CHARDON, Ohio — A gunman opened fire inside a high school’s cafeteria at the start of the school day Monday, wounding four students, officials said. A suspect was in custody.
FBI agent Scott Wilson said there was one suspected shooter. He wouldn’t discuss the extent of the students’ injuries.
The shooting was reported around 7:30 a.m. at the 1,100-student Chardon High School about 30 miles east of Cleveland, said Civil Deputy Erin Knife of the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office.
Television news footage showed anxious parents escorting children away from a school building, and ambulances could be seen outside.
A spokeswoman for Cleveland’s MetroHealth System said a medical helicopter was dispatched to the high school. Angela Kiska, of the Cleveland Clinic, told WJW-TV in Cleveland that two of the victims were transported to Hillcrest Hospital.
Chardon Local Schools Community Coordinator Ellen Ondrey told WJW that police remained at the scene and that the school was still on lockdown late Monday morning.
All classes in the district were cancelled.
Students at the high school and middle school had already started their day when the shooting happened, but bus runs for elementary school kids were stopped, Ondrey said.
Parents of high school students were told to go to Maple Elementary School to pick up their children.
Chardon is a city of about 5,100 residents.
Since the Columbine shootings, I’ve said that every school needs to have some sort of security. Either 3 or 4 teachers (obviously they’d remain anonymous) that are well trained in the use of firearms or maybe an off duty police officer being paid by the school.
I also think that every principal/headmaster and assistant principal be required to have and carry a concealed weapon at all times at school.
Ultimately, we trust the teachers and staff with the safety of our children at school, they should have the tools to protect and defend them.
Exactly. We entrust the school to protect our kids to the same extent that we would protect them.
So, first we fingerprint teachers because we don’t trust them, then pay them among the lowest of salaries and require them to work well after dark reviewing and correcting papers, and now you want to make them become marksmen and ask them to do the work that police train and train and train to do? Have another toke.
it’s no secret that teachers are underpaid. One teacher I talked to recently said she work about 3 weeks unpaid each school year. I told her that was unacceptable. And it is. I’m not saying they should do the police work. The whole point of having a firearm in the hands of a teacher or administator is to buy time for the police to get there. Police can’t be everywhere all the time. They have a hard job without having to predict the future of crime.
As for fingerprinting, everyone who is on a school district payroll is fingerprinted at thier own expense. I’ve been fingerprinted for school, and I’ve got my CWP, so that eliminates felon, child molestor, or murderer.
Have you ever noticed the people who are against guns are the first people to call the police if they are being attacked, and the ones against praying in school are the first ones on thier knees praying when a kid brings a gun to school?
Obviously the police cannot gauruntee the safety of our children.
The police are there to mop up after the crimes have been committed.
And “gun free” zones don’t work.
What would you rather have between the following scenarios:
gunman walks into school, starts shooting. Armed teacher(s) or principal comes out and shoots back at the attacker, drawing fire away from the students and maybe even stopping the attack.
OR
Gunman walks into “gun free” school, starts shooting.
the lucky ones run or hide and pray.
the unlucky are wounded or killed, the rampage continues until the police get there 5 to 10 minutes later…
by that time, everyone inside could be dead, because none of them had a way to defend themselves or their students.
see how that works?
Give teachers the tools to protect our children as they have been trusted to do so.
Wow you have a lot of faith in police training. Unfortunately real life is not like csi, most cops shot a box of ammo a year and can group 12 inches at 7 yards. Most civilian permit holders fire 3 times as much ammunition as a cop every year.
Here’s some interesting data: Civilians shoot and kill over twice as many crooks every year than police do. What’s more, the police “error rate” is around 11%. For civilians, it is around 2%. What to make of this? Merely packing a gun does not turn someone into a crazed, bloodthirsty killer. People who carry are not only good citizens, they are among the BEST of citizens. I can hardly believe the Progressives when they say they want the guns kept out of the schools. Do THEY realize what they are saying…?
Sort of like how we treat our people in the armed forces, do you mean? Like that?
Conceptually, I agree with you. However, consider: some of these potentially armed individuals are the very persons who have been sending children home from school for *gasp* pointing chicken fingers at classmates. Lot of good THEY are going to do us…
most of the time they are forced to follow rules they dont agree with, because of “zero tollerance.”
