Teacher World

Well, it was a first for Hawaii schools, but sadly not a first for other U.S. schools; a gun was fired by a student on school property. Here are the details of the case.

On Monday, an eighth grade boy who attends Highlands Intermediate School in Honolulu, claims he found a Glock pistol in a secluded area of the school’s campus, which he decided to show to his friends about an hour before school started. Apparently, one of his friends got a little nervous when the boy began waving it around and tried to push it away. Unfortunately, in doing so, the gun accidently went off, and the bullet ricocheted off a lava rock wall. When it hit the wall, it fragmented injuring a boy who happened to be nearby, causing minor hand injuries.

“It was a bad choice on his part, and he’s lucky he didn’t end up killing his friend,” the boy’s father, Jason Takayesu, told The Associated Press. “I’m sorry for what happened. I’m just thankful it wasn’t worse.”

Police followed up on the gun and discovered that it was registered to someone outside of the Takayesu family. When they confronted this person on Monday with the gun, he said it had been stolen from him several months ago.

Initially, Takayesu’s 14-year old son was arrested under suspicion of attempted murder; however, once the facts were revealed, he was released to his parents. He will be suspended from public school next year, and during that time, he will attend an alternative school, according to his father.

Police say they have a good idea how the Glock pistol was found on campus, but the case is still under investigation.

Sheldon Oshio, the complex area superintendent who oversees Highlands Intermediate School, said that administrators at the school responded quickly to the incident. The school wasn’t locked down, and classes were able to continue as normal.

“The school assessed the situation and took swift action on containing the situation, and the appropriate authorities were contacted,” Oshio said. And the children all took home letters from a vice principal which explained what had occurred at the school.

The only complaint seemed to be from parents who felt that they should have been notified by phone or by text message in a prompter fashion. Spokeswoman for the Hawaii Department of Education, Sandy Goya, said that they plan to have all public schools using mass messaging in emergency situations starting next fall.

“Plans are in place in our complex area to improve our mass messaging and communications,” said Oshio. “We always want to be cognizant on how and when we want to communicate so it doesn’t impede any investigation.”

And on the school’s website, an announcement regarding the incident reminds them: “I am asking parents and guardians to remind their child/children that firearms are dangerous instruments and do not belong in school, on the school bus, at school-related activities, or in their backpacks. Under Chapter 19, possession of a firearm leads to serious punishment for offenders and is classified as a Class A offense. Bringing firearms, including air guns and any instrument that may be readily converted to expel a projectile, to school is also a violation of the Hawaii Gun-Free Schools Act. Any student who violates the Hawaii Gun-Free Schools Act shall be removed from attending school for no less than one calendar year…”

A very tough lesson for a 14-year old to learn, but thankfully he will learn it in a situation which could have been so much worse. It is a defining moment for him as well as for the other students who witnessed what took place.

In the meantime, how the heck does a loaded gun end up on school property? I plan to keep my eyes and ears open for this one, and I’ll fill you in as soon as I hear an update.

School violence, Teacher-World's Blog Highlands Intermediate School, Oahu, school shooting

On March 26, I posted a blog about Michael Phelps, a 15-year old from Martinsville, Indiana, who shot a fellow student at his school. This is an update on that sad story.

Before I tell you about the judge’s decision in a waiver hearing to decide whether to try Phelps as an adult or a juvenile, let me tell you what else has been learned about March 25; that fateful day when Phelps tried to take another student’s life. These facts were gleaned from the evidence presented in the course of the two-day waiver hearing which ended on Monday, April 18.

Brian Chambers, the lead detective in the case said that sometime between March 15 and March 18, Phelps showed a friend a gun and bullets which he claimed he had stolen from someone who was raising him. According to the friend, Phelps told him that he got the gun to kill Chance Jackson, a student he admitted to having an ongoing conflict with that he was anxious to end.

