Tag Archives: Columbine

Taking away our Arms

 

On December 14, 2012, in Sandy Hook, 20 students and six adults were shot and killed by guns. An assault rifle and two pistols were the death weapon. Nobody thought a tragedy such as this could happen since the Columbine shootings, but we were wrong. Ever since the shooting Congress and the president have been arguing heavily on if gun laws should be more strict, or if they should even take away the second amendment. President Obama has already banned assault rifles. After one ban, there will be more bans

The second amendment of the United States gives the people, of the United States, the right to bear arms. Now this amendment was also ratified in 1791 and involved muskets;  not pistols and assault rifles. These shootings keep happening, but we cannot prevent people from having guns. It’s a national safety hazard and terrorism acts will happen against places. Criminals don’t need to use guns. There are plenty more weapons they could use to create chaos. That’s why I believe if guns weren’t banned we could protect our families, our children, and our schools from memories of horror. With guns, we could stop criminals before anything serious happens.

~Zach Racow

What is Up With the Hostility?

On April 2, 2012 a gunman entered a Korean Christian university in California  and shot and killed 7 people and wounded others. The suspect was a student in a nursing class that had been missing for months. The student first shot a lady at the front desk then started firing randomly into classrooms. The man told the students to line up against the wall, and in one situation went crazy and shot a woman that had been present at the time. The gunman drove to Alameda before surrendering soon after his arrival. The shooter was apprehended because he called his father and relayed the event and his father promptly called the police.

I can’t wrap my head around what the possible motive could drive people to do such horrendous things such as this. In a way I not only feel sorry for those who lost their loved ones but also the shooter. The reason for this is he must have been in such emotional and/or physical pain that he was driven to commit this crime. The incident has happened before in similar situations such as Columbine, and I hope the world will become a better place where there is not even the slightest hint of the threat for another incident like this in the future. I hope all who have suffered from this will find peace and forgiveness.

~Owen Murray

 

Ohio School Shooting

T.J. Lane, a high school student in Chardon, Ohio was accused of and admitted to taking a .22-caliber Ruger semiautomatic pistol to Chardon High School on Monday and firing 10 rounds at four students at a cafeteria table. He has not been formally charged, but prosecutors said it was likely that he would be tried in an adult court. Three students have passed away including, Russell King Jr., Demetrius Hewlin and Daniel Parmertor. Two other victims were badly injured and in the hospital for medical treatment. David P. Joyce, the Geauga County prosecutor, was stated as saying, “This is not about bullying, this is not about drugs.” “This was an effect of one lone gunman. He chose his victims at random.”

What do you think about this shooting? I would agree with David P. Joyce. T.J. Lane didn’t want to specifically target someone, but whoever he could get to was the prime suspect. “I don’t know why this happened,” said Frank Hall, an assistant football coach who helped chase the gunman out of the cafeteria, and spoke at a news conference on Thursday. “I only wish I could have done more.” I bet many other people would have helped T.J. if he said something, now he will probably be in jail for the rest of his life.

~Katie Caldwell

 

Catastrophe at Chardon High

April 20,1999 a day no one would ever forget and a day no one wanted repeated. On that day only ,13 years ago, two teenagers went into their high school, Columbine High, with guns and shot a total of 37 people, wounding 23 and killing 14 including themselves. Out of those 14 that died one was Rachael Scott who is the reason why we now have Rachael’s Challenge. The challenge is that we can fulfill her legacy of creating a chain of kindness. Wouldn’t you think that with all of the prevention methods that our schools install into the curriculum the rampages would end? Sadly they have not as we had hoped, since that day over 50 school shootings have occurred with fatalities.

Now, here we are in 2012 and only less than a week ago a timid student named T.J Lane went into Chardon High School’s cafeteria and shot 5 students , 3 now deceased. He said he chose his victims at random and gave up after only an hour. Maybe he did it because his father had also had a criminal infested past, but why now, in his school? No word of his motive has been released to the public yet, but when it is maybe it will give us some sort of idea to what this 17 year old boy was thinking of when he walked into his high school cafeteria and took the lives of three of his peers. One family has already forgiven the shooter for killing their son, and they hope along with everyone else that it will be  the last shooting that will plague our schools forever.

-Lizzie Heisler

A Gift That Keeps Giving

Christmas season is a time for loving, caring, sharing, and forgiveness. Most people believe this is the time for presents and spending money. But what people don’t realize, is that the biggest gift you could ever give someone is kindness. During my 2 years at Dodd, we have had many clubs, speakers, and presentation on the Columbine shooting. For those of you who do not know what the columbine shooting is, it was a terrible and unforgettable shooting at columbine high school back in 1999. This inexcusable shooting left 13 people dead, 21 wounded, but millions and millions disturbed and scarred for life. Throughout those 13 who had died, there was one amazing, kind, and beautiful girl I would like to talk about.

Rachel Scott was born on August 5th, 1981. Dying at the age of only 17, Rachel had many years she had to live up too. Before this young girl’s innocent life had been unwillingly been taken from her, Rachel had profusely egged on acts of kindness. Scott had multiple diaries and many essay regarding sharing acts of kindness. In one of her essays she had written, “I have this theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion then it will start a chain reaction of the same.”

In my opinion, Rachel would have had something huge going with the life he had ahead of her. I am 100% for her theories, and believe her connection was no quad incidence. Being in the same kindergarten with one of the perpetrators, Dylan Klebold, she had know, and seen how he had been acting. Her theory, in my world, explained how incidents like these could have been avoided. If one person had simply taken the one or two seconds it takes to say hi to someone, or just chatted for a split minute, things like this could have been avoided. Dylan and Eric stormed into the building with rage and anger. Had someone been nice to them just once, they may have changed their minds about their horrible dissension that a waited, subsequently stopping 13 murders, and two suicides.

Overall, I believe the Cheshire school systems have done a wonderful job spreading the demonstrations of acts of kindness. As for everyone who has not been so nice in the past, I hope you can start to understand the importance of kindness, and how the smallest things can change even the most hopeless people.

~Brianna Mariano

The Change

Today, December 7th, the day after a tragedy assembly. On December 6th our school had an assembly for Rachel’s challenge. At this assembly we learned about what had happened on April, 20, 1999 at Columbine High School. You were able to see people giving hugs to everyone. That’s how much this video impacted us.Most will people never forget what happened on April 20. Mothers/Fathers are still suffering about their lose.

The first time I heard about Rachel’s Challenge, I didn’t know how to react. I was surprised about the shooting. Rachel Scott was the first one out of twelve others. She helped others in need. Before Rachel died, she knew she wouldn’t live long. She drew a picture a couple days before the incident.

This picture inspires me to do good things everyday It’s because of this one day, that I changed my way of life.

~Eric Brouette