It’s unfortunate that we’ve come to a time such as this, but most of the teachers’ hands are tied, so to speak.
they must follow the rules set out by the school, the as jlegere1 stated, the zero tolerance policies.
$40,000.00 a year does not buy a school department a Terminator/teacher. These people don’t want to be armed-they want to rush our kids outside as fast as possible. Let the police do their jobs. The cops would end up shooting a teacher.
I like to think that the teachers would want to protect thier students reguardless of a pay increase.
Yeah, ” Let the police do their jobs.”
like at virginia tech?
oh wait, the cops didn’t stop that guy, he killed himself after killing 32 others…
When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.
It could buy 2 army rangers.
Have you noticed how the nut cases always pick a Gun Free zone to play in? These people are crazy, but they are not stupid. A Gun Free Zone gives them maximum time to stroll around and shoot people like fish in a barrel. God forbid the school districts should have a few armed teachers with concealed weapons in each school! Imagine the TRAUMA if a child actually glimpsed a firearm! Of course, more kids might live in the long run, but this is unworkable because, every body knows, GUNS ARE BAD. Well, this is yet another case of Political Correctness Kills.
My family and I went to a store the other day that had a no guns allowed sign out front. The first thing I did was told the employee at the door that the sign out front make their store a “target rich environment.” He said he agreed. Of course I was armed, but because it was concealed, they’ll never know.
Before I got my CWP, if I came across a “no guns allowed” sign, I turned right around and left.
I will not patronize a business that prohibits armed citizens exercising the concealed carry option. And you’re correct: A person could carry concealed every day for 50 years, and nobody would ever know. Concealed carry is just that: Concealed.
I’ve only been “made” once, and that was by a manager at the Wal-Mart on Stillwater. He asked if I had a Carry Permit, I said yes, and he said, “cool, have a great day” and walked off.
sarcasm , I hope
Better believe it.
Were the shopping center in Phoenix or the army base gun-free zones? The truth is, most multiple shootings take place in homes in this country, not public places. You’re trying to paint a wide stripe with no paint on the brush.
When these dangerous gun toteing kids figure out that the staff is armed inside…what keeps them from shooting others outside on the playground, buses, and sporting events? We had better buy a whole lot of guns.
I dont know about the schools where you’re at, but at the school where my kids go to, they are NEVER outside by themselves.
So EVERY teacher would need a gun. When I taught we all shared the various duties; cafateria, bus duty, playground etc. If you arm teachers these kids will know that and strike away from the school. Think back to all the teachers you had over the years, do you really see them packing 38s? When the time came they wouldn’t shoot anyone. It would only make it worse.
I think you are overexercising your hyperbole button. Nobody suggested arming any little old lady English teachers, if they don’t want to be armed. All we have to do is LET the ones, who wish to do so, do so.
Do you think a majority of parents and school boards would be comfortable with armed school staff?
Let’s review: The situation today is this – schools are UNarmed. By law. Everybody knows it. If you are a messed up kid, looking for glory/revenge/I’ll-show-the-world, school is the ideal place to go to shoot people. Nobody else will be armed, get it? Very attractive target, plus the kid knows the terrain, so to speak. Win/win for the shooter.
My proposal is to allow (not coerce) teachers, who already have qualified for a concealed weapons permit, to carry their weapons on school property. This introduces an element of danger into the equation… for the potential SHOOTER. Properly done, concealed carry is just that: concealed. Nobody knows who has the gun, or guns. This makes schools less attractive to this type of miscreant.
You are never, ever going to be able to guarantee a danger-free school environment; anyone who purports to be able to do that is a liar. I fully expect people to throw up arguments such as: “What if the armed teacher is out sick that day?”, or “What if the armed teacher is too chicken to face down the assailant?”, or – well, who knows what else they’ll come up with.
You cannot face life based on “what ifs”. At least, under my proposal, there is a CHANCE to shutdown an assault very early in the game. Is that not a worthy objective? A chance to save lives, a chance to affect the outcome of another shooting tragedy, a chance to save our kids from a stupid, senseless death.
Best of all – all we have to do is stand out of the way of those individuals who already carry, and who want to be able to help. I’m not talking about giving them extra money, or training; they have already qualified. They are already in place. They know the school layouts, they know the kids. They are very possibly already watching the “shaky” ones.
What is so odious about giving the kids a chance?
I like it. I think alot of teachers would carry in school if they were allowed.
Buying a whole lot of guns probably wouldn’t be a bad idea !
