Dead Colorado school shooter wanted 'revenge' on faculty member, sheriff says

[brooklynite]

Source: CNN

Centennial, Colorado (CNN) -- A student who opened fire Friday inside a suburban Denver high school appears to have been seeking revenge against a faculty member because of a "confrontation or disagreement," the Arapahoe County sheriff said.

The shooter, identified as 18-year-old Karl Halverson Pierson, shot one student before turning the gun on himself and taking his own life, Sheriff Grayson Robinson told reporters.

The shooting began after the student walked into Arapahoe High School in Centennial with the intention of confronting a specific faculty member, Robinson said.

"The suspect has been found inside the school and he has deceased as a result of what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound," Robinson said in one of his first statements after the shooting.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/13/us/colorado-school-shooting/index.html

[onehandle]

1. Guns are handy. nt

[Aristus]

2. Shit. Kids these days. No creativity.

Couldn't he have just sent off a subscription to Hustler in the guy's name?

Nope. Got to drag guns into it...

[rocktivity]

3. DING DING DING! Aristus, you're our grand prize winner!

...Kids these days. No creativity...

When I went to school, creating insulting songs about our principal and teachers was fulfilling enough. We'd sing about them having ropes around their necks, knives in their backs and bullets their chests, but we never even dreamed about actually doing it!


rocktivity

[davidpdx]

4. I think we just complained what an asshole ours were

(I believe at the time most were male). When I did something bad, I took my punishment. Wasn't happy about it, but what could I do except bitch a moan about it.

Bringing a gun to school to shoot people is being a cowardice.

[LiberalEsto]

11. It's all this reality tv

Kids no longer have creative imaginations

"Glory, glory hallelujah, teacher hit me with a ruler
I bopped her on the bean with a rotten tangerine
and we all went marching home"

[bitchkitty]

19. The most daring thing that I participated in

was a 7th-grade pencil drop.

[freshwest]

5. First step in conflict resolution is to bring a gun now? I don't think so. What a waste. n/t

[tennoji]

6. Byline should have read, "Elephant in room opens fire, wounds 1."

But nows not the time, right?

[valerief]

8. It's never the time as long as gun manufacturers can keep making

money and elected officials can get their bribes.

BTW, welcome to DU!

[valerief]

7. All the cool kids bring adult lions to school. Only cowards bring guns. nt

[7962]

9. Whatever happened to toilet papering a yard ?

Or spelling "eat me" in the grass with salt water. That prank takes a couple weeks to reveal itself.

[peace13]

10. Gotta wonder why it's always the boys?

What's up with that?

[treestar]

15. Social conditioning that physical violence and whoever wins on it

Is top dog.

[hunter]

12. Sad. Whenever middle and high school got to be too much for me, I simply didn't go.

Hell, in middle school, if a faculty member was in my face I'd turn around and run, jump right over the fence. The school would call my mom and she'd tell them not to worry, I'd certainly show up for dinner.

Oddly me and my one sibling who didn't complete high school are the ones with the university degrees.

Pushing kids until they self destruct is a bad idea. And when kids who reach that point have easy access to guns tragedy ensues.

[demigoddess]

20. we had some bad teachers

one even said something nasty about girls in school. I just figured I would not miss him/her when we moved, which we did frequently. Or you could go complain to the Dean of Girls or Dean of Boys. Don't they have those any more??

[underpants]

13. "Passionate about politics" and gun laws

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/13/21896258-colorado-school-gunman-seen-as-bright-and-passionate-about-politics?lite&google_editors_picks=true

[former9thward]

14. That link strangely left out that he was anti-gun.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_24721367/arapahoe-high-gunman-held-strong-political-beliefs-classmates

[DhhD]

16. Anti-Gun People in Colorado may not have been accepted at school by his friends and some faculty.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/11/us/colorado-lawmaker-concedes-defeat-in-recall-over-gun-law.html?pagewanted%3Dall&_r=0

In my opinion, students who are insecure may look to role models for support and imitation. Some schools allow teachers to carry guns on campus.

http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/2012/11/update-colorado-districts-allow-teachers-to-carry-firearms.html

[underpants]

17. "If the invisible hand is so strong, shouldn't it be able to overpower regulations?"

I know he was just a kid but regulations are part of the invisible had.

He was all over the map - just a kid trying to figure stuff out....who had access to guns apparently.

[VA_Jill]

18. I read somewhere

that he was mad because he was kicked off the debate team by said teacher who was also the debate coach. What? This is worth shooting the teacher, or yourself?

[CanSocDem]

21. What is up with teachers...

...nowadays, who can't diffuse hot-headed teens living in an immoral culture? It should be their prime objective. Or are modern teachers, themselves, too inflexible to notice when they are pushing a student too far.

I had a usually quiet student 'erupt' at me one day while practice teaching. Maybe because I wasn't on the payroll and not heavily invested in that particular 'high school', I was able to step away from my teachers role and consider his spontaneous passion. I had nothing to defend; not the school, not the system and not the role. The kid had no enemy so he quickly calmed down.

.

[oberliner]

22. What do you think is up with such teachers?

And are you suggesting the teacher in this situation fits your description?

[CanSocDem]

23. They seem ill-prepared...

...for the job. In this case you only have to consider that the 'targeted' teacher should have known this A-student was pissed....pathologically pissed.

I think the teacher was too insecure to let emotion into the lesson plan.


.