Arapahoe High School students after shooting
I got a call from my husband earlier this afternoon. He said, tersely, that there had been a shooting at Arapahoe High, in Centennial, Colorado. Our very dear friend Kat's daughter Allie is a freshman there. He told me that Allie was okay, the shooter was dead, and two people were injured. I hung up and started to cry, then texted Kat. She was shaken. She said that her heart just dropped when she heard of the shooting.
This shit has got to STOP.
A student bent on shooting the librarian barged into a Colorado school Friday and terrorized his classmates for 14 minutes before he killed himself with a shotgun blast.
The gunfire erupted on the eve on the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre and a few miles away from another Colorado high school where two students killed 13 classmates and themselves back in 1999.
But the only fatality this time was the still-unidentified shooter, who police said wounded two other students at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colo.
NY Daily News
Apparently, he wanted to kill the librarian, Mr. Murphy. Mr. Murphy escaped without injury. The shooter, according to Allie, was a senior on the debate team. His name is Karl.
New text from Kat:
"Allie is completely shaken up. She knows one of the girls that was shot and the gunman. This is fucking horrible!"
"Fucking horrible" is really a rather mild term, in my opinion. A few more details:
CENTENNIAL, Colo. - The suspected gunman is dead after a shooting at Arapahoe High School, according to the Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson.
Two students were shot. One is in serious condition, the other has minor injuries.
Robinson said he believes the suspect died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Robinson said the shooter walked up to the west side of the school at 12:33 p.m. on Friday.
Robinson said the shooter was armed with a shotgun and was looking for a specific teacher that the gunman identified by name.
A janitor told 7NEWS that he saw a student dressed in military or tactical gear running through the school.
"It just looked weird," the janitor said. "He went in and that's when I heard two pops. That's when I knew. I said, 'They are shooting in the school.'"
The janitor called for help and said he took the threatened teacher with him to his truck.
"He [the teacher] knew he was the target," Robinson said as he praised the teacher for leaving in hopes that it would help remove the threat from the school.
"When the teacher found out, he exited," Robinson said.
Seconds later, Robinson said a student was shot.
Initially, Robinson said that student had confronted the gunman, but later Robinson said that student may have simply been in the area and was shot.
That student was taken into surgery. At last report, the student was listed in critical condition.
Courtney Leytoldt told 7NEWS she heard a girl running down the stairs yelling, "Help me, help me, there's a shooter." She said that girl was covered in blood.
Leytoldt said she was in yoga class and that her teacher put all the students in a closet to protect them.
A second student was also shot and has minor injuries, Robinson said.
The Denver Channel
My children's schools, in Douglas County, as well as schools in Littleton, Aurora, and others, were locked down. The children were told that it was not a drill.
Rant follows below the lock of hair from the Great Orange Satan. Warning: foul language. Hell hath no fury like an angry and frightened mother.
Where to begin? Well, I have some questions that have yet to be answered:
Where the fuck did that kid get a shotgun? Was it from home? Did he buy it? Borrow it? Steal it? Why was he able to take it and go to his school to kill a librarian? Didn't anybody know that he was planning that?
I am fucking sick and tired of assholes being able to go into a school and KILL PEOPLE. THIS asshole didn't manage to kill anyone but himself, but he wounded a girl that Allie knows. She's 14 years old and she's traumatized. This is her first year of high school. Her school may not be as badly tainted as Columbine or Sandy Hook, but nevertheless, it was the site of a school shooting.
Schools are supposed to be places of learning, places to make friends, some of whom may become lifelong friends, places of SAFETY. Assholes with guns have changed that, forever. No parent should EVER send their child off to school one morning, only to have them in a body bag by afternoon. Fuck you, gun nuts. Fuck the assholes who voted to recall Morse and Giron, and went after Evie Hudak. Fuck all the assholes yelling, "FREEDUMB!" And most of all, fuck you, NRA. You're not the NRA of twenty years ago, when you urged responsibility. Oh, no, now you're a bunch of greedy, crazed wackadoodles. You have NO shame.
You get paid by gun manufacturers and you buy politicians. Weak, scummy, assclown politicians to do your bidding. You lie to, and prey on, uninformed but well-armed people. "Obama's coming for your guns!" What a fucking lie. Makes my blood BOIL.
I suppose that we should be grateful that this kid didn't have an AR-15 with a high capacity magazine. The news could have been MUCH worse. But a kid is dead who shouldn't be (Why do they almost ALWAYS kill themselves? Cowardice? Were already suicidal? Can't face the aftermath or jail?) and another is critically injured (possibly dead, but this is unconfirmed) and one or two others are injured. Those parents should NOT be where they are right now.
We NEED gun control. We don't need armed teachers. We shouldn't need metal detectors at schools. Our children should NOT be traumatized after a day at school, and live in fear. We NEED mental health programs, and fuck you, Reagan.
Note: LilthGardner did bring Laura Clawson's and Brainwrap's diaries to my attention. But I had already started this one, and have a different perspective.
5:20 PM PT: Mr. Murphy allegedly teased the shooter and called him stupid, according to friends of my son.
5:47 PM PT: Thank you for Rec list =)
7:28 PM PT: Shooter identified as Karl Pierson. From the Denver Post: "Fellow students described the alleged gunman as a bright student and gifted debater whose family attended Bible study meetings."