/her right. I don't agree, but I agree to disagree with them.
*Point nine: One of his teachers called him "angry", but didn't fear him. Sounds like the appropriate response to me. If we start locking down schools any time we have an "angry young man", the doors will never open.
*Point ten: History of mental problems, suicidal threats, injury to himself and others, physical assault on his mother and others-I say again, "Why was he not locked up somewhere?" I don't favor pre-emptive law enforcement, but this kid had broken several, in violent ways, and was known to be unstable. If anyone needed a cage, he's the one.
*Point eleven: He was White in a mostly-Black school. If the reverse was true, would it be reported? This is a non-issue.
*Point twelve: He worked his way through two floors of a converted office building before arriving at the third floor classrooms. Why could no one stop him? There was a first floor security guard-who, being human, could only be one place at a time. Did he(or she) even make an attempt to stop this criminally insane nutjob?
I suppose we should be glad he only had revolvers and knives. At least we won't hear the Brady bunch lobbying against "assault revolvers". (puke)
I can't even say I'll be praying for anyone here-the survivors, well, survived, and the criminal didn't. Maybe I can pray that the next nutjob will actually be stopped by someone who's willing to defy the law so that he or she goes home that night to a family that loves him or her.
Cogito, ergo porto.
Blessings,
M
I've just read this story and well, I'm going to pick it apart.
Student gunman in Ohio warned of attack
By JOE MILICIA, Associated Press Writer
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.
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.
( http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071011/ap_on_re_us/school_shooting )
OKay:
*Point one: he was 14. It was not lawful for him to have a gun at all, anywhere, unless under parental supervision.
*Point two: he had known mental problems-so why was he not in an inpatient facility to treat these problems?
*Point three:he was known for cussing at teachers and bickering with students, and was suspended for fighting-Sadly, I don't think that cussing, bickering, or fighting are so unusual anymore. Anybody got a big hickory paddle? No? Didn't think so. HE sure didn't get enough of one.
*Point four: "I got something for you all." Not even considering his sentence structure, would anyone have taken this as anything more than teenage boy bravado? I can't say I would have.
*Point five: He targeted teachers. Why could they not target back?
*Point six: Students hid in closets and bathrooms, others cried and hugged outside, on cell phones. Why did they have to? Why was there no one there who could stop this little puke?
*Point seven: "Parents were angry that firearms got into a school equipped with [intermittently used] metal detectors" What, the guns got in by themselves? Sneaky little devils, ain't they? I suppose it just doesn't make any sense to be angry at the criminal (you know, a person?) who brought the guns in?
*Point eight: The fight supposedly was over God. The kid said he didn't believe in God, but rather in Marilyn Manson. Some of you will disagree with me, but so what? Why is it a matter to fight over? More people's deaths have been blamed on God than anything or anyone else in history. I can't speak for anyone else, but MY God is a God of love. If someone else chooses not to believe, I think that that's his/her right. I don't agree, but I agree to disagree with them.
*Point nine: One of his teachers called him "angry", but didn't fear him. Sounds like the appropriate response to me. If we start locking down schools any time we have an "angry young man", the doors will never open.
*Point ten: History of mental problems, suicidal threats, injury to himself and others, physical assault on his mother and others-I say again, "Why was he not locked up somewhere?" I don't favor pre-emptive law enforcement, but this kid had broken several, in violent ways, and was known to be unstable. If anyone needed a cage, he's the one.
*Point eleven: He was White in a mostly-Black school. If the reverse was true, would it be reported? This is a non-issue.
*Point twelve: He worked his way through two floors of a converted office building before arriving at the third floor classrooms. Why could no one stop him? There was a first floor security guard-who, being human, could only be one place at a time. Did he(or she) even make an attempt to stop this criminally insane nutjob?
I suppose we should be glad he only had revolvers and knives. At least we won't hear the Brady bunch lobbying against "assault revolvers". (puke)
I can't even say I'll be praying for anyone here-the survivors, well, survived, and the criminal didn't. Maybe I can pray that the next nutjob will actually be stopped by someone who's willing to defy the law so that he or she goes home that night to a family that loves him or her.
Cogito, ergo porto.
Blessings,
M