SCHOOL/YOUTH VIOLENCE
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Page updated: 02/17/02 07:14 AM
LATE-BREAKING BULLETINS
Schools'
Safety Drills
Washington Post, 4/1/01
When the warning came, the classroom doors were quickly locked and the lights turned out. Paper was taped over the door windows. And the kids hunkered down, on the floor, against the walls, out of sight.
Within seconds, all that was left in the usually bustling halls of Montgomery Blair High School that day last month was an empty, foreboding silence, as if a killer was afoot.
Then, through the quiet, came the sound of someone trying door handles. Down the corridors the sound went, pausing at every classroom. Until eight were found unlocked and those inside became "casualties."
Strict and realistic, it was the Silver Spring high school's first code red drill, an emergency procedure that has spread across the country in recent years along with the rash of high school shootings.
Students
Breaking Silence
New York Times, 2/10/01
For weeks two teenage girls in Fort Collins, Colo., listened at lunch or in the hallways at school as two male classmates described how they planned to re-enact the shooting at Columbine High School on its second anniversary in April. The girls said that they heard the boys tell of guns and a propane tank to be used as a bomb, and that they saw drawings of how the boys would block the exits to keep students from escaping.
But one of the girls, a 14-year-old, knew a friend who had a friend at Columbine, only 60 miles away. She knew what her silence could bring.
"When I thought these guys could kill my friends, and even themselves, I knew I couldn't live with myself if anything happened," she said in a telephone interview yesterday.
So she and her friend called the police late last month.
Their call, along with others by teenagers in California and Kansas over the past two weeks, have led to arrests that the police say averted three potential school massacres. Equally important, these tips may represent a breakthrough in efforts to get students to abandon their code of silence and to tell school officials about plans for violence.
New
Clues in Columbine Killings
Salon.com, 11/22/00
Thousands of new documents released in the case debunk persistent myths about the motives of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.
Nineteen months after Columbine, investigators finally released compelling testimony to refute some of the high school massacre's most enduring myths Tuesday. Jefferson County District Judge Brooke Jackson ordered the release of 11,000 pages of material, mostly eyewitness accounts recorded by investigating officers.
Victims' families and their attorneys cheered the release as a major victory. "I am expecting to gain a lot of information from this report," says Brian Rohrbough, whose son Dan was killed in the attack. "Part of what I'm expecting to learn ... is what's missing from this report."
Schools
Deploy Programs to Track Potentially Violent Students
Los Angeles Times, 8/21/00
Sixteen months after the Columbine High School shootings, districts across the nation are quietly implementing a variety of "early warning systems" to identify students bent on violence.
Some programs are modeled on law enforcement methods used to track dangerous criminals and analyze workplace dangers. Others are in-depth psychological surveys developed by school districts.
Critics say violence prevention programs are ineffective and run the risk of unfairly stigmatizing children. But many educators say they feel a duty to prevent tragedies like Columbine on their campuses.
Guns,
Mayhem, and Grief Can Flourish When Good Friends Do Nothing
New York Times, 8/9/00
One of the enduring mysteries of the school shootings in places like Littleton, Colo., and West Paducah, Ky., is how so many people could have known so much but done so little to prevent bloodshed. The Columbine High School massacre, in which 15 people were killed, took place in April 1999. This May a 13-year-old boy fatally shot a teacher in Lake Worth, Fla.
In case after case, the friends and acquaintances of the killers had heard boasts, muttered plans for mayhem or seen warning signs, like a fascination with guns, that may have seemed dissonant even in communities of sportsmen and firearms. But they did nothing to stop the crimes.
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 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?"
Secret
Service: School Shooters Defy 'Profiling'
USA Today, 4/10/00
Just two weeks before the first anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings, Secret Service experts say the nation's schools might be basing security efforts on misconceptions about which students are most likely to turn violent.
Scared
by Columbine, Parents Flock to Workshops, Forums
Washington Post, 3/17/00
Parents across the Washington suburbs are gathering in record numbers for evening workshops like this one, according to counselors, community groups and school officials. The programs center on an age-old question: How do parents communicate with teenagers and become a part of their lives? Although the problem is a familiar one, the hunger for answers has grown noticeably since the Columbine High School shootings last spring, parenting experts say.
Two
Bills Aim to Head Off Violence in Schools
Los Angeles Times, 3/6/00
The shooting of a first-grader in Michigan, allegedly by a classmate, has focused new attention on two bills pending in the Legislature that would allocate money for "management conflict" in state elementary schools.
Assemblyman Carl Washington (D-Paramount) has introduced a bill that would put more counselors trained in conflict resolution into elementary and middle schools. His measure, AB 1738, would provide $5 million for school districts to spend on counselors, equipment and law enforcement.
Preventing bullying in fifth and sixth grades is the goal of a bill by Assemblywoman Sally Havice (D-Cerritos).
- Full Text of AB 1738 from the California Legislature's Website
- Full Text of AB 1390 from the California Legislature's Website
Four
Teens Admit Plotting Massacre at Cleveland High School
Los Angeles Times, 12/23/99
CLEVELAND
-- Four teenage boys have admitted plotting a Columbine-style attack to kill anyone who crossed their path at South High School, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Four Admit
School Massacre Plans
Cleveland Plain Dealer, 12/23/99
Four youths admitted last night to planning a Columbine-style attack at Cleveland's South High School, but authorities said they still aren't sure whether the massacre actually would have occurred.
South High
Plotters Shift Blame or Deny Real Harm
Cleveland Plain Dealer, 12/23/99
Taken individually, the handwritten statements of the South High plotters shift blame, deny intent to harm or claim that the plot was idle talk.
But taken together, the documents show how five impressionable youths could have led one another incrementally closer to a bloody conclusion.
5
Teens Charged in Alleged High School Shooting Plot
Los Angeles Times, 12/22/99
OSWEGO, Kan.
-- Five 17-year-old boys have been charged with murder conspiracy after officials uncovered an alleged plan by the teenagers to shoot administrators, teachers and a student at their high school. At least 39 weapons--a mix of handguns, shotguns and rifles--were seized from the boys' homes, but it was not clear who owned the guns.
Kansas
Students Held in Conspiracy
Wichita Eagle, 12/22/99
Colorado
to Prosecute Florida Teen
Denver Post, 12/22/99
U.S. Attorney Tom Strickland vowed Tuesday to prosecute the Florida teen-ager who made the Internet threat that shut down Columbine High School for two days last week.
Michael Ian Campbell, 18, is due in federal court in Florida today and is awaiting his expected transfer to Denver.
Most
School Violence Isn't in the News, Critics Say
Contra Costa Times, 12/19/99
WASHINGTON -- The pain from a murder lingers long after the last scrap of yellow crime-scene tape is gone from the grounds of the school.
Brenda Muhammad and Gregory Carter learned that the hard way. Muhammad's son was murdered in Atlanta. Carter, a former teacher, was shot in Richmond, Va.
They empathize with the bewildered families of both the victims and the victimizers whenever a multiple-victim school shooting dominates the network news.
But they stress that even more students, families and witnesses suffer physical and emotional damage from the routine, one-on-one violence that doesn't make headlines around the world.
Suspension of 4-Year Old Raises Questions
Contra Costa Times, 12/19/99
HARTFORD, Conn. -- Cordell Wilbur was at it again, grabbing and shoving classmates, and his teacher and principal at Wequonnoc School in nearby Norwich had had enough.
He was suspended.
But this is no typical case of schools not tolerating misbehavior.
Cordell is just 4 years old.
This incident involving a kindergartner, though, can't be dismissed as a school district's knee-jerk response to a difficult child.
Educators say it is part of a larger pattern of teachers struggling with increasing numbers of younger, disruptive and needy students as schools face family problems that spill into the classroom.
School
Looks at 'Killer' Poems
Tulsa World, 12/18/99
POCOLA, OK -- A classroom assignment in which a teacher asked students to write poems about an imagined school shooting has parents angry and Pocola district officials looking for answers.The probe began after the 16-year- old son of Sherry Restine was reportedly threatened with suspension and jail for writing a four-line poem from the viewpoint of a school shooter. His mother was only slightly relieved when she learned that what he had written was in response to a class assignment.
Pocola is in LeFlore County just west of Fort Smith, Ark.
Six
Tense Minutes End as Student Gives Up Guns
Miami Herald, 12/15/99
In six scary minutes at a small parochial high school Tuesday, teachers talked an agitated freshman into laying down two loaded pistols that he brought into a biology class.
He had two semi-automatic pistols -- a .25-caliber and a 9-millimeter -- each fully loaded, along with one extra loaded clip for each, two white socks containing loose bullets and more ammunition in a pocket of his gym bag, police said.
Tips
for a Gentler Schoolyard
New York Times, 12/12/99
Recent school gun attacks -- there was another one last week in Oklahoma in which several students were wounded -- have been carried out largely by boys angry at being picked on by their peers.
In response, educators are redoubling efforts to discourage student aggression from an early age.
Parents Question School Security
Denver Rocky Mountain News, 12/11/99
After the bloodiest school shooting in American history, some said stepped-up security made Columbine High one of America's safest schools.
A petition being passed around by a group of Columbine parents says it's still not safe enough.
The three-page document written last week asks administrators to make sure doors are watched more closely, students get tolerance training (emphasis added) and parents are informed more quickly if threats occur. The group, which is restricted to Columbine parents, plans to meet next week.
Though (the school district spokesperson) knows of no formal tolerance training program specifically for Columbine students , half the teachers went though the district-wide culturally responsive teaching program before April 20. The rest are scheduled to attend this school year. (emphasis added)
Inside the
Columbine Investigation
Denver Rocky Mountain News, 12/12/99
They were determined to do it right. Now, the law enforcement professionals investigating a terrible tragedy are finishing their work. This is the story of what they did -- and the toll it took on them.
Boy's
Parents May Shed Insight
Tulsa World, 12/10/99
FORT GIBSON -- Officers have extensively interviewed 50 or so witnesses to Monday's shootings at Fort Gibson Middle School, but Police Chief Richard Slader wants more.
He believes there are two people out there who might help investigators understand the mindset of 13-year-old Seth Trickey -- who is accused of opening fire and wounding five students -- before the shootings took place.
The boy's parents.
State
Public Defender Files Notice of Appeal in Kinkel Case
Eugene Register-Guard, 12/8/99
The state Public Defender has filed a notice of appeal in the 112-year sentence of Thurston High School shooter Kip Kinkel.On Tuesday, as expected, the public defender notified the state Court of Appeals that it would challenge Lane County Circuit Judge Jack Mattison's ruling.
Jesse Barton, the deputy public defender who filed the notice in Salem, said he will argue that the sentence isn't just ``cruel and unusual punishment'' but that it is ``shocking in the moral sense to all fair-minded persons.''
Picking
Up the Pieces
Tulsa World, 12/8/99
FORT GIBSON -- Classes resumed for Fort Gibson students on Tuesday, one day after a shooting rampage disjointed the school district in eastern Muskogee County.
Before the start of classes on Monday, a 13-year-old boy, identified by students as Seth Trickey, opened fire with a 9 mm handgun, sending four classmates to the hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries. School officials canceled classes for the rest of the day and asked students to return a day later.
Tuesday was anything but normal for the district's 1,865 students.
Amid the police tape and ATF vans, satellite cables and television trucks, professional counselors and sheriff's deputies, students walked back to their classrooms eager to learn anything other than core subjects.
"There were a lot of whys,'' said middle school teacher Tammy Harris, Seth's science teacher. "There's some anger. The students did a good job of expressing their feelings.''
13-Year
Old Shoots Four Classmates
Los Angeles Times, 12/7/99
He wasn't a loner. Neither was he a scapegoat, a bad student or even, at least to outside appearances, a child in any distress at all.
Though he doesn't fit the labels appended to other perpetrators of school violence, yet another public school student opened fire Monday on his classmates--this time in Fort Gibson, Okla. It was the seventh school shooting in two years.
Boy
Shoots Four Classmates
New York Times, 12/7/99
A seventh-grade boy described by witnesses as yelling "I'm crazy, I'm crazy!" opened fire on Monday morning outside the middle school in this small east Oklahoma town, injuring five of his fellow students in the latest school shooting in the nation this year.
"I said, 'Hey, man, what's going on?"' said Justin D. Barnes, 13, a sixth grader who saw the youth moments before the attack. "He put down his book bag, took out a gun and started shooting. Somebody yelled, 'What are you doing?' His response was, 'I'm crazy, I'm crazy!"'
Boy,
13, Wounds Four in School Shooting
Tulsa World, 12/7/99
The terror of students shooting students struck this small community early Monday when a 13-year-old boy reportedly arrived before school and shot at five fellow classmates, wounding four of them, police said.
