Friday, December 13, 2013

Colorado student dead after opening fire at school

  1. USA TODAY ‎- 1 hour ago
    Shooting reported at Colorado high school. ... The shootings - on the eve of the anniversary of the Newtown school massacre in which 20 ...
  1. Los Angeles Times‎ - 2 hours ago

    Colorado student dead after opening fire at school; kids were screaming



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    • Colorado school shooting: Gunman dead, student injured

      Colorado school shooting: Gunman dead, student injured

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      Police Respond To Shooting Report At Colo. School

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    This post has been updated throughout with new developments.
    December 13, 2013, 2:25 p.m.
    CENTENNIAL, Colo. — Armed with a shotgun, a student entered Arapahoe High School and opened fire, hitting at least one other student before turning the weapon on himself, officials said Friday.
    One student was injured when he confronted the gunman, Sheriff Grayson Robinson said at a televised news conference. That student was reported in critical condition in surgery at Littleton Adventist Hospital.
    Authorities rushed to secure the building and found a second injured student, but it was unclear if that was the result of the shooting, Robinson said.
    The latest attack comes as the nation prepared to commemorate the first anniversary of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., where 20 children were killed by a lone gunman, Adam Lanza. Six adult educators also died in that shooting before Lanza committed suicide.
    Centennial is roughly 15 miles south of downtown Denver and less than 10 miles east of Columbine High School in Littleton, where two teenage shooters killed 12 classmates and a teacher, then killed themselves in 1999.
    The incident began about 12:30 p.m. at the school and authorities, mindful of the recent mass shootings, including one at a movie theater in nearby Aurora, Colo., responded in force. SWAT teams swarmed the school and bomb squads responded.
    Blaise Potin, 14, a freshman, said he was in his fifth period class -- U.S. history -- when he heard three to four gunshots in the hallway.
    “It was the loudest thing I ever heard,” Potin said as he gathered with other students at the nearby Shepherd of the Hills Church. Parents rushed there to greet students who left the school in an orderly march, arms raised.
    Seconds after the booming sounds, Potin said, counselors and staff members were running down the hallway ordering everyone to close the classroom doors.
    He said they turned out the lights in his classroom and hid in a far corner. Students were crying and screaming.
    He said he texted his mother: “I love you mom and dad. Thank you for a wonderful life.”
    Teresa Potvin, his mother, said she was Christmas shopping when she got that text. “I almost threw up,” she said.
    She said she jumped in her car and tried to make her way to the school but traffic was snarled. Police cars and fire trucks clogged the road while helicopters filled the sky.
    While many students were evacuated from the school, Blaise and other students who were close to where the shootings had taken place stayed hidden until a police tactical team came in and told them it was safe to leave.
    John Spiegel, an 18-year-old senior, said he was in his psychology class on the north side of the high school building when he heard a popping sound.
    The sound brought the class to a halt, he said, and everyone began looking around, trying to identify it. Seconds later, there were three more rapid shots.
    “It was clear as day. It sounded right outside the door,” Spiegel said.
    At the same time, he said, he heard what sounded like a student screaming: “We need help!” Students in his classroom ran to the front of the room, turned off the light, and huddled together.
    “We were just clumped together on the floor. It felt unreal,” Spiegel said.
    He said some students were calm, while others were panicking and crying. Some were praying.
    Students went into “standard lockdown procedure,” the subject of repeated drills, he said.
    Spiegel’s father, John Spiegel Sr.,  heard a bulletin about the shooting on the news. “My stomach dropped,” he said.
    By 3 p.m., school buses were slowly pulling up to the church and parents waiting in the cold craned their necks, jostling to catch a glimpse of those emerging. Then came screams of relief, tears and hugs.
    Many parents gave up their coats and were leading their children to cars, with both parents and children weeping.
    Even though he is now safe, Spiegel said, “I’m still scared.”
    His father cast a worried eye at his son. “Anything he needs, I’ll be there for him. I just want to hold him,” he said.
    Teresa Potin walked with her son from the church, clutching him as her eyes filled with tears. She said she was pregnant with Blaise, her only son, when the Columbine shooting took place.
    “Something is wrong with this world,” she said.
    That sentiment was echoed by Gov. John Hickenlooper.
    “This is an unspeakable horror and something no child, no family should have to endure,” he said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the Arapahoe High School community and those affected by this senseless act of violence.”
    Officials were still looking for a motive, but at his news conference, Sheriff Robinson said the gunman had entered the building looking for a specific teacher.
    Officials were still looking for a motive, but at his second news conference, Sheriff Robinson said the gunman had entered the building looking for a specific teacher, who was not identified. Why the shooter was looking for that teacher is still being investigated, he said.
    Robinson said the teacher left the building, adding that it was the right tactic to remove a target from the scene.
    At this point, authorities believe the shooter acted alone.



       
      I think this is just another reason to either put your child in a private school (where this kind of thing either doesn't happen or almost never happens) because of intense screening of students or you should educate your children on independent study home schooling like I did along with my wife from 1980 to 1985 in California. This is the independent study program we used which is accepted by all 50 states as far as I know as an accredited school from kindergarten through High School.
       
      The problem is that kids with all sorts of problems from psychological to physiological to problems at home to problems with drugs to suicidal issues etc. to bullying are often not dealt with at all by schools or parents. Mostly because they don't have the funding or never find out about the problems until people start dying. This is a fundamental problem of public schools across the nation and likely is only going to get much worse over the years not better.  One of my college professors in Logic told the class that public schools nationwide are sort of becoming baby sitting juvenile detention facilities where children don't really learn anymore what they need in life to get a job. They might learn about the opposite sex, get beat up and drugged but they mostly don't learn what they need to go to college, get a job and to live a long useful helpful life. 

      Here is the school we used to educate our children through independent study from 1980 to 1985 when the oldest was 12 and wanted to go back to a very good High school on the Northern California coast where we moved and bought a business. Now, all of my children have one or more college degrees, and one is a lawyer, one a Fire Captain and one a Teacher. And I have two younger children too the youngest of which is graduating her private school soon.

      By the way the main reason we moved our children out of public school at that time is that the grade school become too overcrowded there so they put the 4th graders to the 6th graders in with junior high students. Within the first few weeks an 8th grader broke a 4th grader's jaw. We were so incensed by this that we pulled all our kids out of school 4th grade, 3rd grade and kindergarten and home schooled our kids on independent study from 1980 to 1985. It was an amazing experience for all of us. People thought our kids were wonderful because they didn't hate us for putting them in public school. Instead they were self starters who designed their lives themselves and still are. If you want your children to become entrepreneurs this is a good way to do it by allowing them to educate themselves to some degree through their imaginations in any direction they want to study. A lot of the time we didn't have television and there was no Internet then, so they entertained themselves by learning amazing things about life, nature and everywhere we traveled during those wonderful years.

      Here is the independent study program we followed which I believe is now accredited in all 50 states.
       

      Oak Meadow - OakMeadow.com‎

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