THE DEVIL'S DEED (PART I OF III)

What is everyone’s biggest fear? We all have them and they vary from person to person. For some it is a fear of the dark, others, a fear of public speaking. There are whole sections of the DSM-5 dedicated to disorders of fear. From anxiety disorders to phobias, there are a plethora to choose from. But for every parent there is a fear that outweighs all others, the fear of losing a child.

I luckily am not in that camp, and hope to never be, but there are many parents who sadly have experienced this horrible event. It is devastating enough to lose a child to a terminal illness or an accidental death such as a car wreck. But, there is something that adds a different type of sting to this horrible event, the murder of a child.

Sadly, too many parents have experienced this terrible event and I can’t even imagine what those brave parents go through, and hope to never have to do so. This blog post is going to be dedicated to all those that have lost a child, but there are a specific group of parents that this blog post will talk about, those of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

Front of Sandy Hook Elementary School (a few days after the shooting)

Unfortunately, school shootings are not a new phenomenon and seems to be more prevalent in the United States than anywhere else in the world. Some have theorized that this is due to the easier availability of firearms in the United States. As I mentioned, school shootings are not a new phenomenon, and it’s a phenomenon that isn’t only relegated to the late 20^th century and 21^st century.

Before researching this horrific event, I had no idea that school shootings were recorded so far back in history. 

The first reported school shooting happened on July 26^th, 1764 in Greencastle, Pennsylvania known as the Enoch Brown School Massacre.

Monument to Victims of Enoch Brown School Massacre

The latest reported school shooting happened on April 10^th, 2017 in San Bernardino, California, now dubbed the North Park Elementary School Shooting.

North Park Elementary School Resumes Classes After Shooting

Sandy Hook Elementary School is not the first elementary school to be targeted by a deranged madman on a Devil’s quest, but it is one that definitely sticks in our minds to this day. In total, there have been 452 school shootings from 1764-2017.

Here is a breakdown by state (including the District of Colombia) of school shootings between 1764-2017:

1. Delaware     0     2. Rhode Island     0     3. Maine     0     4. Alaska     1     5. Idaho    1 

6. Vermont     1     7. North Dakota     1     8. New Hampshire     1     9. Hawaii     1

10. Nebraska     2     11. New Mexico     2     12. South Dakota     2     13. Wyoming     2

14. Montana     3     15. New Jersey     3     16. West Virginia     4     17. Washington DC     4

18. Nevada     4     19. Connecticut     4     20. Iowa     5     21. Utah     5     22. Arizona     5

23. Maryland     6     24. Kansas     6     25. Mississippi     6     26. Oklahoma     6     27. Oregon     6

28. Louisiana     7     29. Alabama     8     30. Minnesota     8     31. Colorado     8     32. Arkansas     8

33. Indiana     9     34. South Carolina     9     35. Wisconsin     10     36. Massachusetts     10

37. Virginia     11     38. Washington     11     39. Kentucky     13     40.     North Carolina     14

41. Georgia     15     42. Missouri     15     43. Tennessee     16     44. Michigan     17

45. Ohio     20     46. Texas     20     47. Pennsylvania     22     48. Illinois     22     49. Florida     25

50. New York     29     51. California     44

(for more informational statistics of school shootings, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States)

It is amazing to see that there are only three states that have never had a school shooting.  As can be seen by the state breakdown, there is a certain trend of states that seem to have a greater preponderance of school shootings. Of course, some of the affected states are bigger in size and/or population, but it is still intriguing to see how heavily weighted some of the states seem to be.

There is also a pattern that is emerging that is somewhat disturbing. There seems to be an exponential rise in school shootings that is happening in the last twenty years. It seems to be that since the Columbine school shooting there has been a massive rise in the frequency of school shootings.  

Of course, we all remember the Columbine shootings that tragically happened on April 20^th, 1999 in the town of Columbine, Colorado. This attack was perpetrated by two individuals, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Due to the actions of these two maniacs, twelve students and one teacher were murdered, and twenty-four others were injured in the attack. The shooters ended up committing suicide. This seems to be the emerging pattern for school shooters, they all seem to have a death wish and seem to want to take as many innocents with them as they can.

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold on Surveillance (04/20/99) Columbine High School

In the decade from 1980-1990 there were a total of thirty-eight school shootings which is appalling, but in the decade from 1990-2000 that number rose to sixty-two school shootings. The number almost doubled in that twenty-year span and the question is, why? What has caused the numbers to rise so much? 

Between 2000-2010 there were sixty-one school shootings which seemed to have leveled off based on the prior decade, but then between 2010 and April 10^th, 2017, the number of school shootings has risen to 128! That has more than doubled the number of shootings in less than a decade. What is causing this increase so exponentially in the recent decade?

