SCHOOL/YOUTH VIOLENCE
Lake Worth, Florida Incident (5/26/00)
Page Updated: 02/17/02 07:13 AM
LATE-BREAKING NEWS
The
Day Nate Brazill Shot Barry Grunow
Palm Beach (FL) Post, 6/11/00
Nate Brazill came to school twice that Friday. In the morning, he brought flowers. In the afternoon, he brought a gun.
He used it to shoot Barry Grunow: a teacher he liked, a teacher who liked him, a teacher who had encouraged him when other classmates made fun of his artistic gifts and willingness to study. For Grunow, the last day of school was his last day on Earth. A single shot felled him, just outside his classroom door.
For the 13-year-old assassin, that single .25-caliber bullet canceled a future that held promise. It tore up his A-and-B report cards. It wiped out his dream of becoming a Secret Service agent.
It ripped two Lake Worth families to shreds. It plunged the people who knew and loved the victim and his assailant into lightless worlds of sorrow and incomprehension. It deprived Barry Grunow's two little children of a father, and his wife, Pam, of a husband.
It put Polly Ann Powell's firstborn son, Nathaniel, in handcuffs and behind bars.
It suddenly enrolled Palm Beach County in the gloomy group of school districts in America where a life can be erased as quickly and as easily as the writing on a blackboard.
Teacher
Shooting Witness, 13, Tries to Cope with Loss
Miami Herald, 6/5/00
LAKE WORTH -- Amanda Bradley had big plans for the summer -- joining a soccer team, racing her BMX bike, visiting her grandparents up North.
Now she just wants to stay home.
"I don't really want to do anything anymore,'' the 13-year-old shrugs, hugging herself as she sits on the couch of her mother's small house in Lake Worth. "I guess I kind of lost interest in doing anything.''
Every student at Lake Worth Community Middle School was scarred when classmate Nathaniel Brazill gunned down a beloved teacher on the last day of classes. But the experience was particularly hard on Amanda.
She was standing a few feet away when she saw the seventh-grader whip out a pistol and shoot Barry Grunow in the face. She watched her favorite teacher slump to the floor, cough up blood and die.
Clues
to Shooting Hidden in Mystery
Miami Herald, 6/4/00
In his adolescent daydreams, Nathaniel Brazill fancied himself a grown-up Secret Service agent protecting the president, just like the lawmen in his favorite movie, Air Force One.
Nathaniel, a promising 13-year-old, could easily have turned the fantasy into reality. Then he fired a single bullet into the head of popular Lake Worth Middle School English teacher Barry Grunow, killing him instantly as horrified students watched.
In the nine days since, everyone who knows Nathaniel has been trying to answer the burning question: How did a smart, witty and sociable youth who had never been in trouble before wind up like this?
For most, that mystery has yet to be solved.
Slain
Teacher's Widow Speaks
Miami Herald, 6/3/00
The grief-stricken widow of slain Lake Worth Middle School teacher Barry Grunow struggled to maintain her composure Friday as she thanked people from coast to coast for thousands of acts of kindness since a student gunned down her husband one week ago.
''I'm extremely touched,'' said Pamela Grunow, 35, speaking into a bank of microphones in a banquet room at the Sheraton Hotel in West Palm Beach. It was the first time the family had emerged from its seclusion since the shooting. Two of Barry Grunow's brothers, Kurt and Steve, and his sister, Kay Nichols joined Pamela Grunow. Another brother and his mother were said to be too distraught to attend.
Teacher
Not Kid's First Target
Miami Herald, 6/1/00
Detectives believe they now know why Nathaniel Brazill brought a gun to school: to kill a guidance counselor who sent him home, according to the Lake Worth Police Department.
The seventh-grader and a classmate were both sent home on the last day of class by guidance counselor Kevin Hinds for hurling water balloons. As Brazill and the girl walked, Brazill began making threats, her father said.
"He told her he was going to bring a gun back to school and shoot Mr. Hinds,'' Police Chief William Smith said. "He also stated, `Just watch, I'll be all over the news.' ''
Brazill's prediction came true. He is accused of fatally shooting teacher Barry Grunow in the face after Grunow refused to allow Brazill to talk to two friends when he returned to the school an hour later.