At 6:25 A.M., on March 25, Phelps sent a text to a friend in which he inferred that he was going to shoot Jackson. He also posted a last message on his Facebook page which read, “Today is the day.” (All of these facts make this attack appear to be premeditated, which hurt Phelps in court.)

At 6:44 A.M., Phelps arrived at Martinsville West Middle School, even though he was previously suspended pending expulsion for saying he was going to blow up the school. At 7:07, he began heading in the direction of Door 2 as he informed a friend, “Chance is about to get (expletive) up.”

According to detective testimony, when Phelps saw Jackson, he confronted him saying that he had heard Chance had been talking badly about him. Jackson told Phelps he wasn’t going to fight in school, but Phelps reportedly told Jackson, “We will see about that.” At this point, Phelps fired two shots at Jackson.

Jackson was shot twice in the stomach, and since then, has undergone multiple surgeries to repair injuries to seven organs. “Obviously this is a very long recovery,” said Catherine Michael, a spokeswoman for Jackson’s family. “He suffered very severe injuries.

So what would cause a 15-year old to shoot another student like this? According to a child psychologist who spoke in court, Michael Phelps is a child who resents authority and has experienced multiple incidents of “profound rejection.” He was described in court as being “raised in a destructive, substance-abuse-ridden, chaotic home with no significant and responsible parent in his life.”

The psychologist said that Phelps confessed to feeling detached from himself and unable to control his actions. He claims he felt as though something happened to him on the day of the shootings.

The child psychologist further claimed that alcohol and marijuana abuse plagued Phelps, who admitted that at points of his life he was “high all the time.” Phelps tested positive for marijuana at the juvenile detention center even though he claimed he last used marijuana three weeks before the shooting. He further said that Phelps is of average intelligence but suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and, lacking normal coping skill, he uses anger to cope.

Karen Quickery, Phelps’ mother, testified that her drinking problem was the cause of much of her son’s anger and that she may have been too lenient with him. “Maybe I wasn’t strong enough to stay with the discipline,” she told the court.

A picture was painted of Quickery as being a pretty absent parent. Morgan Superior Court Judge Christopher Burnham noted that this past New Year’s Eve, when Michael was picked up while wandering the streets in the early morning with other kids, in possession of a marijuana pipe, Quickery couldn’t be located. And a recent notice for her to appear at an expulsion hearing at the school, sent by certified mail, was returned unclaimed.

Based on the evidence in the case, Judge Burnham said he had little choice but to waive Phelps over to be tried as an adult. In his ten-page ruling, he stated, “The evidence presented would indicate to a reasonable person that it was a cold, calculated and planned act of violence with intent to kill.” He said, “There is no stability of structure in the home.” He found that the allegations against Phelps disqualified him from most if not all juvenile homes as they are not as secure, as an adult prison.

Phelps is expected to face six felony charges including attempted murder and aggravated battery as an adult. “Michael Phelps was headed for tragedy, either of his own making or inflicted upon someone else,” Burnham said.

But defense attorney Steven Litz told reporters, “I think what the judge did today was easy. It’s always easier to show contempt than it is to show concern. It’s always easier to do what is politically expedient than compassionately just.”

Litz cannot appeal this decision until the conclusion of Michael Phelps’ trial. In his parting statement, Litz said, “Michael has been thrust into an adult criminal system. He’s already been failed by adults before.”

Litz is right; the adults that should have nurtured and cared for Michael obviously were not there for him. Clearly Michael did not have a mother who influenced him in a positive way or was even around much. The absence of any mention of his father speaks for itself. Anyone with a heart has got to be moved by the tragedies and missed opportunities this boy has experienced over the past 15 years. It even helps us understand the anger and drug problems Michael faced. But it is impossible to stretch the sadness you feel for this boy’s home life to excuse attempted murder, which this clearly was.

Am I alone in wishing the mother and father could be on trial as well? This boy is the way he is due to another pair of irresponsible adults who felt their needs outweighed the needs of the boy they brought into the world. It’s no wonder that the mother left the courtroom as soon as the verdict was read.