The four who were shot remained hospitalized Monday night, all with nonlife-threatening injuries.
Muskogee County Deputy Sheriff Phillip Blair hugs his 12-year-old daughter, Rachelle. A seventh-grader, Rachelle said she knew the alleged shooter and his four victims.
STEPHEN HOLMAN / Tulsa World
Four
Wounded in Fort Gibson (OK) School Shooting
Tulsa (OK) World, 12/6/99
FORT GIBSON, Okla. (AP) -- A frosty morning wait outside a rural middle school turned into a scene of bloodshed Monday when a seventh-grader with a 9mm handgun opened fire, wounding four of his schoolmates.
Boy Held
in Shooting at New Mexico Middle School
Los Angeles Times, 11/20/99
DEMING, N.M.
-- A boy dressed in camouflage shot and critically wounded a 13-year-old female classmate in the lobby of their middle school Friday, police said.
Student Shot in
Deming
Albuquerque Journal, 11/20/99
Children cowered in their classrooms Friday at Deming Middle School after a teen-age boy dressed in camouflage and wielding a handgun shot a 13-year-old girl in the school lobby during the lunch hour, police say.The girl, Araceli Tena of Deming, was listed in critical condition late Friday with a gunshot wound to the back of the head at Thomason Hospital in El Paso, a hospital spokeswoman said. Family members were at the hospital.
The suspect, arrested at the shooting scene after police ordered him to drop a .22-caliber revolver, was identified as 13-year-old Victor M. Cordova Jr. of Palomas, Mexico, just across the New Mexico border.
Fear, Panic as Boy
Shoots Girl
Albuquerque Journal, 11/20/99
DEMING, N.M. -- Students scattered through the halls, hid in classrooms and sought refuge in a nearby buildings as a 13-year-old Columbus boy opened fire on a classmate Friday.
"Kids started screaming and yelling, and they ran a block away as fast as they could," Bobby Armendariz, a school crossing guard, told the Deming Headlight.
A Violence
Predictor Schools Should Heed
Education Week, 11/17/99
If we've learned anything from the common features of school shootings over recent years, we have learned their warning signals. One in particular has gone unheeded: abuse of animals. Whatever differences there may have been among Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold of Colorado, Kip Kinkel of Oregon, Andrew Golden of Arkansas, and Luke Woodham of Mississippi, they shared in common a history of killing and torturing animals before moving on to humans.
F.B.I. Puts Out 'Risk
List' for Schools
Denver Post, 11/9/99
The FBI, using information from shootings at Columbine High School and other schools, has developed about 60 risk factors to help identify potentially violent students.
Safe
in School?
New York Post, 11/7/99
Student-on-student sex attacks occur in city schools at all grade levels and in all boroughs - but the public rarely hears about them unless parents call police or sue, a Post investigation found.
Administrators Turned a
Deaf Ear to Child's Pleas
New York Post, 11/7/99
The Far Rockaway, Queens, fourth grader and her mother [whose names have been changed for this story] repeatedly told school officials that Latisha had to be protected from her tormentors - especially on the school bus. But despite the warnings and pleas, the bus matron seated Latisha at the rear of the bus, where the two boys were waiting, as the bus headed home from PS 225 on Oct. 7, 1998.
A
Worthier Battle for Parents of School Shooting Victims
Editorial -- Boston Globe, 11/5/99
Abandoned by a president and a Congress too cowardly to call for gun control, the parents of the victims of school shootings are in a petty, pointless, and ultimately fruitless battle to escape their sadness. They are suing the parents of the killers.
Cleveland
Plot to Carry Out Columbine-Style Massacre
Cleveland (Ohio) Plain Dealer, 10/30/99
With four South High School students in custody and more arrests planned, city and school officials struggled yesterday to gauge the true intentions of 11 teens accused of scheming to inflict a Columbine-style massacre on the urban campus.
Police and prosecutors are pursuing the case under the premise that the boys were sufficiently disturbed and had access to the necessary firepower to carry out the suspected Homecoming Day attack yesterday, said Mayor Michael R. White.
Hurting
Young Men Put Pen to Page
Salon.com, 10/4/99
Last week I read excerpts of Eric Harris' diary in Salon. The week before I read the essays and poems and letters of young men doing time in my local juvenile hall. This week, next week, the week after, I will read more of these young men's writing and will, as always, be struck by how complex they are and how their words can tell us everything and nothing about how they feel and who they are.
I am confident, at least as confident as anyone can be, that the 20 or so young men who give me their writing for a juvenile hall newsletter are not capable of terrible, terrible violence. Eric Harris is still a complete mystery to me. But his writing is familiar and haunting.
Ending the
Tyranny of Cliques
Denver Post, 10/3/99
In the downcast eyes of the three guys with skateboards, a day at ThunderRidge High School in the far southwest corner of Highlands Ranch is just another day in hell.
They are bored. They are unmotivated. The hallways of their untarnished school seem to them like a dull showcase for Abercrombie & Fitch, the fashionably unadventurous prep clothes worn by ThunderRidge's more prominent cliques.
The skaters couldn't care less about sports - they can't even tell you if the Grizzly football team played last weekend, let alone if it won or lost. What they know is that Douglas County football players seem to get all the new ballfields they need, while they go begging for one small corner of a park with a concrete boarding ramp. When they build their own ramps out of wood and set them up near the water tanks, the bigger school cliques smash them to pieces.
Harris' Parents Agree to Meet with Investigators
Denver Post, 10/3/99
More than five months after the Columbine High School massacre, the parents of 18-yearold gunman Eric Harris have promised to meet with criminal investigators.
Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone said he expects his investigators will interview Wayne and Kathy Harris for the first time in the next two or three weeks. "They've agreed to do it,'' he said.
Children's
Legacy of Violence
Los Angeles Times, 9/28/99
Schools are seeing more and more youngsters haunted by killings and other crimes in their lives. Trauma can send grades plunging as they try to deal with fear and rage.
Killing 'Cool' to Some
Teens, Lawyers Told
Denver Post, 9/26/99
American society has so desensitized its children to violence that some kids thought the Columbine High School massacre was "cool'' and felt they could have done the same thing even better, Colorado lawyers were told here Saturday.
In a sobering look at Columbine and other school shootings, a group of educators, lawyers and mental health professionals agreed that schools are still physically safe environments.
But some of the panelists said the mental well-being of students has been strongly affected by the repeated portrayals of violence on television and in the movies and by schools where kids feel "lost'' because of enrollments that soar beyond 1,000.
Oregon
Youth Pleads Guilty in Rampage
San Francisco Chronicle, 9/25/99
Kip Kinkel, the diminutive, sad-eyed teenager who shot his parents to death before turning his gun on a roomful of his Springfield, Ore., high school classmates, dropped his insanity defense yesterday and pleaded guilty to four counts of murder and 26 counts of attempted murder.
Kinkel:
"I'm guilty..."
Eugene Register-Guard, 9/25/99
In a surprise just three days before his trial was to begin, Kip Kinkel faced a courtroom filled with families devastated by his shooting rampage at Thurston High School and pleaded guilty Friday to charges that will put him in prison for at least 25 years and possibly the rest of his life.
Inside
the Columbine High Investigation
Salon.com News Exclusive, 9/23/99
Everything you know about the Littleton killings is wrong. But the
truth may be scarier than the myths.
They were never part of the Trench Coat Mafia. They didn't target jocks, minorities or Christians. They had a hit list, but nobody on it was hit. They expected their bombs and explosives would wipe out most of the school.
As investigators get closer to producing an official report about the Columbine High School massacre, it is already clear that much of what was reported last spring about the motives and methods of killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold was untrue.
Multiple sources close to the Columbine investigation have disclosed key findings to Salon News, including a glimpse into Harris' infamous "diary." Lead investigator Kate Battan broke five months of virtual silence with her public comments. The sources say that many of the most notorious events from the shooting spree -- repeated over and over in news reports, on TV chat shows and now in a bestselling book -- simply never occurred.
"I Hate the... World." -- Eric Harris' Diary
Salon.com News Exclusive, 9/23/99
Harris' infamous "diary" was actually more of an occasional journal. He didn't confide in it every day. Sometimes a month or two would pass before he returned to scribble more tortured rants. Sometimes just a few lines, others up to a page or two. Often the cursive scrawl grows almost illegible. There were only about a dozen entries over the course of a year. In between he pounded out diatribes on his computer, leaving behind a huge trail of notes, essays, printouts, computer files and a Web site.
Magazine Touts
'Killer's Diary'
Denver Post, 9/23/99
Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone said Wednesday he hadn't seen the Harris diary in a while but doubted the authenticity of the excerpts in the stories by Salon.com, a 4-year-old network of 10 Web sites that cover everything from news to arts and entertainment. "The theme sounds the same but not the words,'' Stone said. "I think we've got a bogus deal there. I don't believe those are legitimate excerpts.''
Student
Violence in America's Schools
Special News Package -- New York Times
Review the tragic events surrounding nine instances of violence in schools around the country over the past three years. Access lesson plans, browse a Web guide and read Times coverage and commentary.
Hazing Defies Calls for
Tolerance
Denver Post, 9/19/99
- A group of high school students smear dog feces on a freshman girl in Denver, then force her and other ninth-graders to jump into a lake.
- Two freshman boys are duct-taped together at a park in Douglas County.
- In Littleton, several teens wrap sheets of plastic around a freshman boy.
- What happened to all that sensitivity and understanding?
After the Columbine High School shootings in April, students across Colorado and the country promised greater tolerance, grace and compassion toward their classmates.
They wore ribbons. They pledged to be kinder. They held hands as a symbol of their new-found compassion.
Yet, just a few weeks into the new school year, several hazing incidents have shown that it takes more than promises and words to bring about change - if change can be realized at all.
Youth
Beaten at Game Sues Attackers, School District
San Francisco Chronicle, 9/18/99
A former Walnut Creek high school student has sued the San Ramon Valley School District and a group of teenagers who viciously beat him after a football game last year.
The suit, filed last week on behalf of Mark Hafen in Contra Costa Superior Court, names several school officials as defendants along with nine youths accused of committing the attack.
Clinton
Targets Youth Violence
Washington Post, 9/11/99
With Americans increasingly concerned about school violence, the government Saturday awarded 54 school districts $106 million to put into practice plans to make classrooms safe.
ACLU
Sees Danger in Tight School Security
San Diego Union Tribune, 9/7/99
As America's children head back to school, security-conscious school administrators are also having to think about students' rights.
Bloody tragedies, especially last April's incident in which two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., gunned down a dozen classmates and a teacher before killing themselves, left an indelible mark.
As a result, police officers, metal detectors, student ID cards and surveillance cameras are part of life in schools across the nation. So are routine backpack searches, increased use of drug tests, stricter dress codes and less tolerance for schoolyard taunts and threats.
All of this worries Nadine Strossen, national president of the American Civil Liberties Union. "We're seeing the equivalent of Fortress America, and students' privacy rights and freedom of speech are under attack from within," she said.
Back to
School -- Surrounded by Safeguards
Los Angeles Times, 9/7/99
As kids scramble back to classrooms across the nation, the jangle of school bells has some dissonant new accompaniments: the electronic beep of metal detectors, the robotic swivel of surveillance cameras, the crackle of walkie-talkies and the thwop-thwop-thwop of SWAT-team helicopters.
After a sobering two years of school shootings, a growing number of school systems this fall has embraced measures designed to safeguard children against the armed rage of violent classmates or deranged adults.
In communities large and small, urban and rural, violence-plagued and crime-free, police departments and special intervention teams have spent the summer mapping school grounds and plotting responses to violent incidents. Mock drills, complete with "victims" playing out their roles, have been conducted at schools from Berkeley to Pasadena, Md.; Pittsburgh even used helicopters to evacuate the "wounded."
Anti-Crime
Lobby Urges School Violence Programs
Sacramento Bee, 8/31/99
Armed with new polls showing Americans are alarmed about school violence, a crime-fighting lobby on Monday called on Congress to boost federal funding for programs that could "close the crime-prevention gap."
The group, called Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, said Americans overwhelmingly are willing to pay more taxes or give up a tax cut to put money into prevention programs.
Sanford Newman, president of the organization that represents 500 police chiefs and victims of violence, released surveys indicating that the public's concern over school violence rivaled its anxiety about shoring up Social Security and Medicare.
I did an Internet search (using http://www.hotbot.com) and found the Fight Crime: Invest in Kids website. Lots of additional information including their Four Point Violence Prevention Program can be found there.
Four Steps to Dramatically Reduce School and Youth Violence
- Assure all of America's school-age children and teens access to after-school, weekend and summer youth development programs to shut down the "Prime Time for Juvenile Crime".
