TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Category: School Violence

  • Dillon Cossey’s mom held for trial

    Dillon Cossey’s mom held for trial

    Mother of Plymouth Whitemarsh High youth held for trial:

    Michele Cossey, the mother of would be school shooter Dillon Cossey, has been ordered to stand trial on charges of unlawful transfer of a firearm, possession of a firearm by a minor, and child endangerment. If you recall, it was revealed after Dillon Cossey was arrested that his mother was the one who bought the firearms for the 14-year-old.

    Dillon Cossey came to the attention of police on Oct. 10 after a friend told authorities the teen planned a Columbine-like assault on Plymouth Whitemarsh High School. Cossey, who is in the custody of juvenile authorities, admitting the plot and said his mother bought him the weapons, which led to charges against his mother.

    This is the first case that I can recollect where a parent is being charged in connection with a school shooting plot.

  • Threats close NIU

    Threats close NIU

    Threat Closes Illinois University:

    Writing threatening graffiti in the school bathroom isn’t just for middle school kids anymore. Now college students are getting into the act.

    Two threats found in women’s rooms of Northern Illinois University caused classes to be canceled today.

    One said The VA tech shooters messed up with having only one shooter. Another message mentioned Monday’s date and said things will change most hastily at NIU.

    The threats included a racial slur.

    I wonder if it had anything to do with this?

    NIU President John Peters canceled exams Monday.

    For whatever reason, I hope they find the lugnut that did this and lock him/her in a cell until next semester ends, at least.

  • Asa Coon was sober

    Asa Coon was sober

    SuccessTech shooter was sober during attack:

    According to Cuyahoga County Coroner’s Office, Asa Coon had no drugs or alcohol when he went on his shooting spree at SuccessTech Academy in Cleveland, Ohio.

    I didn’t know this was an issue, since I’ve never heard of a drunk or stoned school shooter.

  • YouTube rejects mutant monitoring

    YouTube rejects mutant monitoring

    YouTube rejects calls to monitor videos:

    YouTube and their parent company Google are saying they will not monitor their site for videos inciting violence against schools. Much like the video that Pekka-Eric Auvinen posted shortly before killing 8 at Jokela High School in Finland.

    Peter Fleischer, privacy counsel at Google, which bought YouTube last year, said the website was not considering passing more information to the police to avert such events. “Logistically we couldn’t do pre-screening,” he said. “We don’t want to become censors of the web.”

    I fail to see how that would be any different from pulling copyrighted material off their site. They don’t seem to have an issue with that.

    Mr Fleischer said privacy was of paramount importance but admitted there was no blanket ban on passing on information. “If it were child pornography then we would inform the authorities immediately. In the case of somebody doing a video that looks something like hate speech, however, we would remove the account. In most of these cases we don’t report it.”

    Except they don’t suspend the accounts. The accounts for Auvinen and Dillon Cossey were still active after their respective incidents occurred. Cossey’s was even up for weeks after his arrest.

    As long as YouTube allows these hate-filled mutants to post video tributes to mass murderers, they’ll just continue to be the whipping boy whenever one of these events happens.

  • Not bullying but parenting

    Not bullying but parenting

    Commentary – It isn’t bullying, stupid, it’s the parenting:

    Here we have another editorial about school shooters and would be shooters that pretty much says the same thing that I’ve been saying for years. The post mainly focuses on would be shooter Dillon Cossey…

    His parents supplied him with real weapons — though no ammo — to match his fantasies: His bedroom contained a .9 mm semiautomatic rifle, homemade grenades, knives and swords. He also had a swastika flag, neo-Nazi literature and a Columbine massacre video.

    Classmates would have rejected Cossey, if he’d stayed in school. They would have told Dillon he’s crazy, which would have been useful feedback. Instead, he was nurtured, accepted and loved by the world’s dopiest parents.

    While I fully support homeschooling, not every parent is capable of carrying it out. Such is the case of the Cosseys.

    And as I’ve been saying for many years, lax parenting is the biggest cause of school shootings and not bullying. When parents teach their kids about some fantasy world where life is fair and allow their kids to continue to have obsessions with other killers and allow it to remain unchecked, these shootings will keep happening.

  • Auvinen’s girlfriend responds

    Auvinen’s girlfriend responds

    Ex defends school killer online:

    The former ‘girlfriend’ of Pekka-Eric Auvinen has spoken out online about the tragedy in Finland. I use the quotes because she lives in Australia, which, the last time I checked wasn’t next door to Finland.

    She posted a video on YouTube in defense of Auvinen and actually belays a certain myth.

    The statement consists of a video entitled “Pekka”, with a metal soundtrack and scrolling text.

    “The reason I have not talked to the press and the rest of you is not because I want to wash my hands of it,” she says.

    “It is because there is no point”

    Ms Scheel then launches into her defence of Auvinen.