Karen Quickery, it’s never too late to be a mother. Your son faces adult prison. Clean yourself up, and be there to help him through what lies ahead. You owe him at least that!

Teacher-World's Blog Chance Jackson, Martinsville West Middle School, Michael Phelps, Morgan Superior Court Judge Christopher Burnham, school shooting

Here’s another strange story that has me wondering what is going on in our homes that another young child would be caught bringing a gun to school.

This time, the setting was Ross Elementary School located in northeast Houston, a part of the Houston Independent School District. This is one of the state’s largest school districts, servicing about 200,000 students, about 500 of which attend Ross Elementary.

Things got a little crazy today at lunchtime, when a kindergartener who had brought a loaded, yes, I said loaded, gun to school, was injured along with two other students, when the gun fell out of his pocket as he sat down to eat his lunch. The bullet sent either fragments of chips from the floor or pieces of the discharged round spraying at nearby students.

According to Houston Independent School District Assistant Police Chief Robert Mock, some of the children were hit by these fragments. “They had some cuts and stuff on their legs. They don’t appear to be life threatening,” said Mock.

As a matter of fact, a 5-year old girl suffered an injury to her foot, while the boy who brought the gun and another 6-year old boy were both wounded in the foot. Children were treated for injuries ranging from powder burns to scraps on the scene, as panicked parents rushed to the school to make sure their children were okay. The three injured students were then taken to Texas Children’s Hospital.

When things settled down, parents had the option of taking their children home for the day or leaving them in school where counselors were available to talk to students who were upset. Meanwhile, nearly a dozen Houston police and patrol cars were parked outside the school as they tried to determine where this little boy had gotten the gun that had disrupted a school.

Norm Uhl, a spokesman for the district said, “The danger has passed and counselors are at the scene.” But he added, “Although the danger is over, that doesn’t make it any less frightening.”

The scariest part of this story is the unanswered question as to how this boy could have had such easy access to a gun, let alone a loaded gun! The natural assumption is that this gun was in his home. So the logical question is: What kind of parent would leave a loaded weapon where their child could be tempted to pick it up and take it to school?

This incident will not be forgotten by these little children for a long time. Their sense of safety has been violated. And injuries occurred. It was terrible, but it could have been so much worse. Kids get killed by guns all the time. And young children are drawn to guns like magnets. Parents who choose to have guns need to follow every precaution to guarantee that their children do not have access to these weapons.

When the dust settles, and the police discover how the inconceivable occurred, I certainly hope that the irresponsible adult who is to blame is severely dealt with. If I was a parent of a child at Ross Elementary, I would demand no less!

Teacher-World's Blog Houston, kindergartners, Ross Elementary School, school shooting, Texas

I promised to keep you updated on the school shooting at Martinsville West Middle School, in Indiana, on Thursday, the 24th.

Michael Phelps, who has been identified as the 15-year old shooter, was charged last Monday in the Morgan County Courthouse with attempted murder, aggravated battery, carrying a handgun without a permit on school property, trespassing on school property, and possessing a firearm on school property.

Prosecutors are asking that he be tried as an adult. If he is, he would face prison time and criminal convictions that would go on his record. If he is tried as a minor, he would not have formal convictions on his record and would not face mandatory prison time. The hearing to decide how he will be tried has been tentatively set for April 18.

Prosecutors argued that Phelps’s crime was “heinous” or “aggravated” and cited his history of criminal or delinquent behavior, referring to the fact that he had been expelled from the school before the shooting occurred. In the meantime, Phelps will remain in custody “for his own safety and the safety of the public.”

Chance Jackson, the wounded victim of the shooting, is listed in serious condition after undergoing two surgeries at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. His last surgery was to repair vascular and intestinal injuries.

As more unfolds, I will keep you updated.

Teacher-World's Blog Chance Jackson, Martinsville West Middle School, Michael Phelps, school shooting

Well, here we go again! Another tragic shooting in a school, but this time the incident occurred in a middle school, not a high school, and from all indications so far, it may have more to do with tainted love than bullying.