- Assure all babies and preschool children access to the quality educational child care programs proven to cut crime.
- Help schools identify troubled and disruptive children at an early age, and provide children and their parents with the counseling and training that can help kids get back on track.
- Prevent child abuse and neglect by: a) Providing enough well-trained child protective services staff to protect endangered children; and b) Offering all high-risk parents the in-home parenting-coaching programs that have been proven to cut in half both abuse and neglect and subsequent teen delinquency.
Physical
Affection Leads to Less Aggressive Youth, Study Says
American Psychological Association, 8/23/99
In a cross-cultural study of affection and aggression done at McDonald's playgrounds, pre-schoolers in France playfully touched each other twice as much US children did, but while the French children acted aggressively only 1 percent of the time, the US youth did so 29 percent of the time.
Anthropologists have long known that cultures that shower physical affection on young children have little adult violence, dating back to Margaret Mead's studies in New Guinea.
But the study in McDonald's playgrounds in France and the United States, along with other new evidence, suggests that it's time for America to take another look at how it raises its children, particularly boys, to stop the crisis of violence, researchers said Friday at the nation's largest annual psychological association meeting.
Study
Finds Bullies and Victims are More Alike than Different
San Francisco Chronicle, 8/25/99
Bullies are often pictured as brawny thugs, their victims as bespectacled weaklings. But new research suggests that such characterizations are at best misleading.
Studies are finding that bullies and victims are often the same people, being bullied one day and bullying the next. And children who end up on either side of the bully-victim equation often suffer from serious emotional problems, including depression, anxiety and suicidal tendencies.
Parents
Clueless as to What Set their Son Off
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 8/11/99
The mother and stepfather of accused high school gunman Anthony "T.J." Solomon depicted themselves Tuesday as caring guardians who disconnected the Internet and reviewed their son's CD collection to shield him from negative influences.
But in their first public testimony, the couple left unexplained what triggered the May 20 shooting rampage at Heritage High School that left six students injured.
High
School Violence Reportedly Declining
San Francisco Chronicle, 8/4/99
Amid turbulent national debate over school shootings, government researchers are reporting a largely unheralded decline in high school violence in the 1990s, with far fewer students saying they carried a weapon or engaged in fights than at the beginning of the decade.
Columbine
Killers Strike Chord on the 'Net
Denver Rocky Mountain News, 7/12/99
Amid the hundreds of cyberspace memorials to the victims of the Columbine High School killings, a few Internet sites are dedicated to the killers. The sites about Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold have drawn controversial reactions from visitors -- some visceral, others thought-provoking.
Pamela Schwindt, a nurse in Indianapolis, signed the guest book: "I am a mom and I am about 50 and I remember the taunting I took in high school. My heart breaks for you. I hope you are now at peace."
Moving On?
Denver Post, 7/11/99
Most of the town wants to move on, to forget the March 1998 schoolyard ambush that forever sullied Jonesboro's image. They have clashed with those who feel that acting like life has returned to normal betrays the memory of those who were murdered.
Rape
Claim Filed Against Oakland Schools
San Francisco Chronicle, 7/9/99
Attorneys for a 12-year-old boy who says he was raped, taunted and called "fag" by fellow students have filed a $10 million claim with the Oakland school district, alleging officials did nothing to stop the abuse.
Columbine
Killers' Pasts Hid Few Predictors of Tragedy
New York Times, 6/29/99
The father of one of the boys was asked some years ago to jot down his life's goals in the memory book for his 20th high school reunion. His answer was succinct, straightforward, and, it seemed, not unrealistically ambitious: "Raise two good sons."
The other father prided himself on being his son's soul mate. They had just spent five days visiting the Arizona campus where the teen-ager planned to enroll in the fall, and recently discussed their shared opposition to a bill in the state legislature that would have made it easier to carry concealed weapons.
So, on April 20, when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold stormed into Columbine High School in this Denver suburb and killed 12 classmates and a teacher, then themselves, these men and their wives suffered more than the loss of a child. The boys' bombs and bullets shattered their parents' very view of the world, undermining what had seemed to them and others to be 18 years of responsible child-rearing.
Secret
Service Seeking Patterns in School Shootings
New York Times, 6/21/99
The people who protect the president have turned their attention to school violence. Prompted by the slaying of 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School near Littleton, Colo., in April, a Secret Service team has begun a detailed review of the Columbine shooting and those at more than a dozen other schools, interviewing as many of the killers as it can.
Three Eighth
Graders in Custody for Alleged Threats
Sacramento Bee, 6/13/99
North Highlands, CA: Three eighth-graders are in custody and a community meeting has been called for this evening following what Grant school district police say was a credible threat to kill students and officials at Don Julio Junior High School.
Dissecting
Columbine's Cult of the Athlete
Washington Post, 6/12/99
The state wrestling champ was regularly permitted to park his $100,000 Hummer all day in a 15-minute space. A football player was allowed to tease a girl about her breasts in class without fear of retribution by his teacher, also the boy's coach. The sports trophies were showcased in the front hall -- the artwork, down a back corridor.Columbine High School is a culture where initiation rituals meant upperclass wrestlers twisted the nipples of freshman wrestlers until they turned purple and tennis players sent hard volleys to younger teammates' backsides. Sports pages in the yearbook were in color, a national debating team and other clubs in black and white. The homecoming king was a football player on probation for burglary.
All of it angered and oppressed Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, leading to the April day when they staged their murderous rampage here, killing 13 and wounding 21.
A Little
Kindness Goes a Long Way
San Jose Mercury News, 6/7/99
But during the hysterical finger-pointing at alienated kids who spend time on the Internet, I started thinking about two teenagers who died over the past year who didn't turn their backs on kids getting chewed up in the maw of junior high: Christina Williams and Jeff Feriante.
Another
School, Another Shooting
Time Magazine Special Report, 5/31/99
I'm so scared, said the boy, as he took the gun out of his mouth and fell into the arms of the assistant principal, who had come to take it away from him. It's the last day of school, exam time, and we all are scared, because this is a test we can't seem to pass.
Drugs like Prozac, Paxil and Luvox can work wonders for clinically depressed kids. But what about the long-term consequences?
High
School Principals Rethinking Roles in Aftermath of Littleton
New York Times, 5/28/99
Whether or not the April 20 massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton and other tragedies in recent years were aberrations, high school principals say that instances of school violence have made them fundamentally rethink what it means to be a principal. No longer just academics and administrators, the principals say they are now acting more like psychologists, drill sergeants, prison wardens, even field medics.
Schools
Tightening Standards After Columbine
Washington Post, 5/27/99
In the month since the shooting rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., school administrators and police across the country have faced increased pressure to crack down on student misconduct in an effort to increase school safety. One result, according to civil liberties lawyers, has been a rash of complaints from upset parents whose children have been suspended, expelled or arrested for alleged misconduct involving vaguely threatening speech, Web sites or clothing.
School
Officials Are Seeking New Safety Measures
New York Times, 5/24/99
Since the shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, school boards, county commissions and state legislatures across the country have proposed and enacted a broad series of measures intended to attack the youth violence problem at the margins. In each case, the proponents acknowledge that their actions are not cure-alls and that a more enduring solution will require sweeping reassessments of today's youth culture and its countless corrupting influences.
Columbine
a Classic Trigger for Copycats
S.F. Chronicle, 5/22/99
The enormity of the violence at Columbine High School -- and the white-hot media glare that has persisted in the weeks since -- make the shootings there a classic trigger for copycat incidents, according to experts on psychology and aggression.
Psychiatrists
Examine What Causes Kids to Snap
S.F. Chronicle, 5/21/99
Driven by the latest wave of school violence, mental health specialists are tackling some of the everyday torments of childhood with a growing sense of urgency.
A Newsweek Special Report:
Beyond Littleton -- How Well Do You Know Your Kid?
The new teen wave is bigger, richer, better educated and healthier than any other in history. But there's a dark side, and too many parents aren't doing their job.
Peril and Promise -- Teens by the Numbers
They watch too much television, and their parents may not be around enough, but today's teenagers are committing fewer crimes, having fewer babies and generally staying out of serious trouble. Here's a look at who they are—and what they're up to.
Spotting the warning signs isn't enough. Parents also need help from professionals—help that is not always forthcoming.
A Important and Provocative Series of Articles by Jon Katz, Slashdot.org:
Why Kids Kill (4/23/99) (4/23/99)
Nightmarish high school massacres like the one in Littleton are now an almost ritualistic part of American life. And increasingly when they occur, journalists and educators blame new media like the Internet, computer games like Doom or violent movies. Why kids kill this way is an urgent and complicated question. But teenaged crime isn't rising, it's falling. And there's no evidence that the Net or other new media are the reason for massacres.
Voices from the Hellmouth (4/26/99) (4/26/99)
The big story out of Littleton isn't about violence on the Internet, or whether or not video games are turning out kids into killers. It's about the fact that for some of the best, brightest and most interesting kids, high school is a nightmare of exclusion, cruelty, warped values and anger.
More Stories from the Hellmouth (4/27/99) (4/27/99)
More stories from the Hellmouth that is High School for many bright, individualistic American kids continued to pour in yesterday. They are jarring testimonials from kids, adults, men and women. In the past four days, I've gotten well over 2000. These stories, many of them painful and enraged, tell us more about what happened in Littleton, Colorado -- a lot more -- than the dumb, exaggerated, frightening alarms about video games, Goths and geek monsters pouring out of much of the mainstream media.
The Price of Being Different (4/29/99) (4/29/99)
Since Littleton, the cost of being different has gone up. Thousands of powerful e-mail messages have chronicled an educational system that glorifies the traditional and the normal, and brutalizes and alienates people who are or who are perceived as different under various names -- geeks, freaks, nerds, Goths and oddballs. One of the powerful messages coming out of Colorado is that so many of these "different" kids say they find school boring, oppressive, and utterly hostile, feelings echoed by educational survivors, many of whom are now parents. The hysteria over Littleton has only made things worse. It's time geeks defined and lobbied for some new rights. From their own messages, here are some places to start.
Hope in the Hellmouth -- Looking Ahead (5/3/99) (5/3/99)
The bad news was that countless geeks and nerds were hassled, "counseled" and sent home from school last week for looking odd or saying what they thought. Geek Profiling was epidemic. The good news was that there was an extraordinary sense of community on the Net and Web last week, and that the word got out, big time. The "Voices From The Hellmouth" were heard and quoted on some of the country's most influential mainstream media, just as many of you had hoped for. You did good. And a whole new stream of messages came in, many hopeful, positive and looking ahead Beyond the Hellmouth. They ranged from starting a Geek Church to offers of help from kids, parents, and teachers.
RELATED WEBSITES
Early Warning, Timely Response -- A Guide to Safe Schools, a joint project of the U.S. Office of Education, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the National Association of School Psychologists, has been just released. The entire text is available for browsing or download by clicking on the title link. An annotated guide, with extensive references is also available online. In addition, the guide is also available in Spanish., a joint project of the U.S. Office of Education, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the National Association of School Psychologists, has been just released. The entire text is available for browsing or download by clicking on the title link. An annotated guide, with extensive references is also available online. In addition, the guide is also available in Spanish.Ribbon of Promise -- End School Violence
Mission Statement: We will unite the nation in an effort to end school violence by acting as a resource for communication, education, planning and action.
Cyberangels (www.cyberangels.org) Launches the Kids in Danger Reportline -- Students will now have a place to report websites of classmates which threaten violence to themselves and others.
In response to the tragedy at Littleton's High School, Cyberangels, the largest and oldest online safety program, has set up the Kids In Danger Reportline (KIDReportline). Classmates often are the first to suspect when a fellow classmate is dangerous to himself or others. Yet, they fear reporting their suspicions, and often don't know where to report them.
Cyberangels will give them a place to report their concerns. Launched today (4/22/99), the KIDReportline will allow classmates to report websites which threaten violence or suicide directly to Ms. Aftab, a cyberspace lawyer and Cyberangels' Executive Director. The KIDReportline will work from a simple e-mail submission from the front page of the Cyberangels' website, www.cyberangels.org. The identities of the students reporting the sites will be kept confidential. Cyberangels will forward credible threats to applicable law enforcement authorities and school administrators and will provide support to students.
