Hey Guys,
This past week has seen several unfortunate events unfold from as far away as Rio de Janeiro to as close as Middletown.
Yesterday a gunman entered Tasso da Silveira Middle School in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The gunman, 24 year old Wellington Menezes de Oliveira was a former student of the school, and he walked in claiming that he was there to speak to students. He began firing and killed twelve students ages 12-14. (Some reports are saying 13 students were killed.) After killing his victims, de Oliveira turned the gun on himself. In a suicide note, he asked for God’s forgiveness for what he had done.
In Austin, TX yesterday at Leander High School, the body of a 15 year old female student was found in one of the girl’s bathrooms. The student had shot herself in the head with a .22 pistol. Friends say that the student had told several people that he was going to kill herself… no one took her seriously… following the discovery of her body in the bathroom, the school had to deal with a bomb threat… at the same school only last week a male student was found dead, the victim of an apparent drug overdose…
This week has also seen the development of a case of apparent sexual assault by two teachers from Paramus Catholic High School in New Jersey. The two teachers, Michael Sumulikoski, 27 and Artur Sopel, 31, are accused of having inappropriate sexual contact with several female students during a class trip to Germany over the summer. As of this morning, four different female students have accused the two men.
Finally yesterday at Gaudet Middle School in Middletown, RI students reported hearing rumors that someone had a gun in the school. The school was put on lock-down as the police searched, as the day progressed, more rumors spread about a potential bomb being at the school. Nothing was found, students were sent home two hours late after police said it was safe to leave classrooms. Classes are running normally today.
These stories prove once again that students, teachers, administrators, and parents all need to take the threat of violence and inappropriate behavior very seriously… we all have to take responsibility for making our school and our students safe from all types of dangers….
What do you think?
Have a great weekend!
- X
This is ridiculous!! I feel like school is not safe anymore. i feel like anyone can jus walk into the school building anytime with a gun and jus shoot anyone jus because this school is well secured.
ReplyDelete-Vanessa Aristy
That is crazy that all that stuff has happened within those 2 points in the world. Obviously school are not as safe as students and parents want them to be. People can walk into the school with a weapon and a teacher will not know about it. Kids can put stuff in their bags and go off into a class and possibly kill somebody.
ReplyDeleteThis is crazy. I think that both students and administrators need to take all of these threats seroously. In our school when we have a lockdown or a firedrill no one ever takes it seriously. I think that this is something that our school has always had an issue with. No one takes anyone or anything seriously, everyone figures this cant happen to us, but clearly it can. Looking on the news or in the newspaper shows that this stuff is happening, although it may not be incrediably close to Pilgrim, stuff like this is still happening and its crazy. I feel like in our schools we should have more drills to ensure the safety of this school, and show kids how important these drills really are.
ReplyDeleteBefore the comment. Love how you talked about a really depressing topic, then went "Have a great weekend!". Made me chuckle a little. Anyway.
ReplyDeleteThere has been some other violent acts just this weekend. And not just in schools or in the U.S. This is from reading the ProJo (yes, some of us still read the paper). Netherlands: Shooter kills 6, injures 15, inside mall. Syria: Security forces fire on mourners. Egypt: Anger at military after brutal raid. Pennsylvania: 9 host, 1 fatally, at suburban teenage party. These were the headlines in just the Nation section in today's newspaper. It is, quite simply, appalling. The entire world seems to be infected by this disease. It's getting so every day you hear of this shooting, this new bombing in the Middle East. We're slowly becoming desensitized, and I'm not sure how many people even realize it. You can see it in the new video games, each one a more bloody war game than the last. You can see it in the movies, where it's considered normal for at least one head to be ripped off if it's any decent movie. You can see it in the people. I think that the people don't need to be explained, anyone can think of an example. And for the minority? The ones who loathe violence, who couldn't even defend themselves? I have only this advice: get used to it. All this violence is not going anywhere. This is the world that we live in now.