TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Category: School Violence

  • Evidence Item No. 201

    Evidence Item No. 201

    Hiding in Plain Sight:

    This is a great article about the still yet to be released evidence that was seized from the Harris household after the Columbine shooting. It has the usual information about The Basement Tapes, and Harris’ writings, and an alleged police cover-up regarding their prior contact with Harris. But this article enlightened me to something I had previously not known about what was in that evidence, Evidence item no. 201…

    But the most intriguing, hush-hush item from the Harris home is probably evidence item No. 201, a green steno book found in a desk drawer. The book doesn’t belong to Eric or God but to Wayne Harris, who used it to write down various matters concerning his son’s mental health, errant behavior and interactions with neighbors and authorities. As a result of the confidential settlements reached in lawsuits brought against the Harrises and Klebolds by some victims’ families, virtually everyone who’s ever seen the steno book can’t comment on its contents.

    We do know one thing about item No. 201: It documents more contacts between the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and the Harrises over their son’s behavior years before the shooting than the sheriff’s office has ever acknowledged. In 2004, investigators working for the state attorney general’s office used the steno book to track a complaint against Eric that dated back to 1997, a case for which the department paperwork had disappeared. The deputy on the case, Tim Walsh, was the same officer who arrested Harris and Klebold for breaking into a van in 1998; interviewed by investigators after the shootings in 1999, Walsh made no mention of the 1997 case.

    Jefferson County Sheriff Ted Mink said he will make a decision about releasing the materials after the anniversary of Columbine.

  • Home Room

    Home Room

    A while back, a reader recommended I see the movie Home Room.

    I just finally got around to watching it. It’s about the aftermath of a fictional school shooting. Without going into too much of the story, I thought it was a great movie.

    On the surface, it looks like a movie made for teens, but this is something that parents with school-age kids should definitely watch just for the last 20 minutes of the movie alone.

    It was a little too Breakfast Club for me overall, but it was much better than the bore fest that was Elephant.

  • Roseburg trial delayed

    Roseburg trial delayed

    Leodoro trial moved to June so lawyers can prepare:

    The trial for Vincent Leodoro, the gunman in the Roseburg High School shooting in Oregon, has been pushed back until June 27…

    Defense attorney Bruce Tower filed a motion recently indicating he intended to prove Leodoro was suffering from a mental disease or defect at the time of the Feb. 23 shooting. Senior Deputy District Attorney Rick Wesenberg told Millikan he would need to schedule Leodoro for an examination at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem as a result of the defense motion, which could not be done before the originally scheduled trial date of April 18.

    Ah yes, the old insanity defense. Because it’s worked so many times in the past. That was sarcasm in case you didn’t know.

  • Pine Middle shooter denied release

    Accused teen shooter’s release denied:

    James Scott Newman, the 14-year-old Pine Middle School gunman in Reno, Nevada, had his request for release denied by a Nevada juvenile judge…

    Juvenile Court Master Janet Schmuck said Friday that she ordered the detention of 14-year-old James Scott Newman during his initial hearing on March 20 because he was considered a danger to society.

    “And I have not heard anything to change that,” Schmuck said.

    Get your giggles out now over the judge’s name.

    Of course, the defense and the prosecution have differing opinions…

    Two psychologists, one appointed by the state and another hired by the family, evaluated Newman to determine whether he’s a safety risk. They came to different conclusions. The state-hired psychologist said Newman was a threat, while Earl Nielsen said the boy could safely be released.

    Nielsen, who had been hired by the family, told the judge he had met with Newman several times and reviewed school reports and community letters. He found that although the boy may suffer from anxiety and depression, he does not suffer from any psychological disorders suggesting any new violent behavior.

    “I don’t believe that James presents a high risk to the community,” Nielsen testified. “I don’t think he’s a danger to himself. I don’t think he’s a danger to others.”

    Houston told the judge Newman’s family has outlined a plan for complete care and supervision round-the-clock should he be released, including therapy for the boy and his family, medical care, help from neighbors, education, and exercise.

    But Wickes argued that Newman’s behavior before the incident, and the shooting itself, shows that he can’t be trusted.

    Newman told one evaluator he had tried to get his brother to buy a carbon-dioxide cartridge for an air rifle, “so that (James Scott Newman) could harm more people when he ran out of bullets,” she said. And he had read information on the Internet about the Columbine High School shootings because “it helped inspire him.”