Brazill
Bragged He Would Shoot School Counselor, Police Say
Palm Beach Post, 6/1/00
Ninety minutes before killing a popular teacher, Nathaniel Brazill bragged to at least two friends that he would shoot a guidance counselor for suspending him on the last day of school, police said Wednesday.
"Just watch; I'll be all over the news," Brazill told a 13-year-old female classmate around 2 p.m., shortly after counselor Kevin Hinds suspended Brazill for throwing water balloons, according to Police Chief William Smith. The girl told police Brazill said he was going home to get a gun and would return to shoot Hinds.
An hour later Brazill, 13, asked neighbor Brandon Spann, 18, for a gun, police learned Wednesday. Spann said Brazill told him he wanted to shoot a Lake Worth Middle School teacher who sent him home, police Lt. Raychel Houston said.
Classmates
Saw Gun Three Days Earlier
Palm Beach Post, 5/30/00
Just three days before teacher Barry Grunow was shot dead in his Lake Worth Middle School classroom, the suspected 13-year-old shooter had shown off the pistol to a couple of schoolmates, police said Monday.
Nathaniel Brazill unveiled the .25-caliber semi-automatic handgun to two friends near his home on the 800 block of South H Street, police said. Instead of telling anyone of the foreboding show-and-tell, however, the two juveniles kept quiet.
Two
Kids Say Brazill had Gun Three Days Before Teacher was Shot
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, 5/30/00
Two youths claim Nathaniel Brazill was brandishing a small handgun three days before a school shooting that left a popular English teacher dead, police said Monday.
Brazill, a seventh-grade honor student, was sent home from school for throwing water balloons in a hallway. The 13-year-old later returned and allegedly fired one shot from a small gun killing the 35-year-old teacher.
The youths, who were not identified by police, told investigators Brazill showed them the gun near his home last Tuesday, but they did not tell anyone about it, Lake Worth Police Chief William Smith said in a statement released Monday.
Educators:
Did We Miss Something?
Palm Beach Post, 5/29/00
It was Sharon Walker's last dismissal, the last day she would be principal to her 1,500 children. She remembers standing in the bus loop at almost 3:30 p.m. and thinking, "Ten, 15 minutes more, and we're home free."
Then she heard "Code 36" on her radio -- fight on campus -- and two of her assistant principals took off on a golf cart. And then the radio squawked, "It's a medical," which means send a nurse. When Walker stepped into the main office just seconds later, she saw a secretary on the emergency red phone, sending for police and paramedics.
And she just knew in her gut it was bad.
Why was the Boy Sent Home?
Fort Lauderdale Star-Sentinel, 5/29/00
Questions burn through Mimi Borge's grief over a slain teacher and his accused unlikely slayer.
If Nathaniel Brazill hadn't been sent home for throwing a water balloon, might he still be considered the funny, tuba-playing honor student instead of a murder suspect?
"How can a 13-year-old be sent home with all that anger that he didn't know how to deal with?" asks Borge, a registered nurse from Boca Raton who has a 7-year-old son and volunteers as a reading tutor. "Something failed this child, somewhere." Many South Floridians have asked similar questions, but Hiram Rosov, who retired after 40 years of teaching in New York City schools, doesn't question anything. "Whoever said 'go home' is responsible, is negligent in the death of this teacher," said Rosov, also of Boca Raton.
Bob Hatcher, the Lake Worth Middle School assistant principal who let Brazill go home alone, has asked himself questions, too. "I have not stopped since I saw Barry Grunow laying on the floor. What could I have done differently that week, that year, that day," he said. "There is nothing anybody could have done."
Brazill wasn't angry when he left school, Hatcher said. He was sent to his grandmother's house because that's what his mother wanted.
Suspect's
Attitude a Puzzle -- to be Tried as an Adult
Miami Herald, 5/28/00
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LAKE WORTH -- A blank-faced Nathaniel Brazill spoke four cryptic words as police escorted him to a patrol car: ''Me no speak English.'' ''That was a bit of attitude we saw there,'' Lake Worth Police Chief William E. Smith said afterward. ''He certainly speaks English and was an excellent student.''
The seventh-grader was equally inscrutable Saturday as he stood manacled in a Palm Beach County courtroom while a judge read the charges against him -- first-degree murder and aggravated assault with a firearm.
