More Monday Madness
Another Monday, another school shooting.
JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say a 13-year-old brought an AK-47 to his Joplin, Missouri, school and fired it this morning — but no one was hurt.
Authorities say the student wore a mask and pointed the assault rifle at the principal, an assistant superintendent and two students, pleading — “Please don’t make me do this.”
The superintendent says the teenager fired a shot into the ceiling and broke a water pipe. But administrators talked him into leaving the building, and police were waiting outside with weapons drawn.
The incident forced about 700 students to leave the school to wait for frightened parents to pick them up.
The superintendent calls it a “very close call.”
Joplin is a city of about 41,000 in southwest Missouri.
UPDATE: Police also found a note in the boy’s backpack (along with diagrams and military manuals) which indicated he’d planted an explosive at the school. Bomb-sniffing dogs “hit” on a locker at the school. Details are still forthcoming.
UPDATE: Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt, upon learning of the shooting, said it is worth considering proposals to permit teachers to carry guns in light of the recent spike in school shootings.
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Donna B.s last blog...
How utterly sad. But as a society, what can we expect when we’ve devalued human life on every possible level and kids are more aware of this than any of us want to admit. Thank God no one was hurt.
If teachers carried guns, would that kid have been shot or not?
More Reasons to Homeschool…
Every time I read stuff like this, homeschooling looks more and more attractive. And that’s not even considering school shootings.
Motivated by a parent’s complaint about a past Christmas pageant, [Windmill Point Elementary School’s P…
As a former teacher in a H.S. where they collected 6 weapons last year I’m in favor of teachers being allowed to carry weapons. As a retired Army officer and combat Vet I brought up in our school meetings. I would have undergone additional training to do it, but they did not like the idea. So, we continued to have gang fights, pistols collected, knives, and then 40 teachers left the school last year. The county was not serious about stoppping the crime or threats. I gave up teaching, something I loved, but not worth dying for. Our school has numerous military vets, women and men. The principal hired them on purpose. It’s really sad for the kids as I had some tremendous students who wanted to learn, but the adult leaders in the county did not want to make the hard decisions to give these kids a chance to succeed. The game still continues at the school I left this past year.