Shots fired in highschool

[PILMAN]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/10/cleveland.shooting/index.html

(CNN) -- At least two people and perhaps as many as four were wounded Wednesday in a shooting at SuccessTech Academy, a high school in downtown Cleveland, according to reports.

Two students were taken to hospitals, said Andrea Jackson, press secretary for Cleveland's mayor. One was taken out of the school on a stretcher but was conscious.

Police are looking for a 14-year-old male in connection with the shooting, according to reports.

Cleveland fire, police and EMS are at the scene, as is Mayor Frank Jackson.

 

[GigaBuist]

WOIO is reporting that the 14 year old suspect has been shot and killed.

 

[Erebus]

I will keep updating this post so it doesn't take pages to get the facts.

Fox News reporting that the 14 year old shooter is dead. They are saying that he was a student of that school. A woman reported that one of the victims was her son and that he was hit in the arm. They also reported a man, assumed to be a teacher because they thought he was too old to be a student, taken out of the school on a stretcher that was conscience.

The 4th victim may have been the shooter mistakenly reported as a victim.

Small School, 165 Students and 15 Teachers.

SWAT going room by room.

All times are eastern.

2:35 PM - Fox News is carrying a local Fox station(WJW/Fox 8) that is now reporting 3 teachers(condition unknown) and 3 students(non-life threatening injuries) shot. No word on the condition of the teachers. They are saying the apprehension of the shooter is unconfirmed.

2:37 PM - Some victims taken to Metro Health Medical Center. A level 1 trauma center according to Fox 8. WOIO is confirming the shooter is dead according to Fox News.

2:40 PM - No identity on the shooter but reports that he had been suspended earlier and returned with a gun in each hand and opened fire. Also reported a student coming out of the building and asking if he had been hit. He had been hit in the back twice.

2:45 PM - WJW/Fox 8 reporting that they have confirmed 3 students and 1 teacher. They have heard he is 14, a student at the school, had been suspended, but it is unconfirmed.

2:54 PM - The mayor reported that there are 5 injured, 4 were shot and I guess the 5th a female student was injured escaping or something, 3 students and 2 teachers. One student has a grazing injury. The mayor also reported that "They have the shooter" didn't confirm his condition.

2:57 PM - The first police unit arrived on the scene in slightly over 1 minute of the first call.

3:00 PM - Fox News reporting that the student had said that he was going to shoot up the school prior to the incident.

3:03 PM - Fox News reports that the 5th victim was a 14 year old girl who injured her knee while escaping the building.

3:08 PM - Fox News reports that a "Code Blue" was called and apparently in Cleveland that means evacuate. Also reported that the schools are locked fro the inside and you have to have a school ID to enter the building.

3:10 PM - Someone interviewed at the scene said that one of the injuries reported as a teacher was actually a custodian.

3:22 PM - Fox News reporting that police and students have said that the gunman is dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

3:24 PM - Fox News reports that the mayor has said that the 4 shooting victims are 2 men and 2 boys. The boys are in stable condition and the 2 men are in slightly elevated condition, whatever that means. Mayor to hold presser in the next 30 minutes.

4:08 PM - Now they are reporting that he had 2 handguns at least one was a .38 cal revolver. Mayor reporting that there are 4 people shot, 2 adult males and 2 male students. All it seems are in stable condition. The 5th person injured her knee. Shooter was a 14 year old student that committed suicide. Shooter had a criminal record with a history of violence. He had been suspended from school yesterday for disciplinary reasons.

 

[kd7nqb]

But Ohio has laws against such things? How could a 14yr old get a gun into a school and cause this mayhem?/ sarcasm

Every time I see a story like this it makes me rethink the fact that I actually follow the illegal university policy of no gun on campus.

 

[RLsnow]

damn, they should have made that school a gun free zone

 

[Mr. Designer]

Another gun free zone shooting. This will obviously lead to more gun control measures against responsible gun owners.

 

[Bazooka Joe71]

This is getting to be ridiculous.

 

[Erebus]

This will obviously lead to more gun control measures against responsible gun owners.

 

[foghornl]

I REALLY want to see someone in the Media directly ask Hizzoner Mayor Frank Jackson this question:

"Mr. Mayor, how exactly would your proposed 'No possession of firearms by anyone under age 21in Ohio' law have helped in this case?"


Perhaps in light of the situation, this is not very "High Road", but with some of the 'anti-gun-violence' proposals and statements Mayor Jackson has made recently, I would love to hear his explanation. I can't wait to hear his pandering on this now.

 

[PILMAN]

It mentioned the shooter was carrying 2 guns, handguns perhaps? It is good no one innocent was killed but this is getting pretty out of control, and it's sad that a situation like this will generally turn into a huge political debate.

 

[Pixel]

Man, I think that school district is in trouble. I've been watching CNN and apparently the school had previously had a security guard who had been reassigned. The PTO and parents have been trying with letters and meetings and petitions to get the guard back and have been unsuccessful. The school is on the 3rd-5th floors of the building and the guard was pulled down to guard the first floor, where the administration offices were.