The school day hadn’t even begun yesterday at Martinsville West Middle Schoolin Martinsville, Indiana, a little community just southwest of Indianapolis, when a 15-year old student, whose name and grade have not been released, entered the school and shot 15-year old Chance Jackson in the stomach an undisclosed number of times, in the vestibule of the school.

The shooter then left the school, but was eventually apprehended several miles away. Following the boy’s trail, police discovered a handgun on a wooded hillside near a local shopping center. The boy is in custody but, as of yesterday, he hadn’t been officially arrested. Police said he could face an attempted murder charge if arrested.

Chance was taken to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis by air ambulance, where he underwent surgery and is now listed in critical, but stable condition. In a statement released by the hospital, his family said, “We appreciate all of the thoughts, prayers and support and ask that you also pray for the families of all involved. Please respect our privacy as we focus on Chance’s recovery.”

The students of Martinsville West Middle School spent almost five hours in lockdown after the shooting, but were finally released sometime after noon to their anxiously awaiting parents outside.

So, what happened this time? What made this boy crack? Well, the pieces are still coming together, but apparently he was suspended and expelled last week, although the school is not saying why, at this time.

However, a seventh grader who attends the school and claims to be friends with the victim, said in a Facebook chat with The Star that the shooter was suspended for threatening to blow up the school. She further claimed that he had told her boyfriend that he was going to return to school on Friday, and it would be a “good day.” At the time, her boyfriend assumed he meant that he was happy to be returning, but the statement takes on a decidedly perverse meaning now, if this is true.

According to talk at the school, the conflict between these two boys may be as simple as unrequited love. Students at the school claim that the two boys were fighting over the same girl for several months, and their conflict intensified at a school dance which took place last week.

Now, I’m no rocket scientist, but it seems pretty clear that these two had some issues with each other, but these issues seem to have escalated for the shooter and the victim this past week: first, a conflict at a dance then, the shooter is suspended and expelled for possibly threatening to blow up the school.

I could be reading these signals all wrong, but it sounds like this is not a case of bullying, but rather a case of a boy who couldn’t handle not getting the girl. If that’s the case, there are some real psychological issues here. And it makes me wonder if these signs were missed by this boy’s parents. I am always flabbergasted that someone like this has access to a gun! How does this happen?

As expected, there is a lot of he-said, she-said talk going on right now, but one parent, Kim Faulkner states that her son, who’s a student at the school, told her that a girl who knew the suspect attempted to warn the administrators of the school that there might be some trouble this week. Faulkner claims that the school wouldn’t listen to this girl’s concerns about the shooter. “She was telling the truth but no one would listen to her,” Faulkner said.

But when an upset parent tried to question the school’s principal, Suzie Lipps, outside the school yesterday, asking her if it was true that a student tried to warn the administration that there might be violence at the school this week, the parent was told that the rumor was untrue. It may be rather telling that Lipps went into the school without addressing the media.

However, Ron Furniss, Martinsville Schools Superintendent, issued the following statement: “We have had an extremely unfortunate situation at West Middle School and our thoughts and prayers are with the victim and his family during this time. We have had counselors available for students this morning and have worked closely with law enforcement agencies during the investigation.”

So, we wait to hear the reasons for this latest school shooting. As the police continue to investigate this incident, I will keep you updated as more information unfolds.

Teacher-World's Blog Facebook, handgun, Martinsville West Middle School, school shooting

Here is the latest update regarding the shooting at Gardena High School.

First of all, initial reports indicated that the gun taken to school on Tuesday by a 17-year old student in his backpack discharged accidently when he dropped his backpack on his desk. According to more recent reports from Associated Press, the gun discharged when he reached into his backpack for something to eat, striking two students with a single bullet.

The 15-year old boy who was hit first in the neck with the bullet was released from the hospital Wednesday because luckily the bullet missed major nerves, arteries, and his spine. He is recovering at home.

