OH - Five injured in SuccessTech Academy shooting, Cleveland, 10 Oct 2007

[Taximom]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071011/ap_on_re_us/school_shooting

Student gunman warned of attack

CLEVELAND - A high school student said Thursday that he and classmates had warned their principal about threats by a classmate who shot and wounded four people before killing himself, and believed the attack could have been prevented.
The student, Rasheem Smith, said on CBS' "Early Show" that despite their warnings about the student who opened fire Wednesday, Asa H. Coon, principal Johneita Durant told them she was too busy.
"I told my friends in the class that he had a gun and stuff," said Smith, 15. "He was talking about doing it last week. I don't know why they didn't say nothing.
"We talked to the principal. She would try to get us all in the office, but it would always be too busy for it to happen," Smith said.
Responding on the show, schools CEO Eugene Sanders said the district would investigate. "We're going to review the entire situation over the course of today and tomorrow, make a determination of what has indeed occurred, and then see what the appropriate recommendations are, so we can move forward on Monday morning," he said.
The Associated Press made several attempts to reach Durant at SuccessTech Academy after the shootings, but she did not make herself available for comment.

(more at link)

I keep thinking THANK GOD noboby else died yesterday.

**sigh**

 

[CaliKid]

Someone's butt will be in a sling. I know here in California, the admins preach to the students over and over about reporting anything suspicious they hear. These kids tried to do the right thing and were rebuffed. That principal should lose her job.

 

[Gina_M]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071011/ap_on_re_us/school_shooting

Student gunman warned of attack

The student, Rasheem Smith, said on CBS' "Early Show" that despite their warnings about the student who opened fire Wednesday, Asa H. Coon, principal Johneita Durant told them she was too busy.

"We talked to the principal. She would try to get us all in the office, but it would always be too busy for it to happen," Smith said.

The principal was too busy? This should have been made a priority. Sheesh.

 

[Taximom]

Well, they had Rasheem Smith on local news kind of backtracking what he said on the morning show. It was kind of hard to understand him, but basically he said he could see why the principal didn't take him seriously because he was joking around.

Call me confused!

I have no doubts that they will get to the bottom of this. The mayor has given the school super. 24 hours to get something done about the security in the schools.

I wish someone would give the mayor 24 hours to do something about all the murders in our city!!

 

[Taximom]

Well, now we know why it's called "Successtech".
http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=75931&provider=top

Marks (a student) provided portions of his video to a local TV station but later held a bidding war between other media outlets in front of the school.

Marks said a syndicated talk show had agreed to pay $2,000 and that local stations would have to pay him for clips as well. At least one other Cleveland TV station offered as much as $300 for the video but Marks asked for more.

WKYC-TV made no offers for the tape.

When asked why Marks was trying to make money from an experience that was so bloody, Mark's mother, Tereena Marks, said that this was her son's 15 minutes of fame and that he deserved to be paid for it. (more at link)

 

[Taximom]

All schools will now have metal detectors and security guards. That's the "goal", so who knows how long that will take. Better efforts too by all to help spot issues before they end like this.

It does feel differently now that it's something that is final. It almost feels like we will be entering a prison... I didn't think I'd react like that!