My theory on the rise in school shootings is based in the access to information via the internet and media. More and more, news is in our homes at a rapid rate that will brings us all the bad news happening all around us. With a few simple clicks in a standard Google ® search, you can have access to massive amounts of information on any subject that your heart desires. 

In fact, I have an app on my phone that is the East Idaho News station and I get updates multiple times a day with breaking news. I was always the one that was behind on the news, but now, I seem to know what is happening virtually twenty-four hours a day. This increase and ease of accessing media and news has likely contributed to sensationalizing school shootings and more young people are thinking it is a good idea to get their pain heard and the attention they seek as they, in their own minds become martyrs.

This has been shown with more veracity lately with the newest Facebook® feature, Facebook Live®. With this new feature, we are seeing a rise in people filming their terrible and gruesome crimes for the world to see, seemingly without a care about their own freedom after they have broken the law for all to see.  

Things from rape, abuse, and even murder are being streamed on Facebook Live® and this is proving to be more problematic and is seemingly increasing the violence that is being perpetrated.  To be clear, I am in no way trying to lay any blame on Facebook® as I discuss their live app, it is after all the choice of the criminals that is bringing these events to pass.

Sadly, over the last twenty years, we as a society have become more desensitized to the school shootings that happen multiple times per month across our country. There are school shootings that I have never heard about, simply because they are happening so frequently that they are not receiving the national news coverage that they used to. 

This is a double-edged sword however, as it is maybe a good thing that we are not inundated with the trauma and violence of these senseless acts, and on the other side, we are not aware of the tragedies that are happening and the victims are all but forgotten. It seems like we see so many high school shootings that we have less compassion and it takes a madman shooting six and seven-year-olds to make headlines.

Many shooters’ manifestos indicated that they were bullied at some point in school and it pushed them so far that they felt the need to kill a whole slew of innocent people, many of which weren’t on the list of bullies. 

Example of a School Shooter's Manifesto

I have to say, I was bullied some during my school years and I never thought about killing anyone because of it. Sure, I may have daydreamed about punching some bully in the face, but killing someone couldn’t have even entered my realm of thought. Not to say I didn’t have access to guns, but what good would it do to kill a bully because I would just end up in prison being bullied all over again and my life would be ruined. 

Too often, these shooters are the names that are remembered, but the victims become mere statistics and the general population doesn’t even know their names. Ask yourself, “what were the victims’ names of the Sandy Hook shooting?” Now ask yourself, “who was the shooter at Sandy Hook?” See what I mean? Don’t feel bad about it, I was the same way, it is just how we are programmed with the news coverage that we see, and I felt it incumbent upon me to bring this back to light to remember the victims and not glorify the shooter.

Also, I want to be clear that I do not agree in school shooting situations when the mental health providers are essentially put on trial and are questioned by the general public with such phrases as, “why didn’t you see this coming”, “why didn’t you intervene”, “how could you have let this happen?” 

I am a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and there are things that we don’t see, especially if our patients don’t want to tell us. I had a patient once that was coming to all of her sessions and working through her issues, and one night, after our session, she committed suicide and I was instantly in the spotlight to make sure I was doing my job. She never mentioned she was suicidal and she never eluded to it in the session. 

Being a mental health professional is a daunting, thankless job at times and not everything can be stopped by a therapist. It is even harder as a therapist to see warning signs if the patient isn’t following through with a treatment regimen, as too often happens with mental health patients. That will be my only soapbox, I promise.

Purchased in 1705 from the Pohtatuck Native Americans by the English Colonists, Newtown was originally called Quanneapague. Residents from Stratford ventured to Newtown and eventually, in 1711 incorporated the town of Newtown. It would go on to be a stronghold for the colonies in the Revolutionary War. The town has several industries including furniture making, creation of tea bags, farming, and mining. The game of “Scrabble” was even invented in this town. As of 2015, the population of Newtown was 28,022 residents, making Newtown a fairly quaint New England community. There are four elementary schools, an intermediate school, a Jr. High School, a High School, and several private and parochial schools. 

Friday, December 14^th, 2012 was a day like any other in the town of Newtown, Connecticut. It was a brisk 34° F and the weather was fair. The children of Newtown were getting excited for Christmas and were counting down the days until Christmas break from school. 

Newtown, Connecticut

It was a day like any other for the parents of the students of Sandy Hook Elementary School, they got their children out of bed, got them fed, and put them on buses or drove them to school, assuming that just like all other days, they would gather their children after school. There would be homework, playing, dinner, and what every parent dreads, bedtime.

School started for the 456 Kindergarten through 4^th grade students of Sandy Hook Elementary school at 9:07 am and the children had settled into their classes for the last day of school for the week. There would be math, reading, art, and other various things they would study that day, things they could use for the rest of their lives. It was just an ordinary day…until approximately 9:35 am.

Stay tuned for part II very shortly...