Joseph Matteucci Foundation for Youth Non-Violence 
|
The Joseph Matteucci Foundation for Youth Non-Violence is a non-profit organization founded by Alexandra Matteucci after her 17-year old son was killed during a brawl at a big league division of a Little League Baseball game in May 1993. |
|
Joe was an innocent bystander who was a victim of the violence caused by trash talking during the game. He was the first homicide in the history of Little League Baseball. Recognizing that her son's death was not an isolated incident, Alexandra has dedicated her life to working with children, parents and schools toward preventing youth-related violence. |
- National School Safety Center
The National School Safety Center was created by presidential directive in 1984 to meet the growing need for additional training and preparation in the area of school crime and violence prevention. Affiliated with Pepperdine University, NSSC is a nonprofit organization whose charge is to promote safe schools - free of crime and violence - and to help ensure quality education for all America's children.
- School Violence Virtual Library
ERIC Counseling and Student Services Clearinghouse
- Juvenile Violence -- Links and Resources
Washington Post
- Recent School Shootings -- A Timeline
Washington Post
- Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
OJJDP provides Federal leadership, through a comprehensive, coordinated approach, to prevent and control juvenile crime and improve the juvenile justice system.
- Violence and Discipline Problems in U.S. Public Schools: 1996-97
NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS
- Justice Policy Institute
The Justice Policy Institute, a project of the non-profit Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, is a policy research arm body which promotes effective and sensible approaches to America's justice system.
- American Bar Association Juvenile Justice Center
Dedicated to working in partnership with other ABA entities, bar associations, and local and state advocacy groups to monitor and influence juvenile justice policy and practice.
- Children and Firearms Safety
Fact sheet from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
- National Alliance for Safe Schools
Training and technical assistance organization dedicated to the promotion of a safe and orderly educational environment.
- Pacific Center for Violence Prevention
Policy center for the California Wellness Foundation's Youth Violence Prevention Initiative. Includes information, news, and legislation on firearms and alcohol, among other issues.
- Partnerships Against Violence Network (PAVNET)
A virtual library of information about violence and youth-at-risk, representing data from several different Federal agencies.
- Violence Prevention: Solutions Before Problems
An article from Global Childnet
- Not One More
Our Children are dying everyday, victims of random acts of violence that could have been prevented. This page is dedicated to Samar El-Okdi and all children and families that have been victims of violence. As the debate rages on as to whether it is a Constitutional Right to Bear Arms, children and teens will be killed or injured in incidents involving firearms. In order to prevent these deaths and injuries two areas need to be addressed, gun safety and the causes of juvenile violence.
MEDIA ARTICLES
Please Note: Some links to articles remain valid for a limited period of time after their publication date (e.g. one week to a month). This is due to the fact that they are placed in the newspaper's or magazine's "archives." If you encounter an error message retrieving one of these articles from this site, you can usually go to their site and search for it in their archives. Most often, this is a free service although there is occasionally a small charge. Some links to articles remain valid for a limited period of time after their publication date (e.g. one week to a month). This is due to the fact that they are placed in the newspaper's or magazine's "archives." If you encounter an error message retrieving one of these articles from this site, you can usually go to their site and search for it in their archives. Most often, this is a free service although there is occasionally a small charge.
Pleasanton
Teens Arrested in E-Mail Scare
S.F. Chronicle, 5/20/99
Police have arrested two Pleasanton Middle School students who made at least one bomb and threatened to harm other students in an e-mail message.
Battling to Defuse a
Teen's Rage
Denver Post, 5/16/99
Teddy bears and CDs. Legos and baseball cards. Pooh and Shaq. Bobby Scribner's bedroom, littered with the artifacts of youth, tells the story of an ordinary childhood lurching into a traditional adolescence.
His father knows better.
Practically from birth, little Bobby bonded with no one, and in screaming, infantile fits would try to throw himself from his mother's arms. At 2, he bludgeoned a wounded bird to death with the butt of a toy rifle. A few years later, he drowned a baby chick.
Angry
13-year old Bombs Classmate's Parents
Chicago Tribune, 5/15/99
BRAZIL, INDIANA -- A 13-year-old boy believed to have a grudge against a girl at school was arrested Friday on suspicion of planting seven pipe bombs -- one of which exploded -- on two vehicles belonging to the girl's parents.
A
'Killing Game' at Schools Turns Worrisome
New York Times, 5/15/99
WESTPORT, Conn. -- Beginning next week, 35 elite college-bound students from Staples High School plan to arm themselves with plastic guns with names like Lock 'n' Load, Secret Shot II and Expand-a-Blast, then stalk classmates through town.
The students, who call the game A.P. Assassination, have elaborate plans for staying alive, and so expect the contest to last three weeks. The final two survivors will shoot it out in a town park, then collect cash prizes.
Schools
Facing a Bevy of Armed Students
San Francisco Examiner, 5/9/99
While districts say they are doing a better job of confiscating weapons, there is a confounding cycle: In the wake of horrific schoolyard shootings nationwide, Bay Area schools have ushered in stricter policies and anger-management programs. But to feel safe, many students are tucking weapons into backpacks.
13-Year
Old Arrested for Threatening Classmate
S.F. Examiner, 5/9/99
A 13-year-old Corte Madera boy was arrested for threatening to shoot a classmate on the tranquil streets of Belvedere. Police say they aren't acting any differently than they would have before the shootings in Littleton, Colo., but they aren't taking any chances and have booked the young suspect into juvenile hall.
Wrestling
Fervor Hits Schools
Contra Costa Times, 4/6/99
Some children imitate violence in ring as sport explodes in popularity in elementary schools.
Son of Stabbing Suspect
Apologizes
Thirteen-year-old speaks to injured teacher's colleagues, staff at
school
S.F. Chronicle, 3/11/99
S.F. Chronicle, 3/11/99
The day after a father allegedly stabbed his daughter's teacher as horrified students watched, his 13- year-old son mustered the courage yesterday to walk into the Richmond school and tearfully apologize to teachers and staff.
Teacher Stabbed in
Classroom
Parent volunteer arrested in attack at his child's school in
Richmond
S.F. Chronicle, 3/10/99
S.F. Chronicle, 3/10/99
As students watched in horror, a father who had volunteered in his daughter's fourth-grade classroom in Richmond pulled out a kitchen knife and stabbed her teacher yesterday, police and school officials said.
Violence
Prevention Classes Now in Middle School
Contra Costa Times, 3/9/99
Battered Women's Alternatives starts teaching younger Mt. Diablo district students about domestic abuse, sexual harassment.
Boy, 12,
May Face Charges After Fake Bomb Found
Contra Costa Times, 3/2/99
A 12-year-old Castro Valley boy could be charged with possessing a destructive device after a bomb squad removed what turned out to be a fake bomb from Canyon Middle School on Monday, police said.
Boy, 14
Planned Attack at Kennedy High (Sacramento, CA)
Sacramento Bee, 2/18/99
The younger of two boys charged with beating and robbing a fellow student last month at John F. Kennedy High School planned the attack and recruited an accomplice to carry it out, a prosecutor claimed Wednesday in juvenile court in Sacramento.
Reading,
Writing and the Threat of Violence
Contra Costa Times, 2/15/99
California's new attorney general, Bill Lockyer, and education chief Delaine Eastin will announce stepped-up, joint prevention efforts later this month when they release annual statistics on school violence. They will detail plans to streamline overlapping prevention programs, to identify the best prevention efforts for use as statewide models and to improve attempts to keep expelled students from becoming threats again.
School
Sports Brawls Alarm Parents, Officials
S.F. Chronicle, 2/15/99
High school athletic events -- intended to be constructive and fun -- have taken an increasingly ugly turn toward beatings and racial incidents this past year in the Bay Area.
Mentioned in the article: c
Altercation
Mars High School Game in Brentwood
S.F. Examiner, 1/10/99
S.F. Examiner, 1/10/99
In the most recent in a string of violent incidents that have marred high school sports matches in the Bay Area, Pinole players, coaches and parents say they were confronted in the parking lot of Brentwood's Liberty High School after the game by four white youths wielding a pipe and a baseball bat.
2
Teenagers Convicted of Beating Youth
Felony assault could bring sentence of 4 years at CYA
S.F. Chronicle, 1/5/99
S.F. Chronicle, 1/5/99
Two San Ramon Valley High School students accused of viciously beating a teenager from a rival school in September were convicted yesterday of felony assault and face four years in the California Youth Authority.
Teen
Gets Life Sentence for Killing 3 at High School
Los Angeles Times, 12/17/98
Los Angeles Times, 12/17/98
PADUCAH, Ky.
-- As some of his victims bore emotional witness, a Kentucky teenager was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison for a high school shooting rampage last year that killed three and wounded five. Michael Carneal, 15, who pleaded guilty but mentally ill in October, will be eligible for parole in 25 years. He opened fire on Dec. 1, 1997, on fellow students participating in a morning prayer meeting at Heath High School.
State Court
Suspends Trial in School Attack
Contra Costa Times, 12/9/98
Contra Costa Times, 12/9/98
MARTINEZ -- The state Court of Appeal halted the trial Tuesday for seven boys accused in a brutal beating at San Ramon Valley High School because of the Times' objection to being barred from the courtroom.
Rolling
the Dice in Juvenile Court
Chicago Tribune, 11/17/98
Chicago Tribune, 11/17/98
Now, these children are on the precipice of adulthood. Some of them have children themselves. One, a girl who strangled a child with a telephone cord, received probation for her crime and later had her two children taken away by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Their futures were decided in the oldest Juvenile Court in the nation, their journeys shaped by people--judges, attorneys, probation officers, parents--who are not often seen, in a system that is not often examined.
Three
Wisconsin Boys Arrested in School Murder Plot
Chicago Tribune, 11/17/98
Chicago Tribune, 11/17/98
BURLINGTON, Wis.--Monday was to have been the day that five boys from this small community avenged the slights and taunts of their high-school classmates with what one prosecutor described as "a bloodbath." But in a case that shows how seriously educators and authorities are taking threats of violence at the nation's schools, three of the teenagers instead were behind bars and expected to be charged as adults with conspiracy to kill.
High
School Killing Plot Thwarted
S.F. Chronicle, 11/17/98
S.F. Chronicle, 11/17/98
Even in this pleasant, out-of- the-way town, the plot seemed disturbingly familiar. Five teenage boys with axes to grind had hatched a hit list and decided to settle their grievances with gunfire. Had things gone according to plan, police say, the boys would have turned the local high school into a killing field yesterday, taking school administrators hostage and marching from one classroom to another shooting teachers and classmates.
Debate
over Discipline for Students with Knives
Oakland Tribune, 10/29/98
Oakland Tribune, 10/29/98
FREMONT -- An incident at Chadbourne Elementary School this month has sparked a debate about disciplining students caught carrying knives at school.
Ten
Escape Unharmed in Middle School Blast
S.F. Chronicle, 10/21/98
S.F. Chronicle, 10/21/98
Morgan Hill -- A teenager was charged yesterday with tossing a handmade bomb onto the campus of Britton Middle School.
The bomb, made of a bottle and three explosive devices, blew up Monday at about 3:58 p.m. near the gym and pool area of the school, where 10 people were standing, according to police. No one was injured by the explosion, said police Sergeant Bob Gomez.
Two Suspects in
Beating Had Record
Contra Costa Times, 10/19/98
Contra Costa Times, 10/19/98
DANVILLE -- Servando and Sheila De La Torre aren't surprised that the boy who terrorized their son, Ryan, for nearly a year -- culminated by the boy fracturing Ryan's jaw and Ryan's family getting a restraining order -- now faces felony charges in last month's beating of a Las Lomas High School senior.
"People keep saying these are isolated incidents," Servando De La Torre said. "These are not isolated incidents. We saw this building."
Student
Wins Suit Against Ex-Boyfriend, School District
Oakland Tribune, 10/17/98
Oakland Tribune, 10/17/98
OAKLAND -- A former Albany High School student won a $685,000 verdict Friday in her lawsuit against an ex-boyfriend who allegedly roughed her up at school, and against the school district and the superintendent responsible for the school.
Big
White House Effort to Curb School Violence
S.F. Chronicle, 10/16/98
S.F. Chronicle, 10/16/98
President Clinton announced a series of initiatives yesterday to curb school violence, including a $65 million program to help local communities hire 2,000 new police officers to stand guard at high-risk schools.
School
Gets Tough on Boy, His Toy Gun
S.F. Chronicle, 10/13/98
S.F. Chronicle, 10/13/98
Loudoun County, Va., school officials have suspended a 9-year- old boy who brought a plastic toy gun to school for 10 days and recommended that he be expelled for a year, citing a Virginia law that bars students from possessing weapons.
Teens
Arrested for Beating Boy Over $10 Loan
S.F. Chronicle, 10/9/98
S.F. Chronicle, 10/9/98
San Ramon -- Three California High School students have been arrested on suspicion of felony battery for attacking a 16-year-old boy who owed them $10.
