25 Years Since the Columbine High School Massacre

Yesterday marked twenty-five years since the Columbine High School Massacre. The tone of this week’s newsletter is more somber than usual, but it is important to reflect on an event like this and ask ourselves, “Could this have been prevented?” When it comes to the school shooters and those who wanted to commit the act of a school shooting, we should never give them the notoriety they wanted. We have intentionally left out the names of the Columbine shooters and the alleged shooter’s name in the last piece of this newsletter. We will continue to remember these incidences in hopes that we will take lessons from them to ensure they never happen.

But we will not glorify the names of those who have committed such atrocities.

Gun violence in schools

On any given week, a school experiences some threat, whether it is a threat of an explosive on a school campus or someone having a gun. Thankfully, most end without incident. At a middle school in Georgia, a student was found to have a loaded 9mm pistol in their waistband after school officials received a tip. An 18-year-old student was found in possession of a gun at an Alabama high school. In New Hampshire, a sixth gun safety bill has been rejected by state legislators. The bill aimed to ban guns on school grounds.

To put in perspective the rates of shootings on school campuses, on day 66 of every year since 2008, this is how many shootings have occurred on school campuses (numbers below include colleges and K-12 schools):

• 2008: 18

• 2009: 22

• 2010: 13

• 2011: 15

• 2012: 13

• 2013: 26

• 2014: 36

• 2015: 37

• 2016: 51

• 2017: 42

• 2018: 44

• 2019: 52

• 2020: 22

• 2021: 73

• 2022: 79

• 2023: 82

• 2024: 16

The 16 school shootings this year so far include 3 that happened on college campuses and the remaining 13 on K-12 campuses. As an educator, can you say, with all honesty, that any of these years listed is an acceptable number of shootings?

It has been 25 years since the infamous Columbine High School massacre. On April 20, 1999, two high school seniors entered their school carrying multiple weapons that included a 12 gauge shotgun, a semi-automated hand pistol - Tec 9, and a Hi-Point 995 Carbine assault rifle. Pipe bombs and propane tanks converted into bombs were found during the aftermath. The two students were looking to create maximum devastation. Fifteen people were killed and 24 were injured.

This was a devastating incident that we should never forget. This is a piece of history we should have learned from, but unfortunately have not learned from. Since then, we have had Sandy Hook, in which 26 people were killed; out of those 26, 20 were first-graders. A month from now, we will be remembering the massacre at Robb Elementary, where 19 children were killed between the ages of 9-11 along with two of their teachers.

Last year, Pew Research found that 1 in 4 teachers said their schools went into lockdown as a result of a gun-related incident. 40% of teachers stated that their school is doing a fair or poor job preparing for an active shooter.

It is not a good place when teachers expect their school administrators to do better at preparing for a what-if scenario of a school shooter coming onto their school campus, yet this is the reality that U.S. teachers face.

With every school shooting that occurs, we continue to go further and further away in taking the necessary steps to protect our kids. The U.S. is at a place in which we are saturated with too many guns, so seeing zero incidents for Day 66 in the coming years is unlikely. Yet, there are specific measures that we can take to ensure kids in our public schools are safe.

We’ve said it here, and we’ll continue to say it, more guns do not equal more safety. Let’s not have teachers in a position where they might have to decide whether they need to pull the trigger on their students. No teacher should have to experience that.

25 years ago, the nation was shaken that such an atrocity could happen on a school campus. Still, our elective officials continue to do nothing about it.

Remember these lives lost and how they could have been saved. Let’s hope that more lives do not have to be lost until drastic measures will finally be taken.

Geighe Garcia

Last year, on April 14, Geighe was accused of making threats towards students and that he was going to bring a gun to school. Geighe was 12 at the time of the incident and a 6th grader at Washington Elementary School in Winslow, Arizona.

The incident stemmed from a dream a student had, according to a police report:

After this incident was reported, Geighe was given a nine-day school suspension. The Principal recommended that Geighe be given a 180-day suspension and cited previous write-ups during the time Geighe has been with the district. Geighe quickly admitted that he hadn’t always been the most well-behaved student. Some of the mentioned citations stemmed from kindergarten and first grade. Because of this history, Geighe attended regular counseling outside of school and began volunteering at a nearby church. He stated:

Nothing was ever confirmed or verified regarding whether this was a legitimate threat. In fact, more signs point to the administration's decision to suspend Geighe as too hasty. It is understandable that when there is any hint of a possible threat, due diligence should be conducted to ensure the proper decision is made.

And measures need to be taken to ensure possible false accusations doesn’t derail a student’s education.

You can read more about Geighe Garcia’s story here.

A mass shooting prevented

An 18-year-old teenager was arrested in Rockville, Maryland, and charged with planning to carry out a school shooting. Leading up to his arrest, a 129-page "memoir" was discovered by authorities after they were tipped off by a person who is documented on record as only "Witness-One." This person was stated to have known the teenager during their time in a psychiatric hospital.

The "memoir" contained a disclaimer: "This is not a threat of violence, nor does it represent the author's belief." 

Court documents revealed that it contained enough information to lead to the teenager being arrested. It stated:

The teenager’s internet searches included words like gun range near me and school shootings, which included Sandy Hook and Parkland. The teenager was also found to frequent a Discord chat group that glorified school shootings. He was also documented as stating that he wanted to target elementary school kids because little kids made easier targets and that he wanted to set the records for the most kills.

He wanted to be “famous,” documents showed.

Thankfully, this incident was diverted before it was put into place. Let’s hope this teenager gets the help he really needs.

Closing Bell

On this day in 1995

Timothy McVeigh was arrested two days after he set a bomb off at a federal building in Oklahoma City. 168 people including 19 children were killed. McVeigh was executed on June 11, 2001.