The Lake Worth Community Middle School student is accused of fatally shooting teacher Barry Grunow in the face Friday. It was the last hour of class on students' last day of school.
Subtle Danger
Signs Went Unheeded
Miami Herald, 5/28/00
TEACHER'S ROOM: The classroom of Barry Grunow is empty Friday after the teacher's slaying.
No one could have guessed a child would shoot anyone. Not in the elementary school playground in Flint, Mich., or at the high school dance in Savannah, Ga., or in the hallways of Columbine High.
And not in the classroom of Barry Grunow, a popular teacher at Lake Worth Middle School in Palm Beach County.
But Grunow was shot dead Friday. As in nearly a dozen school shootings that have occurred in the past three years, a student -- in this case seventh-grader Nathaniel Brazill -- is accused of pulling the trigger.
'He
was the One I could Trust'
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, 5/27/00
John James thought he knew his students until one of them shot the teacher two doors down, then pointed the gun at him.
James taught advanced math to Nathaniel Brazill, 13, a boy who regularly made jokes but obeyed James' demand for respect.
On Thursday, when James needed the drinks he brought for class from his car, he tossed Brazill the keys. "You look around the classroom and say, `Who can I trust?' He was the one I could trust."
One day later, Brazill stood accused of shooting advanced English teacher Barry Grunow.
All
Who Knew Student are Stunned by his Actions
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, 5/28/00
With the last day of the school year dwindling away, the tuba player with the ever-present smile joined his bandmates in a mad dash to clean their middle school's music room.
As they swabbed and shined their instruments and filed away sheet music, the 13-year-old honors student and his classmates were excited to taste the freedom of summer, said Frank Bermudez, Lake Worth Middle School's music director. After the bell rang, Bermudez said he knew he would see the popular, talkative student filter into the music room next fall as part of the eighth-grade band.
A few hours and one gunshot later, nothing about Nathaniel "Nate" Brazill's future was certain, and those close to him say they are still in shock from what happened Friday afternoon. They can't fathom that a classmate could come to school with a gun and fire a single, deadly shot at advanced-English teacher Barry Grunow.
Accused
Teacher Killer is Enigmatic, Unapologetic
Contra Costa Times, 5/28/00
LAKE WORTH, Fla. -- His face blank, Nathaniel Brazill spoke four cryptic words as police officers escorted him to a patrol car: "Me no speak English."
"That was a bit of attitude we saw there," said Lake Worth Police Chief William E. Smith. "He certainly speaks English and was an excellent student."
The seventh-grader was equally inscrutable Saturday as he stood manacled in a Palm Beach County courtroom while a judge read the charges against him: first-degree murder and aggravated assault with a firearm."
I kept hearing from friends that Nate was going to bring a gun to school, Nate was going to bring a gun to school," said Amanda Bradley, 13, a fellow seventh-grader at the school. "I said, 'Nate? He's just trying to scare someone.'"
Whatever his motives, Nathaniel remained unapologetic, the police chief said. As he confessed to detectives, he "showed little emotion," Smith said.
In court, his expression was also emotionless. "We would not describe his demeanor as remorseful," Smith said. "His attitude is matter-of-fact."
Student Kills Florida Teacher
Palm Beach (FL) News, 5/26/00
LAKE WORTH, Fla. (AP)--A 13-year-old student sent home from school for throwing water balloons on the last day of classes returned and fatally shot a teacher with a semi-automatic pistol Friday, police said.
Seventh grader Nathaniel Brazill returned to Lake Worth Community Middle School shortly before 3:30 p.m., Police Chief William Smith said. He spoke to teacher Barry Grunow, pulled out a .25-caliber pistol and fired a single shot, killing the 35-year-old language arts teacher, he said.
Beloved
Teacher Shot, Allegedly by Honor Student
Fort Lauderdale (FL) Sun-Sentinel, 5/26/00
 (Jim Rassol/Staff) |
LAKE WORTH --In the last minutes of the last day of school, a seventh-grader at Lake Worth Middle School walked up to his teacher in the hallway outside a classroom on Friday afternoon and shot him to death in front of six students.