The bullet then hit a 15-year old girl in the head, fracturing her skull. She is still in critical condition after surgery to remove a blood clot and is using a breathing tube. There appears to be some improvement, and according to the chief medical officer at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Dr. Gail Anderson Jr., she “seems to be moving her extremities more. She’s much more awake.” She cautions that it is still too early to tell whether she will have any permanent damage. “Children respond better, many times, than adults so we’re hopeful,” Anderson said. “But we really can’t tell, probably, until she gets the breathing tube taken out. … We’re keeping our fingers crossed.”

The 17-year old shooter is facing two felony charges of bringing a firearm to a school zone and discharging it, and the Los Angeles County prosecutors are also asking the court to try him as an adult. If he is convicted as a juvenile, he could face up to nine months in a detention camp, and if tried and found guilty as an adult, he could face up to seven years in state prison.

As far as the two students who allegedly helped the shooter try to escape by taking his backpack, giving him different clothes, and giving him bus fare, prosecutors are reviewing the evidence against them to decide whether to file criminal charges.

Teacher-World's Blog Gardena High School, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, school shooting

This is a quick update regarding the shooting at Gardena High School in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

As I reported to you in my blog yesterday, a 17-year old boy was arrested for bringing a gun to school which discharged when he set the backpack it was in on his desk, accidently shooting two 15-year old students. A boy was shot in the neck, and the bullet passed through his neck and struck a female classmate in the side of the head which fractured her skull. None of the students have been identified as of yet.

The girl who was shot is apparently showing improvement but remains in critical condition after being operated on by doctors at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center promptly after being transported there on Tuesday. During her surgery, doctors removed a blood clot and also removed the bone to allow her brain room to swell over the following 48 hours.

The boy who was shot in the neck was released from the same facility yesterday.

And what of the 17-year old who is responsible for this whole fiasco? As I reported yesterday, after this incident, he ran from the room and, according to The Times, two fellow students tried to help him escape from the school. The boy gave his backpack to a girl, and a boy gave him a sweatshirt in order to change his appearance. Additionally, one of these students allegedly gave him money for bus fare to leave the area. At this time, the backpack has not been found. So what fate awaits these three teenagers?

The 17-year old was arrested and is awaiting possible charges. New reports indicate that he apparently stole the gun he brought to school from his stepfather, and investigators are recommending a charge of assault with a deadly weapon. Additional information has surfaced that this same boy was already on probation for a misdemeanor battery conviction.

The two students who helped this young man were also arrested and are supposed to appear in juvenile court on Friday.

Students have returned to Gardena High School under much tighter security and are being subjected to searches and metal detector scans. Counselors are working with those who need grief counseling. John Deasey, the Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent, says the district policy is to do daily random weapons searches at high schools, and this school failed to follow district policy, thus providing the opportunity for this tragedy to occur. But, again, if these searches are random, there is no guarantee that this boy’s gun would have been discovered. Deasey also stated that the 17-year old who brought the gun to school would be expelled.

Meanwhile, it is still unclear why he had the gun in the first place. As more news surfaces, I will keep you updated.

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Teacher-World's Blog Gardena High School, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, John Deasey, Los Angeles Unified School District, school shooting

Now here is a truly strange and terrible story out of Los Angeles yesterday. Before I tell you the story, let me set the scene.

Gardena High School is located in the Los Angeles Unified School District, and it has a sketchy record already. It is a school with a history of discipline problems and racial tension which has caused numerous fights. Additionally, it is ranked as one of the district’s lowest-performing high schools with a 35 percent dropout rate. CBS News reports: “Five years ago, more than 2,000 students were suspended, and 15 students were expelled. Those figures remained high until last year when the number of suspensions dropped to 300 and expulsions to two.”