    “He rejected using a .45-caliber because it was too complicated, and he described the 38 as his favorite gun,” Wickes said. “He rejected stabbing someone because he didn’t want all that blood on him.”

    The trial has been set for June 22nd.

  • Red Lake survivor honored at NYSE

    Red Lake survivor honored at NYSE

    Red Lake survivor Jeff May rings closing bell :

    Red Lake survivor Jeff May rang the closing bell yesterday at the New York Stock Exchange in honor of being named Reader’s Digest hero of the year.

    May was selected for his actions in the Red Lake school shooting by tackling Jeff Weise and saving at least a dozen people from being shot.

    May was shot in the face by Weise. Jeff May suffered a stroke while recovering from the gunshot. May was selected by the readers of Reader’s Digest in an online poll. His story in Reader’s Digest can be read here.

  • Pine Middle shooter denies charges

    Reno boy denies charges in school shooting:

    Is this the same as pleading not guilty?

    A 14-year-old boy accused of wounding two classmates in a shooting at a Reno middle school has denied four charges against him and will face trial in June.

    James Scott Newman sat quietly in a hearing before a juvenile court master as his lawyer entered the denial pleas for him.

    How can someone who fired a gun in a crowded school hallway in front of dozens of witnesses deny the charges?

    I can’t wait to hear the defense on this one.

  • Bartley to be tried as an adult

    Bartley to be tried as an adult

    Bartley to be tried as adult for school shootings:

    Ken Bartley Jr., the gunman in the Campbell County High shooting that killed one and wounded two more, will be tried as an adult…

    Kenny Bartley, Jr. was scheduled for a transfer hearing Wednesday to determine whether he would be tried as an adult.

    However, Bartley’s attorney, Mike Hatmaker, waived the hearing. He told the judge there was no need to re-live the events of the shootings and waiving the hearing was best for Bartley and his family, since it was likely the state would have won.

    The state had no objection so the judge ordered the transfer.

  • The Myth Spreads Like Cancer III

    The Myth Spreads Like Cancer III

    Schools learn bullying can plant seed for tragedy:

    Yet another article that’s designed to garner sympathy for school shooters and would be school shooters because they were allegedly bullied.

    While, of course, I think bullying is a problem, there’s a big difference between bullying and killing. And like I keep saying, all these Columbine wannabes are taking the focus away from bullying and putting it on identifying would be school shooters.

    Anyway, back to my main point. As usual, the article is rife with inaccuracies…

    The massacre at Columbine High School outside Denver on April 20, 1999, was the deadliest school shooting on record. Two teenagers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who dressed in Goth attire and felt like misfits, went on a rampage that left 13 dead and 24 wounded before killing themselves.

    Wrong. They were not goths, they had plenty of friends, and most importantly, they were bullies themselves. One only needs to go as far as this to learn the truth.

    And secondly…

    For instance, a 16-year-old who went on a rampage that left eight dead at a high school in Red Lake, Minn., a year ago fit the profile. School personnel described him as a loner who wore black and routinely was teased.

    Wrong again. Weise may have been teased, but when you’re a self-proclaimed Nazi you’re kind of inviting it on yourself. Not only that, but I read more than one report that said Weise used to bully kids who listened to rap.

    But hey, let’s not let facts get in the way of “journalism”.

  • Pine Middle shooter to undergo psych eval

    Suspect in Reno middle school shooting to undergo psych exam:

    James Scott Newman, the Pine Middle School shooter, has been ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation, but he must remain in juvenile detention until the evaluation is completed.

    Newman has been expelled for a year not only from Pine Middle but also from every school in the state of Nevada. If Newman is found guilty, he could be held until he is 21.

  • Pine Middle Shooter to be charged as juvenile

    Juvenile battery charges for Reno school shooting suspect:

    James Scott Newman, the gunman at the Pine Middle School shooting in Reno, Nevada that wounded two, is now being charged as a juvenile…

    Washoe County District Attorney Richard Gammick said that based on the current evidence, Newman was moved to a juvenile detention center in Reno where he will face two counts of battery with a deadly weapon.

    “It has been determined that a review of the evidence and meetings between prosecutors and police personnel, that the requirement of specific intent to kill cannot be met from the facts of this case,” Gammick said in a statement late Friday.

    He planned the shooting a week in advance. He researched other school shootings. He brought a gun with three bullets to school. He discharged the weapon at the school, striking two students. But there was no intent to kill?

    Whatever.