Baby
Beating Suspect Turns 9 Amid Child Crime Debate
Oakland Tribune, 9/27/98
Oakland Tribune, 9/27/98
A Richmond boy -- charged with attempted murder in the 1996 near fatal beating of a month-old baby -- celebrates his ninth birthday this week in a Contra Costa County group home for emotionally troubled children.
Suspects
in Beating Arrested
Contra Costa Times, 9/26/98
Contra Costa Times, 9/26/98
Seven San Ramon Valley High School students already facing expulsion from school were arrested Friday, two weeks after the boys beat a Las Lomas High senior, police said.
Fremont Considers
Police Presence in Middle Schools
San Jose Mercury News, 9/21/98
San Jose Mercury News, 9/21/98
A 12-year-old girl, angry at her boyfriend for breaking up with her, brought a loaded .357-Magnum revolver onto a Fremont junior high school campus last year. The incident at Hopkins Junior High, one of the city's most upscale schools, ended peacefully. But it highlighted the challenge educators face in trying to maintain a safe environment.
Teacher
Brandishes Knife in Class
Sacramento Bee, 9/11/98
Sacramento Bee, 9/11/98
A veteran teacher at Albert Einstein Middle School was placed on paid administrative leave after brandishing a pocketknife during a class, officials said Thursday.
Schools
Striving to Prevent More Violent Episodes
Contra Costa Times, 8/31/98
Contra Costa Times, 8/31/98
Going to class will be a little more like boarding an airliner for many U.S. students this year as educators try to prevent another year of bloodshed in America's schools.
For They Know Not What They Do?
Time Magazine, 8/24/98
When and how do children know right from wrong? And how can we devise a punishment to fit their crimes?
Tip Leads to Arrest of
Armed Student at School with Loaded Weapons
Contra Costa Times, 8/30/98
A tip from a parent led police to arrest a 16-year-old student who allegedly threatened to kill an assistant principal and arrived at school with loaded weapons in his car.
Stockton Teens
Forced to Keep Clear of Friends
Sa. Jose Mercury News, 8/30/98
Thyda Bun says all he wants is the freedom to walk down the street with his friends, to play volleyball and hang out at the park. But the police say he and his ``friends'' are members of the Original Bloods, a gang that has terrorized a west Stockton neighborhood by firing shots in the air, marking turf with graffiti and robbing cars and homes.
Who's
Meaner Than Mean Kids?
Adults Bent on Retialiation
Jinn Magazine, 5/22/98
A series of high-profile school site killings by young boys -- including the latest shooting spree in a Springfield, Or., high school cafeteria -- have precipitated a more predictable horror: proposed legislation to try 10 year olds as adults and apply the death penalty to 11 year olds. It is as if a handful of problem children -- "mean kids" we call them -- are absolving adults of having to deal with the problems of children.
13-Year-Old
Slashing Victim is Allowed to Switch Schools
Chicago Tribune, 8/25/98
The 13-year-old girl whose face was severely slashed by fellow pupils at Arai Middle School in May has been given a chance to make a fresh start on Tuesday with new classmates and teachers at the Walt Disney Magnet School, school officials said.
Grant
Bankrolls Study of Teens in Abusive Relationships
Oakland Tribune, 8/21/98
ALAMEDA -- An Alameda-based center dedicated to stopping violence against youths and women has been awarded $240,000 to research the ways the state can best help teen-agers involved in abusive relationships.
Boys
With Absentee Dads Twice As Likely to be Jailed
Washington Post, 8/21/98
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 20—Young men who grow up in homes without fathers are twice as likely to end up in jail as those who come from traditional two-parent families, according to a new study released today.
Boy
Admits to Shooting to Kill When He Fired at Daly City Principal
S.F. Chronicle, 8/19/98
A 14-year-old Daly City boy acknowledged yesterday that he tried to kill his principal when he brought a .25-caliber pistol to school in March.
Boy Pleads
No Contest to Attempted Murder
San Jose Mercury News, 8/19/98
The Daly City middle school student who brought a gun to campus and fired it at his principal pleaded no contest Tuesday to attempted murder and use of a firearm.
The
Power of their Peers
Time Magazine, 8/24/98
A book argues that parents have little influence. Provocative. But true?
Toddlers'
Height May Be Pivotal in Evolution of Bully
Oakland Tribune, 8/18/98
Tomorrow's school bullies could be visible today -- as the slightly taller tots in play school. American scientists who monitored the development of more than 1,000 children for eight years claim that early in life there are warning signs of later violence and aggression.
Lawyers
Face Unique Obstacles in Defending Children Accused of Violence
Washington Post, 8/17/98
It is a world of unexplored legal ground, raising a battery of questions for defense lawyers. Do young children always understand the charges against them? Can they assist in their own defense? What happens when parents and lawyers have different definitions of the child's best interest? If children are too young for juvenile detention centers, where should they be held? If they confess to crimes, have they knowingly waived their right to remain silent?
Girl's
Murder Focuses Light on Hidden Spectre of Sibling Abuse
Washington Post, 8/14/98
ESCONDIDO, Calif.—Stephanie Crowe was, her pastor recalls, a vivacious, bright and popular 12-year-old girl, "the center of attention," volunteer of the year for her work at the local library, and "just like a little angel." Her brother Michael, say prosecutors and police, was the kind of 14-year-old who enjoyed reading about medieval torture. He dressed in black and took his meals in his room, where he kept a stack of tabloid magazine articles about the O.J. Simpson murder trial. And he harbored an intense sibling rivalry that became a "pure hatred," one friend said, for his sister Stephanie.
Girl's Rape Part
of U.S. Trend -- Child Suspects in Sex Crimes
Cincinnati Enquirer, 8/14/98
"It just seems that the victims are getting younger and younger," said Lt. Stephen Luebbe, commander of the Cincinnati Police Division's personal crimes unit. "And the perpetrators are getting younger and younger."
Two
Girls' Plight May Trigger Revision of Law -- Legislators Seek Restraining Order Change
Sacramento Bee, 8/12/98
Three legislators, responding to a case involving three Sacramento-area children, will introduce a measure this week to require judges to hear petitions for restraining orders in cases in which minors are accused of harassing other children.
Spate
of Child Crime Draws Media Debate
S.F. Chronicle, 8/12/98
Less than a week after an 11-year-old boy was charged with shooting and killing his teenage neighbor in Antioch two months ago, the editors of the Contra Costa Times decided to print the name and school photo of the suspect. And yesterday, after the boy was convicted in juvenile court of involuntary manslaughter instead of the more serious murder charge, the paper ran a front-page photo of him. The San Jose Mercury News, which is owned by the same company, ran the same photo.
Arkansas
Boys Face Hearing in School Slayings
Time Daily, 8/10/98
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Reuters) - Two Arkansas boys ages 12 and 13 will appear before a judge Tuesday who will decide whether to find them guilty in the murders of four classmates and a teacher that shocked the country.
Boys, 7 and
8, Accused in Girl's Death
Chicago Tribune, 8/10/98
Chicago Tribune, 8/10/98
The pals are just 7 and 8, but prosecutors call them brutal killers. The youngest murder defendants in city history are accused of attacking an 11-year-old girl with rocks, suffocating her with her panties and molesting her, all for her shiny blue bicycle.
Schools
Security Chief Reported Slashing
Chicago Tribune, 8/7/98
Chicago Tribune, 8/7/98
A Chicago Public Schools official said Thursday he filed a report of the May slashing incident involving Arai Middle School students to several central school board administrators two days after it occurred.
Board
to Expel Teen, Mother in Slash Case
Chicago Tribune, 8/6/98
Chicago Tribune, 8/6/98
Chicago School Board members moved Wednesday to expel a 13-year-old who attacked a schoolmate, to remove her mother from her post as president at the local school council and to quickly conclude an investigation of any preferential treatment the school principal may have dealt the student.
Off-Campus
Knife Attack Prompts Investigation
Chicago Tribune, 8/5/98
Chicago Tribune, 8/5/98
The facial disfigurement of a 13-year-old Chicago public school pupil during an off-campus knife attack by two schoolmates has prompted an investigation by administration officials into the school's response to the incident, including whether favoritism was shown to one assailant because her mother is the local school council's president.
Four
Youngsters Accused of Torturing Learning Disabled Teen
Contra Costa Times, 8/1/98
Contra Costa Times, 8/1/98
TOLEDO, Ohio -- Four boys allegedly hog-tied and tortured a 15-year-old learning-disabled acquaintance, using a broom stick, a fly swatter and a belt to beat him, according to a sheriff's department report.
Study
Finds Fewer School Shootings
Los Angeles Times, 7/29/98
Los Angeles Times, 7/29/98
WASHINGTON -- The number of school shooting deaths across the country was lower during the past school year than five years ago, but the horrific nature of several of this term's shootings and heavy media coverage left the opposite impression, a private study said today.
The full text of the report can be accessed by clicking here. I found it on the website of the Justice Policy Institute.
Teen
arraigned in stabbing of 9-year-old boy he was babysitting
Contra Costa Times, 7/28/98
Contra Costa Times, 7/28/98
A 17-year-old accused of repeatedly stabbing a 9-year-old with a hunting knife was arraigned Monday for the slaying of the boy he was baby-sitting... (Police Chief) Lewis said (suspect) George had mentioned to police the shootings at Thurston High School in Springfield that left two students dead and 22 wounded.
America Under
the Gun
Time Magazine, 7/6/98
Time Magazine, 7/6/98
Crime may be down but the unimaginable carnage of recent schoolyard violence highlights the fact that the easy availability of guns still has devastating consequences. But in a nation that cherises both the right to bear arms and the notion of peaceful coexistance, what can be done?
Of
Arms and the Boy: All Kids Battle Demons -- Why did these 5 lose?
Time Magazine, 7/6/98
Time Magazine, 7/6/98
Violence
Lessons
Abusive behavior begins at home. First, the children fear it. Then they copy it.
Story: Claudia Glenn Dowling, Photographs: Donna Ferrato
Mother Jones Magazine, July/August 1998
Story: Claudia Glenn Dowling, Photographs: Donna Ferrato
Mother Jones Magazine, July/August 1998
Photographer Donna Ferrato met Ernie and Brianna in February 1997 while documenting programs for troubled families. For more than a year, Ferrato and I accompanied this family as the mother, Brenda Shores, tried to get help for her children through an innovative program near their home in Vermont. We talked with their father, Ernie Cushman Jr., in prison. We followed them to the courtroom while they negotiated visitation. We attended a summer camp with kids for whom dialing 911 is the most important skill they have learned in childhood. Brenda and Ernie agreed to talk to us for the sake of other children who have witnessed violence.
Clinton: Keep
Kids From Getting Guns
Sacramento Bee, 7/9/98
Sacramento Bee, 7/9/98
Standing with a sobbing mother whose daughter was shot to death in a Jonesboro, Ark., schoolyard, President Clinton appealed Wednesday for tough new laws to restrict children's access to guns.
Clinton
Endorses Gun Access Bill
Associated Press, 7/8/98
Associated Press, 7/8/98
Taking aim at a leading contributor to youth violence, President Clinton is endorsing a bipartisan Senate bill on restricting children's access to firearms and taking executive action to strengthen current gun laws.
Student
Discipline Starting Earlier
Contra Costa Times, 7/6/98
Contra Costa Times, 7/6/98
An outbreak of shootings by troubled high-schoolers and middle-schoolers marred the last school year. But most teachers will tell you that violent words and deeds show up as early as kindergarten.
Patterns
Emerging in Attacks at Schools
Arkansas Online, 6/15/98
Arkansas Online, 6/15/98
While precise answers may be elusive, the recent attacks share a remarkable number of traits. The first of the rural, multiple-victim student shootings, here in Moses Lake, looks in many respects like a road map of what was to come. From this case and interviews with police officers, prosecutors, psychologists and parents of the attackers -- as well as the boys' own words -- several patterns emerge...
2nd
Teen Found Guilty In Baseball Bat Attack -- Foster City beating caused serious injury
S.F. Chronicle, 6/13/98
S.F. Chronicle, 6/13/98
A 15-year-old Foster City boy was found guilty yesterday of assault with a deadly weapon for his role in the brutal baseball bat beating of another teenager last month. The teenager was tagged as the accomplice of another Foster City youth who led the attack against the 14-year-old boy.
Girls'
Crimes Looking More Like Boys'
San Jose Mercury News, 6/7/98
San Jose Mercury News, 6/7/98
Teenage girls increasingly are at the center of conspiracies to commit serious crimes, although the trend has been largely ignored amid the recent spate of school shootings and violent crimes by boys. While arrest rates for boys are flat, those for girls have increased significantly, national crime statistics show.