Yesterday, the normal activities at Gardena were violently interrupted by the sound of gunshot when a sophomore dropped his backpack on his desk, and the gun which he was carrying in that backpack somehow discharged. Now, this on its own is unreal! Lt. John Pasquariello of the Los Angeles police department said of this bizarre event, “We don’t know exactly what happened. Traditionally, guns don’t go off without someone’s finger on the trigger.” But, to make matters worse, and more unbelievable, two students were shot by the one bullet that discharged.

One of the victims was a 15-year old girl who suffered a skull fracture, bruising of the brain, and developed a “significant blood clot” caused when the bullet grazed her skull. The other victim was a 15-year old boy who was shot in the neck by the same bullet.

The boy who brought the gun to school reportedly yelled that he was sorry after the gun discharged, and he ran from the room. The teacher, who was in the classroom, felt that the boy’s response proved that this was a tragic accident.

So how did he get into the school with a gun? According to the district’s spokesperson, schools can’t afford metal detectors, but students are checked randomly as they arrive with security wands. Sadly, this boy must not have been one of those randomly checked yesterday morning.

So, what has happened to the three students forever linked in this bizarre story? The girl’s blood clot was successfully removed although she is sedated and in critical condition as of yesterday. The boy who was shot is listed in fair condition. And the boy who made the biggest mistake of his life was arrested and, as of yesterday, was being held pending charges. 

Ironically, the school system is talking about either suspending or expelling the boy if he is released from custody. All I can think is: do they really think this is going to teach this young man the lesson they obviously want him to learn from this incident? Because I can’t help but think that suspension or expulsion pale in comparison to what this boy must be going through right now. His live has been forever altered by a tragic lack of reasoning. We may never know why he brought this gun to school with him yesterday, but clearly what occurred was not planned. Who would ever have thought that a gun would go off so easily? And how could he have known when he placed that gun in his backpack that his young life and the lives of two innocent people would never be the same again?

Teacher-World's Blog Gardena High School, Los Angeles Unified School District, low-performing schools, school shooting

In a previous blog, I told you about Robert Butler Jr., a student at Millard South High School in Omaha, Nebraska, who shot and killed his vice principal and injured his principal on January 5. At that time, there was little information which would explain this tragedy other than the fact that he had been suspended for driving his car on the school’s football field and track New Year’s Day. But more information is coming out now which paints a very disturbing picture as to Robert’s state of mind.

First, it was originally reported that Butler had not had any serious issues at his previous school in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he had lived with his divorced but remarried mother. Apparently, the real story is that he was having disciplinary issues at this school before he moved to Omaha, where he lived with his father, a detective with the Omaha Police Department.

On Wednesday morning at 8:10, four days after joy-riding on the school’s field and track, he was called into Assistant Principal Vicki Kaspar’s office where he was told that he was suspended. When he was escorted out of the building at 9:23, he left calmly according to witnesses. He reportedly returned home where he told his father what had happened. In his statement to the police after the tragic shootings, Detective Butler confirmed that his son didn’t seem angry or overly concerned by his suspension.

But, in spite of all outward appearances, something within Robert must have snapped, because when his father left home to run some errands, he posted the angry and apologetic message to his friends on Facebook, stole his father’s service weapon from the closet, broke into the garage, which was locked ever since the New Year’s Day incident, stole the car, and drove back to school to apparently seek the revenge he felt was due him.

He arrived at the school at 12:45, where he ironically followed procedure by signing in at the administration office and requested to see Assistant Principal Kasper. Again, according to eye witnesses, he walked in calmly, not revealing his firearm, and was in her office with the door closed for about four minutes before shooting her and proceeding across the hallway where he also shot Principal Case. Initial reports indicated that these were the only shots fired by Butler, but recent reports indicate that he also fired at the custodian but missed, and that, as he was walking away, he pointed the gun at an unarmed security guard who took cover.