They're going to get sued, bigtime.

 

[busy_squirrel]

I share everyone here's frustration that our legislators (with their own security staff) continue to keep us disarmed in these places, but please, let's try to keep our comments high road.

I continue to point people to this site when school shootings happen, and appearing irrational or closed minded (even if we may have already reasoned the issue through to it's obvious conclusion) doesn't encourage others to begin thinking about the issue for themselves and stop listening to the social programmers.

 

[BobMcG]

Kids and school shootings... this crap is growing old real quick.

Just wondering: Returns with a gun in each hand? What, as in handguns? If this is case, just who's handguns? Dads' handguns by any chance? Well if this too happens be the case then the kid did more than just throw his life into the toilet. I wouldn't want to be "dad".

 

[PILMAN]

Yep, this is what I've been trying to explain to those who are not familiar with firearms is that a kid cannot go into the store and purchase guns, that no amount of gun control is going to prevent someone from obtaining a firearm if they really want to. I wouldn't say guns are the problem here, more so, irresponsibility if it was infact "dads" gun. Hard to say at this point so I don't want to make any assumptions yet until i've heard everything.

 

[oldgold]

From a Yahoo news sourse:

CLEVELAND - A gunman opened fire in a downtown high school on Wednesday,
and five people were taken to a hospital, the mayor said.

Mayor Frank Jackson said three young people and two adults were hurt.
SuccessTech Academy had been secured and there was only one suspect, he said.

"They have the shooter," Jackson said. He did not elaborate.

Ronnell Jackson, 15, said he saw the shooter running down
a school hallway.

"He was about to shoot me but I got out just in time," he said.

Another student, Doneisha LeVert, said she heard the principal
say "Code Blue" over the public address system, and the students
started running. She said she hid in a closet with some of her friends.

Students stood outside the building, many in tears and on cell phones.
Family members also stood outside, anxiously waiting for their
children to be released.

"I'm scared. I'm hoping no more people got hurt," Jackson said.

Tammy Mundy, 38, who has a son and daughter at the school,
told The Plain Dealer of Cleveland that her daughter called
when the shooting started.

"She said, 'Mom they're shooting in here, kids are running out,
I'm hiding in the closet,'" Mundy told the newspaper.

Then she called her 18-year-old son, Darnell Rodgers,
on his cell phone, and he told her he had been shot in the arm.

"He said, 'Mom I got shot,'" Mundy told the newspaper.

The small, alternative high school is in the center of
downtown across from the FBI's offices and three blocks
from where the Cleveland Browns play football.
The school enrolls 240 students grades nine through 12
and emphasizes technology education. All the students
are poor under federal poverty guidelines.

 

[Crunker1337]

Come on guys, knock it off with the sarcasm. I'm sure that we're all frustated with the fact that gun control prevented an armed civilian from possibly cutting short the killing, but honestly right now isn't the time to voice that.

Right now, I think we should be mourning this tragedy. We can take legislative action later, and in another thread.

 

[jcoiii]

Code blue means evacuate? Hmm. Just pondering the other standardized responses to an active shooter. Evacuate (i.e. "students started running") vs. lockdown. In this case, at least as I've read so far, no one other than the gunman were killed. Food for thought in the evacuate/lockdown debate

 

[kcmarine]

Yeah... after going to school today, I'd rather evacuate the school instead of lock down. With a lock down, you have no option but to sit there in a room with the lights off, silently, with nothing to help you "relieve" the gunman of his weapon... with an evacuation at my school, you would have 1500 targets, all running and moving behind the walls, etc, and multiple students out in the hallways that could possibly get the gun from the offender... hm, which one would you rather choose?

 

[TexasRifleman]

From Fox News article:

Student Doneisha LeVert, who hid in a closet with two other students after she heard a "Code Blue" alert over the loudspeaker at SuccessTech Academy, said the alleged shooter had threatened students at the school last Friday.

"He's crazy. He threatened to blow up our school. He threatened to stab everybody," she said.

So he's been a clear threat for days now? And once again no one did anything?

But it's gonna be the gun's fault......

 

[JKimball]

Here's another source with some additional bizarre information:
1. Student claimed to be a devil worshipper.
2. Student always wore a trench coat to school.
3. Student often wore a "pistol belt" (thigh holster?) to school.
4. Student often talked about shooting up the school.
5. This reason this happened is because the school was overcrowded.

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1571558/20071010/index.jhtml

Oct 10 2007 2:51 PM EDT

14-Year-Old Shooter Opens Fire at Cleveland School
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Shooter was killed; three others were also shot.
By Gil Kaufman

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A 14-year-old student opened fire in the hallways of SuccessTech Academy high school in downtown Cleveland Wednesday afternoon (October 10), injuring five people. The student was shot and killed, though it was unknown at press time whether he had taken his own life or been shot by authorities, according to CNN.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson spoke to the media after the incident, saying two teachers, ages 42 and 57, were shot and injured in the incident, and that a 17-year-old was also shot. A fourth person, a 14-year-old female student, was also injured when she hurt her knee in the aftermath. Jackson said the students are in stable condition, but the two teachers, both men, are in "elevated" conditions, which he would not specify.