SONOMA
COUNTY -- Youth Pleads Not Guilty To Terrorism Charges
S.F. Chronicle, 6/4/98
S.F. Chronicle, 6/4/98
What
Makes Kids Kill? (Jon Katz)
HotWired Magazine, 6/4/98
HotWired Magazine, 6/4/98
Why is it that William Bennett, the media's anointed Morals Czar and the self-appointed protector of children's values, isn't on TV expressing outrage at the ease with which kids can get pistols, rifles, and assault guns? Where's Bob Dole, who campaigned for the presidency by decrying violent imagery from Hollywood? Why the silence from Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, who calls regular press conferences to denounce the violence on Jerry Springer's talk show? And from Senator James Exon of Alaska, who labored to protect America's young by conceiving the Communications Decency Act? Why condolences from Bill Clinton, but no raft of bills and proposals to control the sale and movement of guns whose only purpose is to kill people?
What
Makes Children Kill
Washington Post, 5/27/98
Washington Post, 5/27/98
"I hate you!" a boy hisses at a former friend. "I'm gonna kill you!" the preschooler shrieks at the parent so cruelly insisting she get dressed before going outside. "I wish you were dead!" the teenager storms. Children spew out their fury all the time, and adults ignore it or plumb it for meaning or punish it as an act of disrespect, depending on their philosophies of child rearing. They do not, however, think the murderous fantasy will become reality.
The
Television Footage is Always the Same... (Lee Quarnstrom)
San Jose Mercury News, 5/25/98
San Jose Mercury News, 5/25/98
I suppose many of us cannot admit that this same tragedy will happen again and again at campus after campus around the country. But it will. This is an epidemic, a plague, and acting like these are isolated incidents that won't happen locally is like saying we can't get AIDS.
Clinton
Asks for Crusade Against Juvenile Violence
Los Angeles Times, 5/24/98
Los Angeles Times, 5/24/98
...the president described the rash of school massacres as "more than isolated incidents" and declared: "We cannot ignore these conditions."
Clinton's plea for his legislation highlighted anew the sharp philosophical differences between Democrats and Republicans over how best to combat juvenile crime. The GOP proposals, including one bill already passed by the House, are tougher than Clinton's but ignore prevention programs--a contrast that the president and congressional Democrats are quick to point out.
Boy,
11, Arrested for Taking Gun to School (El Sobrante, CA)
S.F. Chronicle, 5/22/98
S.F. Chronicle, 5/22/98
Special
Report -- Reform Camps
Stockton Record, 3/15/98
Stockton Record, 3/15/98
The Record's special report on wilderness/isolation camps where San Joaquin County juveniles often are sent.
As Kentucky Town Mourns, Movie Suggested as Basis for Boy's Attack
Washington Post, December 6, 1997
PADUCAH, Ky., Dec. 5—As a saddened community gathered today to mourn its dead, prosecutors suggested that the diminutive ninth-grader accused of killing three of his classmates may have based his attack on what he saw in a movie.
A
Bible Belt Town Searches for Answers
Washington Post, 10/22/97
PEARL, Miss., Oct. 21—Bob Menefee always made sure he inspected his daughter Christy's dates, and there was nothing, really, about Luke Woodham that put him off. The boy was quiet, and it seemed odd that his mother always accompanied the couple, but his manners were nice. He called Menefee "sir" so often that the older man jokingly told him to stop. Now, Menefee is struggling to understand how this boy who stood so politely in his living room, who dated his daughter for a mere three weeks last year, could have walked into Pearl High School on the morning of Oct. 1 and calmly shot Christy and another girl to death, wounding seven others. Police say that Woodham already had fatally stabbed his mother, Mary, in her bed before he left for school. He was indicted in the three killings this week.
Richmond School District Incident (3/9/99)
School
Stabbing Suspect is Charged with Assault
S.F. Chronicle, 3/12/99
A parent accused of stabbing his daughter's fourth-grade teacher was charged with assault and weapons possession yesterday.
Paul Joe Gonzalez Jr., 30, of San Pablo was arraigned at Bay Municipal Court in Richmond on charges of assault with a deadly weapon causing great bodily injury on a school employee and possessing a weapon on school grounds.
Knifing
Was 2nd Incident; Teacher was Beaten on Way to Work Monday
S.F. Examiner, 10/11/99
The stabbing of Nancy Peer was the second act of violence to strike a fourth-grade teacher at J.O. Ford Elementary School in two days.
Son of Stabbing Suspect
Apologizes
Thirteen-year-old speaks to injured teacher's colleagues, staff at
school
S.F. Chronicle, 10/11/99
S.F. Chronicle, 10/11/99
The day after a father allegedly stabbed his daughter's teacher as horrified students watched, his 13- year-old son mustered the courage yesterday to walk into the Richmond school and tearfully apologize to teachers and staff.
Teacher Stabbed in
Classroom
Parent volunteer arrested in attack at his child's school in
Richmond
S.F. Chronicle, 3/10/99
S.F. Chronicle, 3/10/99
As students watched in horror, a father who had volunteered in his daughter's fourth-grade classroom in Richmond pulled out a kitchen knife and stabbed her teacher yesterday, police and school officials said.
San Ramon/Las Lomas High School Incident (9/11/98)
Youth
Beaten at Game Sues Attackers, School District
San Francisco Chronicle, 9/18/99
A former Walnut Creek high school student has sued the San Ramon Valley School District and a group of teenagers who viciously beat him after a football game last year.
The suit, filed last week on behalf of Mark Hafen in Contra Costa Superior Court, names several school officials as defendants along with nine youths accused of committing the attack.
Teen
Sent to CYA for Attack After Game
S.F. Chronicle, 3/27/99
A Danville teen convicted in the brutal beating of a student from a rival high school last year was sentenced yesterday to the California Youth Authority, where he could be held until he turns 25.
Teen's
intervention Earns Honor
Contra Costa Times, 3/23/99
Charging into a group of violent teens whaling on a helpless victim and calling them "pansies" might not be the safest way to get a point across.
But when 17-year-old Scott Dees sprinted into the group of students ganging up on Las Lomas High School senior Mark Hafen in September at San Ramon Valley High, it had the desired effect of stopping the attack. No one among the large crowd watching the attack, it seemed, nor the attackers themselves wanted to tangle with the 6-foot-3-inch wrestler jumping into the melee to spare Hafen further harm.
Student
Convicted in Beating
Contra Costa Times, 3/2/99
- Judge says Jeff Tucker was 'part of a hyena-like group of students' who attacked the Las Lomas High School teen Sept. 11
MARTINEZ -- A judge Monday convicted Jeff Tucker of felony assault with an enhancement of causing great bodily injury in the Sept. 11 group beating of a rival high school student.
Superior Court Judge Peter Spinetta said Tucker, 18, was "part of a hyena-like group of students hell-bent on assaulting someone" who attacked Las Lomas High School student Mark Hafen after a Danville football game.
Attorneys
Wrap Up Arguments in Trial
Contra Costa Times, 2/23/99
One alleged kick seen by one witness could decide the fate of Jeff Tucker, the San Ramon Valley High School senior accused of instigating the Sept. 11 group beating of a rival student.
During closing arguments Monday, Tucker's attorney, Deborah Levine, said the hazy recollection of California High School senior Scott Dees leaves a cloud of doubt around the prosecution's most damaging testimony against her client.
Boy
Beaten After Games Testifies
S.F. Chronicle, 2/18/99
The victim of a savage beating that stunned and shamed Danville last fall took the witness stand yesterday to identify his alleged chief tormentor, a teen from a rival high school.
Teen's
Beating Teaches Schools Valuable Lessons
Contra Costa Times, 1/10/99
Contra Costa Times, 1/10/99
Contra Costa County Supervisor Donna Gerber says the Sept. 11 beating of a Las Lomas High School teen by San Ramon Valley High School boys is too much of a wake-up call to let go without doing something. She along with San Ramon Valley school district officials and community leaders are forming an advisory committee to address youth safety and development issues. And administrators at the district's high schools say they are addressing their safety policies in the hopes of preventing attacks.
2
Teenagers Convicted of Beating Youth
Felony assault could bring sentence of 4 years at CYA
S.F. Chronicle, 1/5/99
S.F. Chronicle, 1/5/99
Two San Ramon Valley High School students accused of viciously beating a teenager from a rival school in September were convicted yesterday of felony assault and face four years in the California Youth Authority.
Students Ready to Put
Beating Behind Them
Contra Costa Times, 1/6/99
A day after six San Ramon Valley High School boys were convicted in the Sept. 11 beating of a Las Lomas High School boy, students on both campuses Tuesday said they were content with the verdicts, but urged everyone to move on.
3
Students Expelled as a Result of School Attack
Contra Costa Times, 12/16/98
Contra Costa Times, 12/16/98
The San Ramon Valley school board Tuesday night expelled three teens for their alleged roles in the beating of a Las Lomas High School boy three months ago at San Ramon Valley High School. In a closed session, the five board members unanimously approved removing two seniors, one 18 and the other 17, and one junior, 17, from San Ramon Valley High School and placing them in district alternative continuing education programs.
State Court
Suspends Trial in School Attack
Contra Costa Times, 12/9/98
Contra Costa Times, 12/9/98
MARTINEZ -- The state Court of Appeal halted the trial Tuesday for seven boys accused in a brutal beating at San Ramon Valley High School because of the Times' objection to being barred from the courtroom.
Expulsion
Hearings Set for December
Contra Costa Times, 11/24/98
Contra Costa Times, 11/24/98
Expulsion hearings for the nine San Ramon Valley school district students charged with beating a Las Lomas High boy have been set for December. District officials confirmed that seven teens from San Ramon Valley High and one from Monte Vista High will come before expulsion hearing panels next month, with five appearing Dec. 1 and four scheduled for Dec. 10.
Teen Who Saw
Attack on Boy is Assaulted
Contra Costa Times, 11/5/98
A boy who witnessed a brutal beating at San Ramon Valley High School in September was attacked by two teens claiming to be friends of some of the suspects, police said. On Tuesday, the day seven boys were scheduled to go to trial in the beating of a Walnut Creek student after a football game, police revealed that a witness was recently threatened and attacked by two boys while walking through San Ramon. Another witness, who wanted to remain anonymous, said that isn't the only threat to witnesses of the Sept. 11 beating at the Danville campus, but it's the first that's turned violent.
Teen
Witness Harassed
S.F. Chronicle, 11/5/98
For the past three weeks, a teen witness of the brutal September beating at San Ramon Valley High School has been repeatedly harassed by the suspects' supporters, police say. He has been cursed at, shoved to the ground and punched in the face because the assailants believe he will testify against nine youths accused of badly beating a 17-year- old Las Lomas High School student after a football game at the Danville campus.
Two
Teens Leave Juvenile Hall
Oakland Tribune, 10/31/98
MARTINEZ -- At least two youths suspected of beating a Walnut Creek teen-ager Sept. 11 were sent home this week, according to the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office.
Teen
Remains Held in Game Beating
Oakland Tribune, 10/23/98
SAN RAMON -- The parents of a Danville teen-ager, held at Juvenile Hall as a suspect in the beating of a Walnut Creek student, were unsuccessful Thursday in an appeal for their son's release.
Two Suspects
in Beating Had Record
Contra Costa Times, 10/19/98
DANVILLE -- Servando and Sheila De La Torre aren't surprised that the boy who terrorized their son, Ryan, for nearly a year -- culminated by the boy fracturing Ryan's jaw and Ryan's family getting a restraining order -- now faces felony charges in last month's beating of a Las Lomas High School senior.
"People keep saying these are isolated incidents," Servando De La Torre said. "These are not isolated incidents. We saw this building."
A
Time for Healing
S.F. Chronicle, 10/16/98
Danville searches for answers in brutal beating of student by local youths
Lone Girl
Stopped to Help
Contra Costa Times, 10/11/98
DANVILLE -- Had it not been for Lacey Hennigan, who knows how long the broken and bloodied body of a Las Lomas High School senior would have remained in the quad at San Ramon Valley High School.
It was a warm, September night exactly one month ago when Lacey strolled across the Danville campus, the distant sounds of the season-opening football game's closing minutes drowning in the chaos ahead.
The San Ramon Valley senior knew it was a fight -- the circle of about 50 people was a dead giveaway -- but as she approached the dark quad and the crowd of students and adults quickly dispersed, Lacey had no idea she'd find herself alone with the beaten boy.
No one stayed to help. No one stopped to offer assistance. No one seemed to care that the 17-year-old Walnut Creek boy had been beaten senseless and that his leg had been so badly broken that he'd later need a metal rod inserted to stabilize the shattered bone.
