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School Shooting

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Submitted By emma1223
Words 1534
Pages 7
Kemmally Monteiro
November 14, 2013
MS.COCO

TWO BOYS, SAME CRIME

Woking up in the morning, getting your kids ready for school. Kissing them and sending them to school. That moment was the last time you see your children alive. I don’t remember any teacher or administrator ever mentioning the subject. There was nothing like there is today, when school kids know what “lockdown” means.School is the first place that is safe you think. Two kids couldn't take the pressure anyone and let it out by killing everyone. Thousands of lives ruin by a child with a gun. School shooting is the number one problem in your country. When was little I didn't think about school shooting or someone coming into your school and shooting us. Knowing that your kid meant be the shooter is what ames your breath away. Thinking not my kid, anyone can be the shooter, you just have to look very close on the signs that child has like mental illness, guns, video games. Rampage school shooting occurs when students attack their own school. Which Michael and Thomas did they woke up and carried out his crime and though they would get away.

On the day of December 1, 1997 Michael Carneal open fire at his own high school at the age of fourteen. The shooting took place in the quite West Paducah, Kentucky. The shooting happen in Heath High School. Michael was planning the attack at the same age of five. Planning to bring the gun to show and tell and open fire to everyone that didn’t like it, but getting gun at age five is not likely. On the afternoon of Thanksgiving Day he went to a friend's home and broke into the garage, taking a couple of guns and bullets. When going home and taking a pistol, and two rifles. Waking up in the morning of December and getting a ride to school with his sister and arrived at approximately 7:45 a.m. When he arrived, he put on earplugs and took the pistol out of his bag, and starting firing. He open fire on a youth pray group. Killing three girls, and wounding five other students. He was arrest right after and now remains in prison. Sentences to life in prison with the possibility of parole in twenty-five years.
No one thought that he would ever do something like this, but breaking up with this girlfriend trigger him to shoot up the school. Thomas Solomon was a student that went to Heritage high school in Conyers, GA. Thomas was the kid that everyone picked on he was teased/ bulled. At the age of fifteen on the morning of May 20, 1999 he armed himself with a rifle and a revolver and opened fire as everyone was entering the school. Wounding six classmates and no one was killed. Solomon fired from below the waist. Thomas had fascinates with guns. The boy being sobbing fell to his knees and stuck the revolver in his mouth before the assistant principal restrained him. Thomas was screaming to the principal” Oh MY GOD, I’m so scared" In 2000 he was found guilty but mentally ill and was sentenced to 40 years in prison and 65 years of probation eligible in May of 2014.

Watching a lot of movies and playing video games a lot. Michael would stay in his room for hours and not come out. His favorite game was doom. Not having a gun to practices with he turn to the games to learn to shoot and killed with. The biggest influenced was the movie Basketball Diaries. Which has a scene in which a young boy enters his High School and opens fire on his classmates and teachers. The character in the film is wearing a long black trench coat, just like Michael did. Carneal was undoubtedly exposed to variety of violent video games, movies and imagery. Michael was interested in video games and computers and appeared to have spent much time in the middle of the night to use it. However, he visited sits on the how- to intructions for making weapons or rehearsals of violence attacks.
Being a normal kid was hard for Thomas Solomon, being diagnosed with a mental illness at the age of four is hard. Having your parents tell you that you are like everyone else, but just a little bit different, but thats what makes you special. He had a mental breakdown after breaking up with his girlfriend. It was fear to others that he was suicial, but no one did nothing to help. garland one of his close friend said "He's fragile adolescent, 15 year old, with no prior history. This is an atypical type of thing that's symbolic of mental collapse. In the 4th grade he being taking the Ritalin after being diagnosis of attention deficit disorder. Thomas was taking the prescription drug Ritalin "on and off" for an extended period of time. Ritalin is commonly prescribed for hyperactivity or attention deficit disorder. Thomas got of the drug couple days before the shooting occurring to his mother. This parents were trying to get,him help, but they thought they did with the mediction, but it was not working.
Also, Michael was diagnosed with a mental problem.Michael has never been diagnosed with a mental illness before the shooting. After the shooting, a history of mental illness on the father side of the family was uncovered. When he was getting evaluated after the shooting by forensic psychiatrists found him unable to understand what happen. He was diagnosed with depression(dysthymia) and schizotpal personality disorder. He often thought he heard voices calling him the day of the shooting. His paranoia, fears, and misreading of social cues contributed to the shooting. O'conner believes that mental illness was a primary factor in the shooting, that Carneal committed the homicides in part because he was unable to continue functioning in normal society…". No one knowing that you have a mental illness for all of your life and you know there was something wrong with you and your own parents couldn't help you. Until something wrong happens and everyone there to help and fits the problem.
Having a troubling home life, doesn't mean you with grow up to do something bad, but not Thomas case. His parents separated when he was four years old, and their divorce became final two years later. When your a little kid you always think that your parents are going to get back to together, but in this case it never happen. In interviews T.J immediately spoke of the separation from his father at age four when he was ask what was the worst thing to happen to you. The breaking up with his parents had a permanent effect on his development. " MY FATHER ABANDONED ME, FOR NO REASON"( thomas). His father was never there, it was not like he was not visitation rights, which he never showed up too. Like father like son they both had a mental breakdown and a sucidal intention. Permanent psychological scar from the separation from his biological father. When the shooting happen his own father didn't want anything to do with him. All he wanted was his father respect and accpectes. His mother was the same way had no time for him, because she had a lot of things too do. Having your mother and father not there for you at a young age is hard to deal with. His relationship with his mother was different at the hearing she called him " his child" rather than " my son". Her voice was cold. He didn't having both parents at the hearing, he didn't even had one.
On the other hand, Michael had the opposite. Michael had the best family. His father was an injury lawyer. His mother was a homemaker and he had a big sister. You could say he had the American dream of the perfect family. Carneals were described as sincere, generous, and actively involved in all aspect of the community life. One big happy family you can say. Hence, the surrounding Michael was that of a well-educated household. Having a older sister that he had to be just like is what broke him. He later said that he couldn't be like his sister, and how perfect his parents wanting him to be like. At home and within the family Michael appeared to be normal 14- year old boy.
Finally, what is normal? Whats normal to one is not to someone else. Having two boys that are from to different world. Ones from a prefect family and ones from a breaking home. Not to say they didn't at least two things in common with both having a mental problem and committing the same crime. You can say that there mental illness brought them to do the shooting, but no one knows. Family can play a part, but you have one boy who parents were not there for him and another who were so close that it drive him too it. The pressure the families put on the kids to be perfect and success sometimes is too much and they break.

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