The unnamed student, who, according to reports, had been suspended recently, entered the school with two handguns and began opening fire in the early afternoon, hitting several students on at least two floors of the school, according to CNN. While the student was running through the halls, the principal called out a "code blue" alert, telling students to get to a safe space, with some hiding in closets or on the floors of their classrooms. Police reportedly responded to the incident in about a minute.

SuccessTech Academy, which only has 165 students and 30 teachers, was founded five years ago with a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as a high-tech academy where every student was given access to their own computer. One parent told CNN that the school — which — had no metal detectors and that there was overcrowding in the classrooms. Another parent described the school as a close-knit community.

A friend of the shooter told CNN that the 14-year-old often talked about how he "worshipped the devil" and said if he shot up the school he would let the young man and another friend go.

Another student said, "I knew that dude was crazy, man. He always wore a trench coat." He also said the student wore a visible pistol belt around his leg (with no gun in it) to school on several occasions and that at least one teacher was aware of it and saw the gun belt but took no action.

A parent who is the president of the parents' association said the classrooms went from having 15 to 30 students, with overcrowding creating tensions among students. He also said there was only one security guard on duty in the building and that that person worked only the first-floor administrative level and did not walk the floors of the school, which had classrooms on the third, fourth and fifth floor. "We've been fighting to get security back for the past two or three years and they denied it," the parent told CNN. "Tension was high in the school, it was just too crowded."

 

[JKimball]

So he's been a clear threat for days now? And once again no one did anything?

They did suspend him. Guess that didn't stop him though.

 

[JKimball]

I'd rather evacuate the school instead of lock down.

My cousin is a teacher who is studying to become a principal. She told me that law enforcement officers had actually run some test scenarios at one of the schools around here and found that the evacuating the school as rapidly as possible scenario resulted in fewer "casualties" than the lockdown scenario did. It probably wasn't entirely scientific or definitive, but it is better than a blind guess and does make sense.

 

[jefnvk]

Ever since there was a school shooting in my hometown, and CNN gave it all of 5 min of coverage, I can't help but wonder what the real motive behind covering some so closel while blowing off others, is.

 

[Big Boomer]

Constructive solution?

Let's look at this constructively, how could this have been possibly stopped?

Obviously banning guns from the school did not. The zero tolerance policies worked very well here too, as well as suspension that sure showed him.

So, do we ban guns? Well the criminals will still have them so that won't work. Do we ban children? No, can't do that either, I'm going to need someone to change my diapers after I retire...so what do we do?

How about post police at every school with metal detectors...works well in the prison's and there are so few murders in prison.

You can't seem to ever keep out everything that you want. So once again what do we do? You have to remember, this is just a child what do we do when Mr. Jihad terrorist decides to mow down a school? It WILL happen someday.

Perhaps homeschooling isn't such a bad idea? How about we open privately funded ARMED schools.

How do we as a community fix this seemingly popular killing rampage? The shooter already had stated that it was either explosives, shooting, or stabbing. So we already have 2 backups if guns were banned altogether.

A nice small pipe bomb could do plenty of damage inside a tightly packed classroom. Or if you prefer a more archaic attack including a 32 soda cup filled with gasoline siphoned from a teachers car if needed, thrown on few people then set ablaze.

We will never be able to stop anybody from killing anyone else unless you restrict access to everybody and isolate everyone from each other. We live our lives in little padded cells...

It is almost impossible to preemptively determine if someone is a psycho or will have a psychotic episode. Do we take away all our freedoms to stay "theoretically" safe? Or, do we take action and insure a relative protection for ourselves and limit the damage by a psycho.

If we all had a means of self defense and a duty to protect we could severely limit the damage caused by such an attack. I'm not going to say I'll ever be safe from the guy who wants me specifically dead and doesn't care about the consequences but we can be much safer against the guy who wants to kill a whole roomful of people. We can take immediate action when something happens if we have the means to do it.

It is much better than the alternative,
"This is Capt. so-n-so we need SWAT down at the JKS Elementary one of the 8yr olds decided to shoot up the school and is doing so as we speak."

"Capt. we can deploy in about 20-30 minutes"

5 min later...Phone call from school, "we are ok now the shooter ran out of bullets and shot himself"

Capt. So-n-so, " SWAT, ya um cancel that deployment and just bring some notepads to take reports. Oh, and could you call the coroners office and have them send over 36 small caskets? Thanks."

Or...Phone call from school to 911, "yes, a student decided to open fire with firearm attempting to shoot everyone. He got off one shot and the student is stable but bleeding badly could you send and ambulance?"

911, "where is the shooter?!"

School, "OH, he's dead, I shot him before he got to anyone else, the rest of the teachers are covering their classrooms at gunpoint just in case there happens to be a second shooter"

You choose...

 

[thorn726]

well the good news is this guy only killed himself!
finally one of these school shootings ends in a little less tragedy