California (Pauline Repard-UTSan Diego) – A 14-year-old La Mesa Middle School student who allegedly planned to shoot several teachers and students on campus was arrested Thursday night at his home, where police also confiscated a gun. WOAH! Alright, let’s put it in serious gear, now.
The eighth-grader’s plan was foiled last week when other students reported him to school staff, who detained the boy until police arrived, La Mesa police Capt. Dan Willis said Friday. Kudos to those kids.
“This was definitely the most serious threat toward any of our schools we’ve had in the past year or so,” Willis said. “Here was a kid who had access to the school every day. It would have been easy for him to get a weapon on campus.” That has to freak out every parent with a kid who goes to that school.
He said it did not appear that the teen had chosen a day for the shooting.
The teen was not arrested right away, but he was not allowed to return to school, Willis said.
Willis said detectives are trying to determine whether the teenager may have been the target of some bullying, and whether that was the basis of his alleged threats. Bullying? Oh come on! They’re really going to worry about the kid with the gun’s feelings? Anyone else sick of this “bullying” argument? Kids have to learn how to deal with and over come adversity. What’s going to happen when they get out into the real world and have to deal with it? What you think because they’re out of school that it goes away?
What are they going to do when they’re adults and have to deal with others who only know how to throw their weight around? What are they going to do, pout to a shrink and go on antidepressants?
Yeah, because no one’s ever gone nuts and went on a shooting spree while taking prozac, right?
He is believed to have told other students that he was going bring a gun to school and shoot at least two specific teachers and three or four, or more, specific students. He wrote similar threats on papers that were found at his home, Willis said.
“We’re not confident that we know the exact number of people he told,” Willis said. “We don’t know when the threats started. We’re not aware of him using any social media to relay the threats.”
He said some students who knew of the threats reported them to school staff on March 1. The teen was in school that day, and staff immediately detained him. The youth did not have a gun with him, Willis said.
Investigators went to the boy’s home just outside the city limits, seized a gun and booked the youth into Juvenile Hall on suspicion of making death threats against school personnel and students. Willis declined to describe the gun or whether it belonged to the boy’s parents. That raises a few questions for me. Did the gun belong to one of the kid’s parents? Did the kid have access to it or was it stored somewhere and they seized it because it was there? I was wondering how a 14-year-old was able to get ahold of a gun in the first place.
“The security plan the school had in place worked,” Willis said. “Those students felt comfortable coming forward, staff acted right away and we got involved. Thank goodness it all worked out.”
Good job kids! I think they all deserve a reward of some sort. Just think about how bad this could have been. For those of you out there who think that we need MORE gun control laws, just keep in mind that it’s ALREADY illegal for a 14-year-old to possess a gun. I’d like to know how he got it.
If you area a gun owner, you have to store them responsibly. If you have children, you have to be even MORE careful with how you keep them. Owning firearms is not something that should be taken lightly.
That being said, where were this kids parents while all this was going on? When something like this happens, people right away want to blame the violence on tv and in video games. Some say we need MORE gun control laws. Those are all great theories and all, but how does something like this go on with a 14-year-old kid, and their parents not have any clue that it’s happening? I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the quality of parenting may have had something to do with this.
You want to say violent video games? Fine. You want to blame violence on TV? Fine. PARENTS have control over those things, do they not? One commenter on the site from where I obtained this article brought up a really good point; the two morons who pulled off the Columbine massacre had nazi flags in their rooms. HEY PARENTS; what’s hanging up on your teenager’s walls?
If your kid has stuff like that hanging up in their room, maybe you should start paying closer attention to what they’re up to. I have a hard time buying the story that some kid just up and tried something like this out of the blue, kids at that age are about as good at hiding their motives and intentions as labrador retriever. What did the story say, that they found his threats written out on paper? See what I’m saying? You HAVE TO be involved with your kids, folks.
Personally, I’m both a gun owner and a parent. The kids know that mommy and daddy’s guns are dangerous and they are not toys. The kids are also learning how to shoot and that guns must be respected. They know that with using them comes a great deal of responsibility. They also know that mommy and daddy keep those guns LOCKED UP IN A SAFE. The best way to teach your kids is to lead by example, folks.
The second best way is to talk to them and make a point of knowing every aspect of their lives. This is a good way to avoid the police showing up at your house and leaving with your kid.
At least that’s what I think…
Source for story: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/mar/09/la-mesa-school-shooting-plan-foiled/
Posted on March 10, 2012
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