    “First, he was not a Nazi. He hated Nazism.”

    “Second, he was not a psychopath or a sociopath. He felt love, he felt guilt, he felt fear.”

    “Third, he was not bullied or picked on, not by you or people in his life.”

    In the video, Ms Scheel refutes the notion that online messages would cause him to go on a shooting spree, and admits that Auvinen was often the initiator of online arguments.

    Ms Scheel also states that Auvinen was not bullied by his classmates, but “had he been, he would have reacted to it instantly”.

    So she claims Auvinen was not bullied. Even if he was, her second statement that Auvinen wasn’t a psychopath is incorrect. I would even go as far as to say that he was a megalomaniacal psychopath, considering he thought he was better than the rest of the world.

  • Tobin Kerns sentenced

    Tobin Kerns sentenced

    Teen convicted of massacre plot gets 10 months in jail:

    Tobin Kerns has been sentenced to 10 months behind bars with five months time served for his alleged part in a plot to attack Marshfield High School in Massachusetts.

    For the first time in my blogging career, I actually mean alleged because it was never proven to my satisfaction that he had an active role in the plot. Unfortunately, I’m not the judge in the case and I think Judge Louis Coffin has been blinded by politics.

    Like I’ve said numerous times before when discussing the Marshfield plot, I think there is definitely some chicanery going on considering that the other suspect in this plot is Joe Nee, the son of the head of the Boston police union.

    His trial is scheduled to start on Jan 30th. Since Tobin was sentenced to 10 months, Joe Nee should be sentenced to 10 years. In my opinion, it’s his fault that Tobin has to spend even a day in jail, since I consider him the actual mastermind behind the plot. In my opinion, he turned Tobin in to deflect blame from himself. As usual, you can see my previous postings on this in the archives.

    The fact that Tobin has to spend even one day in jail is a travesty of justice.

  • More confirmation in Cossey/Auvinen link

    More confirmation in Cossey/Auvinen link

    Teen who killed 8 may have contacted Pa. youth:

    There’s been more confirmation that Dillon Cossey was, in fact, in contact with Pekka-Eric Auvinen prior to the shooting that killed 8 at Jokela High School in Finland.

    Police said material seized from the computer of Pekka-Eric Auvinen suggests the 18-year-old communicated online with Dillon Cossey, 14, who was arrested in October for allegedly preparing a possible attack at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School in suburban Philadelphia.

    I doubt this will result in any additional charges for Cossey, as he claims that Auvinen gave no indication that he planned the shooting.

  • Cossey/Auvinen link confirmed

    Cossey/Auvinen link confirmed

    Teen charged with Plymouth plot communicated with Finnish shooter:

    No, this isn’t a repeat. The link between Finnish gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen and would be school shooter Dillon Cossey has been confirmed.

    “He recognized the screen name and recalled having contact by email,” said J. David Farrell, who represents Cossey, 14, of Plymouth Valley.

    Farrell said Cossey was “very distressed” to learn that Pekka-Eric Auvinen, 18, of Tuusula, Finland, had gunned down six students, a nurse and the principal at his high school, located about 30 miles north of Helsinki. Auvinen then killed himself.

    Cossey told Farrell that Auvinen “gave no indication he was going to do anything violent,” and that Cossey “offered nothing in the way of encouragement” to pursue violence.

    The teens shared an interest in a video game called “Hitman,” Farrell said, adding that they may have also had a mutual obsession with Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the students responsible for the Columbine massacre.

    Farrell said he believed more information about the time and extent of the communication would be available tomorrow.

    When these mutants congregate, they share ideas and encourage each other to commit these acts of violence. For years, I’ve been trying to get website hosts to shut these kinds of groups down. They haven’t listened yet. I wonder if they will now. Maybe it’s time to re-start my crusade. Who’s with me?

  • Mutant MySpace connection

    Mutant MySpace connection

    The cyber school for killers:

    According to the article, not only were Dillon Cossey and Pekka-Eric Auvinen YouTube buddies, but it seems they belonged to the same pro-Columbine groups on MySpace.

    Police do not believe this to have been a coincidence. The two youths are thought to have made contact over two MySpace groups, “RIP Eric and Dylan” — a reference to Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who killed 12 schoolmates at Columbine — and “Natural Selection”.

    And people wonder why I think that sites like MySpace and YouTube need to shut down what basically amounts to hate groups.

    But like I’ve said before, MySpace and YouTube wouldn’t have to if parents just paid better attention to their kids.

    Speaking of parents…

    Auvinen’s parents are regarded as somewhat bohemian in the small dormitory township of Jokela. His father plays part-time in a jazz band and composes his own music; Auvinen’s mother is an activist for the Greens. They are regarded as stalwart members of the community and neighbours describe them as a “normal family”.

    I’ll let you draw your own conclusions on that one.