At some point, a security officer called the police giving Butler’s name and a description of the car, and at 1:35, police received a report of a suspicious vehicle about a mile from the school. When they arrived, they found Robert dead in his car from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Now, these are the most recent facts, but they do little to explain to those of us who think rationally how they fit with a suspension from school. Clearly, there was so much more going on with this young man which had little to do with rational thinking. I refuse to conjecture as to what may have driven Robert to do what he did, but I have to believe that there was some evidence before this episode that might have been an indication of his state of mind. The greatest tragedy here is that if someone had stepped in earlier and gotten this boy the help he needed, perhaps this recent tragedy might have been avoided altogether.

As it is, two lives have been lost, and for many, the events of this tragic day will bring pain for years to come. So very sad…

Teacher-World's Blog Millard South High School, Robert Butler Jr., school shooting

For those of you who haven’t heard by now the tragic news out of Nebraska regarding Robert Butler Jr., the 17-year old son of an Omaha, Nebraska police detective, who walked into the administration office of Millard South High School in Omaha, and fatally shot the assistant principal and critically wounded the principal, I will take a moment to give the details I have been able to glean from various sources.

Robert Butler Jr. was new to Millard South High School, having recently transferred there from a school in Lincoln in November. His fellow students, if they knew him at all, did not know that much about him. One student who was interviewed characterized him as “arrogant” and “snappy with his teachers”. No one seemed to have any clue as to what had set him off on his murderous rampage, but on January 5, he purposefully walked into his school’s office and shot Vice Principal Vicki Kaspar, 58, and Principal Curtis Case, 45. A lockdown was immediately called and students were told over the PA system that this was not a drill. Teachers proceeded to lock doors and get their students to sit on the floor in the corner of the room and wait. Many students were forced to take cover in the kitchen as the shooting took place around lunch time.

For two hours they waited as anxious parents congregated outside the school frantically texting their children to get word of what was happening on the inside. In the meantime, Butler ran from the building, got in his car, and drove about a mile away. He parked his car, and proceeded to shoot himself. When the police caught up with him, he was already dead.

After a two-hour frantic wait, the students were finally released to a church near the school where parents anxiously were reunited and grateful to have their children safely in their arms once again. And that is the good news here; no children were shot or injured in any way, but Vice Principal Kaspar died in the hospital a few hours after her arrival, and Principal Case was listed in serious condition.

So what precipitated this tragic event; what reason did Robert Butler have for shooting his principals? At this point, authorities do not know precisely, although Butler did post a very troubling message on Facebook which blamed the school for the terrible things he was going to do. He claimed that Milliard was worse than his previous school and that the new city had changed him. Yet, I find it hard to believe that in just two months a child can be so changed that he can conceive of shooting others and then himself as his only recourse. A recent update indicates that the administrators he had shot had previously suspended Robert for driving on the school’s football field. It has also been reported that some of his friends (I don’t know yet if these are friends from Lincoln or from Omaha) say that he was troubled, got into fights, had behavior problems, and seemed unhappy. It will be interesting to see, as the facts start coming out, if he had experienced other disciplinary actions at Milliard, and if so, for what.

As far as his time in Lincoln schools, a classmate of his who confirmed the Facebook post and provided The Associated Press with a copy of it, described Butler as “energetic, fun, and outgoing”. He said he sometimes got in trouble for being a little too vocal in class, but that he didn’t seem like an angry person. And Butler’s step-grandfather said that the event didn’t fit with the polite person he knew. Rob Slauson, his principal at Lincoln Southwest High School, said that Butler was involved in few, if any, activities before transferring to Omaha, but officials refused to provide information about his student record.

So, it’s a mystery, but a mystery is like an intricate puzzle; there are pieces out there which will eventually explain what caused Robert’s tragic choices and what precipitated his fateful demise. As these are revealed, I will update you. In the meantime, our thoughts and prayers need to go out to all of those in Omaha who have been traumatized by this terrible event, and that includes Robert Butler Junior’s family as well.
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Teacher-World's Blog Millard South High School, Omaha, Principal Curtis Case, Robert Butler Jr., school shooting, Vice Principal Vicki Kaspar