Heralded as a hero by San Ramon Valley High teachers and administrators, Lacey surprisingly received mixed reactions from students when she returned to campus after missing three days because she was so traumatized by the fight and other people's responses, or lack thereof. Some students actually accused her of "ratting out" classmates allegedly involved in the attack, although she neither witnessed the fight nor saw any of its participants.
More
Teen Suspects in Brutal Attack
Oakland Tribune, 10/8/98
Oakland Tribune, 10/8/98
As many as 15 to 20 teen-agers may have participated in the severe beating of a Las Lomas High School student following a football game at San Ramon Valley High School, a deputy district attorney said Tuesday.
Youth
in San Ramon Beating Denied Release -- Boy's neighbors lobby in his behalf
S.F. Chronicle, 10/7/98
S.F. Chronicle, 10/7/98
Neighbors of a Danville boy locked up for his role in the attack on a rival school's student signed a letter urging the court for his release. ``He is well-respected in his community,'' the boy's attorney, Michael Sterrett, argued in court yesterday. ``None of the neighbors felt they would be in any sense of danger'' if he were released.
Probe
Asked in Fight At San Ramon Game -- Off-duty deputies worked security
S.F. Chronicle, 10/6/98
S.F. Chronicle, 10/6/98
Acalanes school district officials have asked the county Sheriff's Office to investigate how a savage beating occurred at a Danville high school football game while off-duty deputies were acting as security guards.
High
School Contained After Threat
Contra Costa Times, 10/2/98
Contra Costa Times, 10/2/98
A threat of retaliation against San Ramon Valley High School students prompted administrators to keep students on campus Thursday, nearly three weeks after the savage beating of a Las Lomas High senior.
Six
Teens Must Stay in Juvenile Hall
S.F. Chronicle, 10/2/98
S.F. Chronicle, 10/2/98
Six Danville teenagers accused of brutally beating a student from a rival school after a football game three weeks ago must remain in Juvenile Hall for the time being, a juvenile court referee ruled yesterday.
Eight
Teens Charged in Attack on Boy
Contra Costa Times, 10/1/98
Contra Costa Times, 10/1/98
The Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office filed felony charges Wednesday against eight teen-age boys in the savage beating of a Las Lomas High School senior last month at San Ramon Valley High.
Suspects
in Beating Arrested
Contra Costa Times, 9/26/98
Contra Costa Times, 9/26/98
Seven San Ramon Valley High School students already facing expulsion from school were arrested Friday, two weeks after the boys beat a Las Lomas High senior, police said.
More
Students May Face Expulsion as a Result of Attack
Contra Costa Times, 9/22/98
Contra Costa Times, 9/22/98
Five more San Ramon Valley High students face expulsion for their role in the beating of a Las Lomas student two weeks ago -- bringing to eight the number of students who may be kicked out of school for the attack.
Students Learn
from Violent Episode
Contra Costa Times, 9/20/98
Contra Costa Times, 9/20/98
Sending letters to their peers at Las Lomas High School and to the victim of an attack by their classmates was the culmination of a reflective week for San Ramon Valley High School students. A week born of a horribly violent act, and ending with an offer of reconciliation and introspection. One that forced teen-agers to explore their worst fears and deepest insecurities. A week that saw the toughest kids in the school cry, and the youngest worry about their safety.
Expulsions
Probable in School Fight -- Students could be charged in brawl at Danville game
S.F. Chronicle, 9/19/98
S.F. Chronicle, 9/19/98
Eight San Ramon Valley High School students suspended for their alleged role in the savage beating of a student from a rival school will likely be expelled and some have confessed to the attack, school officials said yesterday.
Expulsion
Sought for Three Connected to Beating
Contra Costa Times, 9/18/98
Contra Costa Times, 9/18/98
San Ramon Valley High School Principal Dave Lorden asked Friday that three of his students be kicked out of school in connection with the beating of a Las Lomas High boy last week. A senior whose video was seized by Danville police says his tape deals only with aftermath, not the whole fight as officials reported.
Students'
Fight Video a Shocker
Contra Costa Times, 9/18/98
Contra Costa Times, 9/18/98
San Ramon Valley High School students suspected of brutally beating a student from a rival school last week apparently spent the day videotaping themselves partying before recording the beating, police said Thursday.
Ugly behavior at game preceded brutal attack
Contra Costa Times, 9/18/98
- The attack on a Las Lomas High School student after Friday's football game with San Ramon Valley High was the brutal finale to a game marred by taunts and eggings by an unruly band of Danville students, according to witnesses.
Two
Schools Say Beating is 'Isolated'
Contra Costa Times, 9/16/98
Contra Costa Times, 9/16/98
Four days after San Ramon Valley High School students severely beat a Las Lomas High School senior, the 17-year-old boy remains hospitalized with a shattered leg and head injuries, and no arrests have been made.
School administrators labeled as isolated the incident -- in which two Las Lomas teens were attacked in the San Ramon Valley High quad after a football game. But parents and students said the beating wasn't the only fight that took place at or near the school that day.
Fan Beaten in
Danville School Fight
Contra Costa Times, 9/15/98
Contra Costa Times, 9/15/98
Detectives and San Ramon Valley High School administrators Monday were still investigating a brutal brawl that left a Las Lomas High student with a shattered leg and concussion following Friday night's football game.
Sacramento Case -- Juvenile Restraining Orders (8/98)
Two
Girls' Plight May Trigger Revision of Law -- Legislators Seek Restraining Order Change
Sacramento Bee, 8/12/98
Three legislators, responding to a case involving three Sacramento-area children, will introduce a measure this week to require judges to hear petitions for restraining orders in cases in which minors are accused of harassing other children.
Boy, 11
Arraigned in Stalking Case
Sacramento Bee, 8/5/98
Sacramento Bee, 8/5/98
In a case that prosecutors characterize as highly unusual, an 11-year-old Sacramento County boy was arraigned on felony charges Tuesday after he allegedly stalked two classmates in June and threatened to kill them for rebuffing his advances.
Youth's
Pursuit Frightens 2 Girls: Are Authorities' Hands Tied?
Sacramento Bee, 7/25/98
Sacramento Bee, 7/25/98
Last month in suburban Sacramento, an 11-year-old boy allegedly chased down a classmate in a neighborhood park, punched her in the head, then told her he was leaving to get a gun so he could kill her. That same day, said the family of another girl, the youth left phone messages for their daughter, threatening to slash her throat, hang her and drag her behind a car "so your face will burn off onto my tires." "This will teach you to be rude to other people," the voice concludes on copies of the answering-machine tape.
Chicago Incident (8/10/98)
Cops
Ignored Clues that Case was Weak
Chicago Tribune, 9/5/98
Four weeks ago, when the Chicago police made two South Side boys among the youngest murder suspects in America, the question was how, at that age, they could have committed such a brutal crime. Now, the question is how police ever could have arrested them.
Charges
Dropped Against Two Boys
Chicago Tribune, 9/5/98
In an embarrassing and stunning reversal, Cook County prosecutors dropped charges Friday against two young boys accused of murdering 11-year-old Ryan Harris after learning that tests showed the presence of semen on her underwear.
Murder Case
Against Chicago Youngsters Dropped
San Jose Mercury News, 9/5/98
At a hastily arranged court hearing Friday, prosecutors dropped the murder case against two boys, ages 7 and 8, after an analysis of the 11-year-old victim's underwear turned up evidence of semen, which the boys are almost certainly too young to have produced.
Kids'
'Competence' a Tender Issue for the Courts
Chicago Tribune, 8/30/98
It was envisioned as a kinder, gentler system, one that would focus on saving children rather than seeking retribution from them. But 100 years after passage of the nation's first juvenile justice act, the complicated legal jargon and adversarial tenor traditionally reserved for adult court has permeated the halls of Juvenile Court.
How
Cops Got Boys to Talk
Chicago Tribune, 8/30/98
In detailed fashion--including describing each piece of furniture in the interrogation room-- the police reports relate how the investigation of Ryan's death turned to the two boys, who are now among America's youngest murder suspects.
No
More Kid Stuff
Time Magazine, 8/24/98
Is murder now child's play? Two boys, ages seven and eight, are charged in the death of an 11-year-old girl .
Mental
Tests Ordered for Boy Suspects
Chicago Tribune, 8/29/98
In what is apparently an attempt to take decisive control of the Ryan Harris slaying case, a Cook County Juvenile Court judge Friday ordered psychiatric examinations for two boys accused in the 11-year-old girl's death.
The
Uncertain Course of Juvenile Justice
Chicago Tribune, 8/28/98
Two cases that involve the murder of children by children have raised concerns over the lack of formal procedures for charging juveniles with felony crimes in Chicago. Even though police say there were confessions in both cases, charges were only brought against the children in one of them.
Young
Suspects Become Freer
Chicago Tribune, 8/21/98
As defense lawyers and prosecutors squared off in court to fight a legal war on several fronts, a Juvenile Court judge Thursday ordered two boys accused of the murder of 11-year-old Ryan Harris removed from electronic monitoring restraints.
Competency
Tests Sought for Young Subjects
Chicago Tribune, 8/20/98
Prosecutors in the case of two boys, ages 7 and 8, accused of the murder of 11-year-old Ryan Harris filed a motion Wednesday asking for a court-ordered examination of the youths to determine their competency to stand trial and understand Miranda warnings.
No
More Kid Stuff
Time Magazine, 8/24/98
Is murder now child's play? Two boys, ages seven and eight, are charged in the death of an 11-year-old girl.
Lawyers
Face Unique Obstacles in Defending Children Accused of Violence
Washington Post, 8/17/98
It is a world of unexplored legal ground, raising a battery of questions for defense lawyers. Do young children always understand the charges against them? Can they assist in their own defense? What happens when parents and lawyers have different definitions of the child's best interest? If children are too young for juvenile detention centers, where should they be held? If they confess to crimes, have they knowingly waived their right to remain silent?
Capacity
to Understand To Be the Test for Boys
Chicago Tribune, 8/16/98
Chicago Tribune, 8/16/98
In a case that in so many ways is groundbreaking--from the suspects' ages to the conditions of their home confinement pending trial--there are aspects of the Juvenile Court process that should be standard for the 7- and 8-year-old boys charged with murder.
Police
Question Others in Ryan Harris Slaying
Chicago Tribune, 8/16/98
Chicago Tribune, 8/16/98
One week after two boys, ages 7 and 8, were charged in the slaying of Ryan Harris and police declared the case closed, the investigation appears very much open, as detectives continue to bring in people for questioning.
Boys'
Murder Trial Raises Questions of Credibility, Conduct
Washington Post, 8/16/98
Washington Post, 8/16/98
South Side Chicago residents find it incredible that two neighbor boys, ages 7 and 8, are charged with murder. But for the lawyers involved, the case has raised questions about how to deal with murder defendants so young that no law has been written yet to tell the courts where and how to detain them.
Authorities
Pull Out All Stops to Monitor Young Suspects
Chicago Tribune, 8/15/98
Chicago Tribune, 8/15/98
The 7- and 8-year-old boys charged in the slaying of 11-year-old Ryan Harris became the first suspects in Cook County -- juvenile or adult -- to be placed on a voice-verification system that phones their home to confirm their presence whenever the electronic-monitoring system they wear is tripped off.
Young
Suspects Sent Home
Chicago Tribune, 8/14/98
Chicago Tribune, 8/14/98
After six hours of often rancorous proceedings, a Juvenile Court judge late Thursday ordered a 7- and an 8-year-old charged with murder to be released to the custody of their families -- but only after custom-made electronic monitoring bracelets were strapped to their tiny ankles.
Anguish
Grips Mom of 7-year-old Held in Killing
Chicago Tribune, 8/13/98
Chicago Tribune, 8/13/98
As she sat waiting with her 7-year-old son in the Wentworth Area police headquarters in Chicago Sunday night, the boy's mother already knew something was not right. But that awareness became acute and fear descended upon her when the boy asked to go to the bathroom.
Fight
Looms Over Boys' Confessions
Chicago Tribune, 8/12/98
Chicago Tribune, 8/12/98
As a Juvenile Court judge struggles to decide where to keep two boys charged in the slaying of 11-year-old Ryan Harris, a legal battle is shaping up over whether their statements to police will be admissible.
Child Murder
Suspects Held for Psychiatric Tests
CNN, 8/12/98
CNN, 8/12/98
Two boys, ages 7 and 8, accused of murdering and sexually molesting an 11-year-old girl so they could steal her shiny blue bike, have been ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation.
Boys, 7 and
8, Accused in Girl's Death
Chicago Tribune, 8/10/98
Chicago Tribune, 8/10/98
The pals are just 7 and 8, but prosecutors call them brutal killers. The youngest murder defendants in city history are accused of attacking an 11-year-old girl with rocks, suffocating her with her panties and molesting her, all for her shiny blue bicycle.