I’m obviously not with the majority when it comes to arming school staff. I’m all over hiring security people that are properly trained to handle these situations. I keep a loaded pump next to my bed at home and camp-I’m not anti-gun.What keeps the biggest/most violent kid in school from taking a gun away from a teacher?
Good choice.
Hey, arm the kids! No pistols left behind. “After math and English class, I’m going down to the firing range.”
Some larger high schools have shooting teams. I think it’s a great thing.
there used to be a rifle club at my high school back in early 2000’s.
It wouldn’t be uncommon to see kids with .22 caliber match rifles walking down the hallways last class on Thursdays.
There were never any shootings or “accidents” there.
No one thought anything of it, and nothing bad ever happened.
In fact, I believe that our school went to the national target shooting competition during those times.
I went to Howland. I wish they had a rifle team when I went there.
I was on a rifle team in high school, Lo! these many years ago. We had a 12-lane range in the basement of the shop building. ROTC, don’t ya know. We drilled all the time with M1 Garands, and had access to M1 carbines and some old M1918 Browning Automatic Rifles. Nobody even thought to worry about all us little killers-in-training.
Some guys have all the luck. I wish I could have gone to a school like that. Just a guess though, but with the mention of M1 Garands, I’d have to assume that was a bit before my time.
Well, I have to confess I got out of high school in 1965. ROTC was a lot of fun; we got to do stuff like field stripping and reassembling the weapons blindfolded. I finally got my own M1 Garand a few years ago, courtesy of the CMP. My “new” rifle left Springfield Armory in February of 1943. I took it up to the range, raised the rear sight up 12 clicks, put the rifle on a rest, and put three shots on the paper at 100 yards. You could almost hide the three holes with a dime. Impressive rifle!
Better yet , include one with every laptop we purchase for them. Guns and ammo would be a good extra credit class also and the kids would already be trained for war ! I’d join the shooting club at school if it were offered.
I know I’m buying everything I can afford as well as ammo.
After another 100 years of politicians telling us what they think is wrong with our schools. Why are kids not learning? Why is there so much bullying? Why is there so much pettiness, fighting and even killing? Someone with power and authority to do something positive is going to stand up and courageously say. “Hey, what’s wrong with our society? Where are these kids parents (Yep I know, we don’t know anything about THIS shooter yet) and what the heck are they teaching their kids at home? That will be the day when our schools and our society takes it’s first real step towards making schools places of learning again instead of the War Zones they are today. Until then, things look like they’re going to get worse before they ever get better.
Couldn’t have agreed with you more.
Not to argue, but people have been saying uncomplimentary things about “youth” since at least the time of Hesiod (8th Century B.C.) You can look it up, if you like.
So true, but were the “Youth’s” killing each other in their places of learning during the time of Hesiod? I don’t think so. Something has changed and not for the better.
Well, it would be a mistake to ask me because I agree that “Something has changed and not for the better.” I say it started back in the late 1960s. I am confident that this statement will be sacrilegious to many “Progressive”-minded people, but there you have it.
I’d say you’re in the ballpark time wise and I’m probably as “Progressive” as they come on most issues. That’s about the time when everyone decided that “Dual Incomes” were a necessity. No one at home, no one really checking on the welfare or educational status of children other than their teachers. Leading ultimately to schools being asked to do something that they are completely unqualified, unprepared, and unsupported to do, i.e. serve as the only real parents today’s kids see for six hours a day 180 days a year. A scenario that anyone who thinks beyond the moment would easily predict to end in what we see today, large scale educational and societal failure.
How many mass shootings have occurred in the thousands of schools across this nation since Columbine? What took place today is a sad aberration, not a normal or even regular occurrence. Plus, it was an unarmed teacher that chased the shooter from the school.
I’m surprised only that you aren’t advocating arming all the students and allowing them to carry on campus, as many did following the Virginia Tech shootings. I mean, what kid is going to open fire in a cafeteria if there is a likelihood that all the kids have guns?
There’s a place for guns in our society and I have my own, but they don’t belong in schools until events like today become an everyday occurrence, and I don’t see that happening.
“I’m surprised only that you aren’t advocating arming all the students and allowing them to carry on campus, as many did following the Virginia Tech shootings.”
there’s a difference between college students and high school students.Many college students are over 21 and so can have handguns and can obtain a Concealed weapons permit. You are denying them their right to self defense by prohibiting them from carrying their weapons (concealed).