The 13-year-old boy, who police said had no history of trouble in school and had earned A's and B's, reportedly was angry over getting a poor grade in Barry Grunow's honors language arts class. Grunow, 35, died where he was shot just before 3:30 p.m.
Suspect Nathaniel Brazill is in the custody of the Lake Worth Police Department after the shooting of Barry Grunow, a Lake Worth Middle School teacher.
The school year's final dismissal was 15 minutes away.
Police identified the boy as Nathaniel Brazill. He was apprehended about a quarter of a mile from the school. Brazill was walking down the street when he flagged down a patrol car, police said.
"I saw him shoot him right around the temple," said Timothy Gandolfo, 13, also a seventh-grader at the school. "Nate said, "Ha, ha, what are you going to do now?"
Teacher
Slain, Student Charged
Fort Lauderdale (FL) Sun-Sentinel, 5/27/00
In the last minutes of the last day of school, a seventh-grader at Lake Worth Middle School was alleged to have shot one of his teachers to death on Friday as six students watched.
The 13-year-old boy, who had no history of trouble and had earned mostly A's and B's, had been sent home earlier in the day for such last-day-of-school antics as tossing a water balloon. Nathaniel Brazill returned about two hours later saying he wanted to say goodbye to two girls who were still inside Classroom 301.
Language arts teacher Barry Grunow stepped out into the blue-terrazzo hallway and told the boy he would not let him in. So at point-blank range Brazill fired a single shot into the head of the affable and popular teacher, Lake Worth Police Chief William Smith said.
Grunow, 35, a father of two, dropped to the floor and died where he was shot just before 3:30 p.m.
Teacher's
Neighbors in Tears Over School Slaying
Fort Lauderdale (FL) Sun-Sentinel, 5/27/00
Family, friends and former students rushed to the house, hoping the beloved middle school teacher would pull through.
But 35-year-old Barry Grunow, a popular English teacher, died Friday at Lake Worth Middle School after being shot outside of his classroom, allegedly by 13-year-old Nathaniel Brazill.
"We are in shock and can't comprehend how something like this could happen to such a wonderful, loving human being," said Tim Kennedy, a friend of the family. "We appreciate everyone's concern and just need a little time to ourselves."
Teacher
Killed at School
Miami (FL) Herald, 5/27/00
Teacher
Had Noble Ideals, Unique Ways
Palm Beach Post, 5/27/00
Mr. Grunow -- not "Barry, "because in schools they still treat teachers with a measure of respect" -- was recalled Friday as a teacher of noble ideals and unconventional methods. He was a product of the same school system he imagined he'd make better in his way.
At a time when politicians are pressuring poor schools to improve, offering parents the option to leave those schools, Mr. Grunow, 35, decided his challenge would be to keep kids there, and learning. In 1995 he transferred from Loggers' Run Middle School, a suburban Boca Raton school that got an A from the state last year, to Lake Worth Middle, which got a C.
Teen
Showed No Sign of Violent Bent
Palm Beach Post, 5/27/00
Nobody expected violence from Nate Brazill, the seventh-grader who smiled a lot and made good grades, played the tuba and stayed out of trouble.
But in the Lake Worth Middle School cafeteria at breakfast a few weeks ago, schoolmates say, the 13-year-old Brazill talked about getting his hands on a gun.
And on Friday, after an uncharacteristic brush with trouble, police say, Brazill used it.
School Considered Safe with Cameras, Officer
Palm Beach Post, 5/27/00
Lake Worth Middle School has a full-time police officer on its campus, video surveillance cameras in the hallways, a card access system for after-hours entry, and a new ban on backpacks.
None of it stopped seventh-grader Nathaniel Brazill from taking his grandfather's pistol to school Friday afternoon and killing teacher Barry Grunow. Tragically, there's no way to make a school absolutely safe from crime, school safety experts said Friday.
In some ways, Palm Beach County is ahead of other districts. The school police department has nearly 90 officers -- one stationed at every high school and every middle school, and some elementary schools -- and they trained last year in SWAT-team exercises. All new schools are built with video surveillance cameras -- Lake Worth got its cameras and card-access system last year. And, perhaps most important, experts said, the district has invested more than $200,000 in conflict resolution programs like Aggressors, Victims and Bystanders, which teaches kids to control their anger and talk to adults when they think some one is pushing too far.
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