06/09/2024
LESSONS FROM GEORGIA’S HORRIFIC SCHOOL SHOOTING
On September 4, 2024, four innocent lives were taken by a school shooter in Georgia. This is a great loss to the families of students Mason Schermerhorn, 14, Christian Angulo, 14, and teachers Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie were identified as those killed. Nine other people were injured during this horrific act. Many, many more have now have pain and anguish etched into their lives having experienced this traumatic experience.
There are some lessons for us to learn from this incident.
1. WE NEED TO DO MORE TO PROVIDE TREATMENT FOR MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES. It is reported that the shooter has had a history of mental health problems. We need to increase the assistance that we provide people with mental health problems. This includes making sure that we identify people who are struggling and in crisis and delivering sufficient treatment.
2. PEOPLE WITH MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES (JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE) DO NOT ALWAYS TELL THE TRUTH. It is being reported that the shooter was investigated in May 2023 for “online threats to commit a school shooting at an unidentified location and time". He purportedly was investigated for threats made on an app called Discord. The FBI was involved, and police were alerted. During the investigation, the shooter claimed that he was hacked and that he did not make the posts. Yes, likely he did not tell the truth. It was determined that there was no probable cause to make an arrest at that time.
3. LAW ENFORCEMENT LESSONS. This brings us to some law enforcement lessons that we need to take away from this incident. Today, we are told that law enforcement has been able to determine that the shooter was obsessed with the Parkland shooting and other past school shootings. I don’t know exactly how they discovered this, but perhaps we need to improve our investigations to increase the opportunity to learn before the shooting what they say has been determined after the shooting. In this case, I wonder if more could not have been done to make this discovery when they investigated the threat in May 2023.
Further, during the May 2023 investigation, they discovered that the shooter had a history of mental health issues. I wonder if more could have been done by law enforcement – through referrals – to get the mental health assistance I previously discussed. Perhaps we need additional laws to require mental health assistance, which goes back to funding.
These are not knocks on law enforcement – just observations.
4. PARENTS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO GUIDING CHILDREN. All of us who have raised children know that they do not always do what we want them to do – even when they do not have mental health issues. For this reason, I typically am critical of the mass-blaming of parents for their children’s behavior. It is not helpful to blame parents for everything. It is also not even fair. Sometimes, kids learn behavior away from the home.
This also makes me critical of prosecutions of parents for their child’s behaviors…UNLESS the parent’s conduct has a direct and substantial impact on the child’s behavior. For example, if a parent boards a bus with their child and instructs their child to beat up another child…BAD PARENTING.
In the Georgia shooting case, the father has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, along with other charges. Yes, he has his right to due process and his day in court (because he is innocent until proven guilty). But it is alleged that the father bought him the AR-style rifle AFTER the May 2023 threat investigation, whereby he knew that this shooter has mental health problems and was warned by law enforcement not to allow the child to have access to guns. If these allegations are true, then, in this case, I believe the parent should face the music and have some culpability. That said, let’s not get our emotions so high that prosecute him as if he was the premeditated shooter. Yes, if these allegations are true, he was reckless; however, the allegations do not suggest that he premeditated what occurred.
5. CAUTION IS NEEDED. Each time a shooting occurs, I see a rise in violations of student’s rights to fairness…especially among those who have special needs and disabilities. These shootings should not be used as an excuse for mistreating kids with IEPs and 504 Plans. Fortunately, it is a very tiny sliver of a percentile of students who become school shooters. It is reported that in the 2022-2023 school year, 7.5 million students in the United States received special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This represents 15.2% of all public school students. They are not the next school shooters. Please do not treat them as if they are.
As I close, my prayers are with the parents and families of the students and teachers who were killed and all of those who were affected by this horrific shooting.
This article was written based on information found in news sources. I do not have firsthand knowledge of the allegations or evidence regarding them.
Jamison Jessup is the CEO and founder of MyChildWins.com, LLC, a firm that provides professional advocacy for students with special needs and disabilities.