I trust my childrens safety to the school, the teachers, and ultimately the principal who is responsible for the entire school.
I think that those same people, especially the principal and vice principal, should be armed and able to protect my child in the face of any threat.
“There’s a place for guns in our society and I have my own, but they don’t belong in schools until events like today become an everyday occurrence, and I don’t see that happening.”
So it’s okay to have a school shooting where kids are murdered, just as long as it doesn’t happen all the time? Like BulletproofMonk posted, there is a HUGE difference between kids in k-12 and college kids being armed.
School shootings have occurred in the US since the 1700s. This is not a new phenomenon. Here is a link to a Wiki article on them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shooting. If you don’t like or trust Wikipedia, there are other sources. The point is that they happen, and perhaps more frequently as time goes on. What is the cheapest , most effective method of taking away the ‘payday’ for the little creeps who stress out and start shooting? Having an unknown, unidentifiable, number of armed persons in the schools. Since teachers get shot too, they have a vested interest in putting a stop to that. The beauty of allowing those credentialed people who CHOOSE to carry to do so is that you get an all-volunteer force which knows the school grounds intimately and which also knows the kids. No renta-cop can ever be that “on top” of the situation. You can set any training standards you like – at least some of these good people will go the course to do the right thing. Or do you feel morally superior saying, “There’s a place for guns in our society and I have my own, but they
don’t belong in schools until events like today become an everyday
occurrence, and I don’t see that happening.”?You know what? We’ve been doing it your way, and I don’t like the body count.
Not trying to be petty but four students were wounded, correct? The caption under the top photo claims 5 were shot. Hoping it was the lower of the two and that everyone makes it through okay.
one died.
I just saw this on an article on a different site – why doesn’t BDN make any mention to the deceased?? May they R.I.P.
My whole point was that they could update the caption to say “five” but not the article. I think a life is newsworthy. (jimlay brought it to my attention that BDN updates their articles-I was dumbfounded.) :)
I take your point, but I think your question would more properly be addressed to the BDN staff. I have no clue why they do some of the things they do.
I’m just surprised that at this point they still have made no mention of the person who died.
Four wounded. One dead.
I just saw this on an article on a different site – why doesn’t BDN make any mention to the deceased?? May they R.I.P.
When we started posting, this was a developing story. Details emerge over time. No newspaper is going to wait and suffer being scooped, if it can help it.
My whole point was that they could update the caption to say “five” but not the article. I think a life is newsworthy.
Teachers packing heat? This would be a serious responsibility and not
one to be taken lightly. Schools are cutting budgets, not growing
them. Does anyone know where the money for training/equipment (in
addition to stipends) would come from? Another point: It wouldn’t take
the kids long to figure out which teachers had guns, unless arming the
teachers were kept from the public. Even then, it would only take the
students a little bit longer to find out. So much for the secret
element. I agree, this idea would serve as a deterrent to the most
serious would-be gunman (or gun-child), and each school would probably
need 1 to 3 people at most to check out a weapon daily. Is YOUR
community ready to put up the extra $? If we’re so concerned about
child safety, let’s put seat belts on their buses and limit their top
speed to 10 mph.
I’m sure there are plenty of teachers that are already responsible gun owners and concealed carry permit holders.
I’d personally feel safer about my child being at a high school if i knew that at least a few of the teachers and the headmaster or principal were armed.
Personally, if my school district were serious about taking on this kind of program, I would be more than happy to help fund the training. Personally, I’d be more than happy to buy 4 or 5 Glock 21s and donate them to the school. I know my kids safety is worth more than that.
Many teachers have concealed carry permits. All the state or school boards would have to do is stifle the criminal penalties for THEM carrying in the school. Many people have carried concealed for many, many years without anyone being the wiser; that, after all, is the whole point of it. I’m quite sure that a number of teachers would carry, if they were allowed to – at no charge to you. Hey, totally voluntary, just like the CCW people in the general population. I’ll bet you know 20 people who carry, and you never thought about them in that way. Does that creep you out, or make you feel better?
You raise some wonderful talking points; you will like this short instructional video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7pGt_O1uM8
I laughed so hard at this one. Loved it.
Yes, let’s arm the entire planet…that way we will be safer!
Here is a very pertinent read: http://www.ammoland.com/2012/02/28/school-shootings-you-cant-sterilize-the-world/