Chicago
Boys, 7 and 8, Charged With Murdering 11-year old Girl
New York Times, 8/11/98
New York Times, 8/11/98
CHICAGO -- In a case that has sent chills across this city, two boys, ages 7 and 8, have been charged with murdering an 11-year-old girl -- striking her with a rock, sexually molesting her and suffocating her with her own underwear -- apparently to take the bright blue bicycle she had been riding, the police said on Monday.
Boys'
Arrest Puts Legal System in Quandry
Chicago Tribune, 8/11/98
Chicago Tribune, 8/11/98
The arrest of two Chicago boys for murder has thrust the nation's oldest juvenile court into uncharted territory, forcing it to wrestle with questions as large as how children so young might commit so brutal a crime and as small as where to keep them for the night.
Statistics:
Children Committing Murder
Chicago Tribune, 8/11/98
Since 1965, there have been more than ten children in Chicago accused in homicides ranging from beatings to shootings. Nationally, at least 15 children aged nine or younger were murder offenders since 1991.
Antioch, California Incident (6/6/98)
Parents
of Slain Antioch Teen Sue Rescue Company for Negligence
S.F. Chronicle, 6/9/99
As his 13-year-old son lay mortally wounded in their Antioch back yard -- felled by a rifle shot fired by a neighbor boy --Lawrence Kiepert pleaded with a paramedic to hurry. But instead of offering words of comfort, the emergency medical worker replied, "You should have thought about that before you played with guns,'' according to a lawsuit filed in Contra Costa Superior Court.
Antioch
Boy Sentenced to 14 Years
S.F. Chronicle, 10/17/98
S.F. Chronicle, 10/17/98
Bitterness between two neighboring families spilled out into a Martinez courtroom yesterday as an 11-year-old Antioch boy convicted of killing a playmate was sentenced to 14 years in a group home.
Court
Ruling Doesn't End Daily Ordeal (John King Column)
S.F. Chronicle, 10/17/98
S.F. Chronicle, 10/17/98
Living next to family of son's killer is painful
Judge Delays Antioch Boy's Sentencing
Faulty probation report stalls penalty in neighbor's killing
S.F. Chronicle, 9/23/98
Instead of getting the emotional closure they had hoped for from a long-awaited sentencing hearing, the families of a slain Antioch boy and his convicted 11-year-old killer learned yesterday that they will have to make another unwelcome trip to court.
Sentencing
Delayed in Shooting of Antioch Boy
S.F. Chronicle, 9/9/98
S.F. Chronicle, 9/9/98
A judge agreed yesterday to postpone the sentencing of an 11- year-old Antioch boy convicted of manslaughter, but ordered the youth's mother to stay away from witnesses in the case amid allegations of threats and harassment.
Sentencing
Delayed
Contra Costa Times, 9/5/98
Contra Costa Times, 9/5/98
The sentencing for 11-year-old Joshua Almaguer-Mendez, found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of his teen-age neighbor, will be delayed until later in the month, according to prosecutor Hal Jewett.
Antioch
Boy to Hear Fate at Hearing Tuesday
S.F. Chronicle, 9/3/98
S.F. Chronicle, 9/3/98
An 11-year-old Antioch boy characterized as a vengeful ``sniper'' in the shooting death of a playmate may not deserve to be sent to the California Youth Authority, a prosecutor said yesterday.
Joshua
Could Get 14 Years
Contra Costa Times, 8/12/98
Contra Costa Times, 8/12/98
An 11-year-old Antioch boy found guilty of involuntary manslaughter Monday could get a longer sentence because a gun was involved, a Juvenile Court judge announced this morning.
11-Year-Old
Convicted of Manslaughter -- No `malice' found in Antioch shooting
S.F. Chronicle, 8/11/98
S.F. Chronicle, 8/11/98
Saying there was no evidence that an 11-year-old acted with malice when he fatally shot an Antioch playmate, a Contra Costa County judge rejected murder charges yesterday, instead convicting the boy of involuntary manslaughter.
Experts
Say Juvenile Prison Sentence Unlikely
Contra Costa Times, 8/11/98
Contra Costa Times, 8/11/98
Judge Lois Haight is unlikely to sentence 11-year-old Joshua Almaguer-Mendez to juvenile prison but very well could send him to the Contra Costa boys' ranch in Byron for six to nine months, juvenile crime experts said Monday.
Antioch
Boy Guilty in Playmate's Death
S.F. Examiner, 8/10/98
S.F. Examiner, 8/10/98
A Contra Costa County judge found an 11-year-old Antioch boy guilty of involuntary manslaughter Monday in the shooting of his 13-year-old neighbor.
Antioch Boy
Awaits Verdict
Contra Costa Times, 8/9/98
Contra Costa Times, 8/9/98
Judge will rule Monday if Joshua Almaguer-Mendez should be held liable for the death of his 13-year-old neighbor.
Closing
Arguments in Antioch Slaying
S.F. Chronicle, 8/7/98
S.F. Chronicle, 8/7/98
An 11-year-old Antioch boy charged with murdering a playmate is either a lying, calculating killer or a ``shy, frightened boy'' guilty only of a mistake.
Boy, 11,
Denies He Meant to Kill Teen
Contra Costa Times, 8/6/98
Contra Costa Times, 8/6/98
Joshua Almaguer-Mendez on Wednesday tearfully denied he intentionally shot and killed a teen-age neighbor with a scoped hunting rifle.
Boy
Says Killing was Accidental -- Antioch Youth Takes the Stand
S.F. Chronicle, 8/6/98
S.F. Chronicle, 8/6/98
An 11-year-old Antioch boy charged with murder was planning to play a friendly game of basketball with his alleged victim but saw his father's gun in a closet first, he testified yesterday.
Defense
May Call Mendez to Testify
Contra Costa Times, 8/1/98
Contra Costa Times, 8/1/98
Defense Attorney William Gagen said that he might have his client, 11-year-old Joshua Almaguer-Mendez, take the stand in his own murder trail.
Slaying
Suspect Not Violent, Psychologist Says
S.F. Chronicle, 8/1/98
S.F. Chronicle, 8/1/98
An 11-year-old Antioch boy charged with murdering a playmate is immature for his age and may suffer from a learning disorder, but he is not violent, a child psychologist said yesterday.
Fatal
Shot May Have "Tumbled"
Contra Costa Times, 7/31/98
Contra Costa Times, 7/31/98
Pathologist says the bullet that killed 13-year-old may have been hurtling sideways, supporting lawyer's theory that shooting was accidental.
Detective
Says Boy Couldn't See Victim
Contra Costa Times, 7/30/98
Contra Costa Times, 7/30/98
A police detective testified Wednesday that the Antioch boy accused of deliberately killing his teen-age neighbor with a hunting rifle could not see the victim when the weapon was fired.
'No one
was mad,' says brother
Contra Costa Times, 7/29/98
Contra Costa Times, 7/29/98
The brother of a teen-ager shot to death by an 11-year-old neighbor testified Monday that the neighbor didn't appear angry after horseplay in which he was shot with a BB gun.
Slain
Boy's Mother Describes Son's Death -- Testimony at trial of neighbor, 11
S.F. Chronicle, 7/28/98
S.F. Chronicle, 7/28/98
Worried about increasing crime in their Milwaukee neighborhood and the prevalence of guns in rural Wisconsin, Elizabeth Kiepert and her husband moved last August to Antioch for a ``happy and safe'' life in California. Less than a year later, their elder son, 13-year-old Larry Kiepert, was killed by a bullet from a high-powered rifle fired by a sixth- grade neighbor Larry had met just two weeks earlier.
Victim's
Brother Saw No Grudge in 11-year old
Contra Costa Times, 7/28/98
Contra Costa Times, 7/28/98
The brother of a teen-ager shot to death by an 11-year-old neighbor testified Monday that the neighbor didn't appear angry after horseplay in which he was shot with a BB gun.
Kiepert's
Brother Testifies
Contra Costa Times, 7/25/98
Contra Costa Times, 7/25/98
The younger brother of Larry Kiepert testified Friday how he, his brother and 11-year-old Joshua Almaguer-Mendez engaged in unsupervised horseplay with guns two days before Joshua shot Larry to death.
Brother
Of Slain Boy Testifies -- Child describes gunplay with 11-year-old suspect
S.F. Chronicle, 7/25/98
S.F. Chronicle, 7/25/98
Unaware of the dramatic impact of his testimony, a 9-year-old Antioch boy was the prosecution's key witness yesterday against his brother's 11-year-old accused killer.
Murder
Trial Begins for Antioch Boy
S.F. Chronicle, 7/24/98
S.F. Chronicle, 7/24/98
Handcuffed and shackled, an 11-year-old Antioch boy charged with killing a playmate was still enough of a child to enjoy coloring with crayons as his murder trial began yesterday.
Wrongful
Death Suit in Shotting Case
S.F. Chronicle, 7/23/98
S.F. Chronicle, 7/23/98
The parents of a 13- year-old Antioch boy who was fatally shot by another boy have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the suspect and his family.
Boy
, 11, Used Rifle Scope To Kill Teen, D.A. Says
S.F Chronicle, 6/12/98
S.F Chronicle, 6/12/98
An 11-year-old Antioch boy raised his father's deer rifle, propped the muzzle on a windowsill, aimed at the boy next door and pulled the trigger, a prosecutor said yesterday. The grade-school boy, who was charged with murder on Wednesday, may have been taking revenge on 13-year-old Larry Kiepert for an incident between the boys two days before last Saturday's fatal shooting, said Contra Costa Deputy District Attorney Hal Jewett.
Antioch
Boy Charged With Murder -- Shooting of teen called intentional
S.F. Chronicle, 6/11/98
S.F. Chronicle, 6/11/98
A shooting first described as a tragic accident turned into murder charges yesterday for an 11- year-old Antioch boy who prosecutors say intentionally fired a rifle at a boy playing next door.
Edinboro, Pennsylvania Incident (4/24/98)
Teacher Slain at Dance; Student Held
Contra Costa Times, 4/26/98
Articles from Erie (Pennsylvania) Times-News
Friend: Suspect threatened to go to the dance "and kill some people" (4/26/98)
"It was a sad day for all of us" (4/25/98)
No motive offered in shootings (4/25/98)
Suspect wanted to make dance 'memorable', student says (4/25/98)
General McLane Teacher slain at dance (4/25/98)
Jonesboro, Arkansas Incident (3/24/98)
Moving On?
Denver Post, 7/11/99
Most of the town wants to move on, to forget the March 1998 schoolyard ambush that forever sullied Jonesboro's image. They have clashed with those who feel that acting like life has returned to normal betrays the memory of those who were murdered.
Two Boys Guilty of Ambush Killings
MSNBC, 8/11/98
A judge found two Arkansas boys guilty of the March 24 ambush killings at Westside Middle School on Tuesday, and then listened as the older boy issued an apology and said he intended to shoot over his victims’ heads.
Arkansas boys found
guilty, sentenced to juvenile custody
CNN, 8/11/98
On his 14th birthday, Mitchell Johnson pleaded guilty to killing four classmates and a teacher and wounding 10 other people. Another Jonesboro boy, 12-year-old Andrew Golden, pleaded not guilty due to mental incompetence but still was found guilty by a judge at a juvenile court hearing Tuesday.
Accused
Jonesboro school shooters go to trial
Chicago Tribune, 8/11/98
Chicago Tribune, 8/11/98
JONESBORO, Ark. (AP) -- Mitchell Johnson turns 14 today. There's no party planned. Instead, he and 12-year-old Andrew Golden were due in juvenile court to face trial on charges they gunned down four classmates and a teacher at Westside Middle School.
Arkansas
Boys Face Hearing in School Slayings
Time Daily, 8/10/98
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Reuters) - Two Arkansas boys ages 12 and 13 will appear before a judge Tuesday who will decide whether to find them guilty in the murders of four classmates and a teacher that shocked the country.
Ambush in the Schoolyard
Arkansas Online, 3/25/98 to present
Page with links to stories in various Arkansas newspapers.
More stories related to the Jonesboro shooting
Chicago Tribune
Archive of stories
Two Boys Arrested in
School Shooting
ArkansasDemocrat-Gazette, 3/25/98
Two boys firing guns Tuesday killed four students and a teacher and injured nine students and one teacher as the youngsters poured out a side entrance of Westside Middle School in response to a false fire alarm at 12:41 p.m. The two suspects, who have not been charged, are believed to be 11- and 13-year-old students at the school. Police arrested them as they reportedly ran away from the school.
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