During class on Thursday, we discussed how there was a shooting that occurred at Alpine High School. What I found interesting was that the shooter was a female student. The shooting has been on my mind the past few days, partially because it was a female student, but also because I realized I had not heard anything further about the shooting. I was curious of why I had not heard anything further regarding the shooting because in the past anytime there is a school shooting the media seems to focus their attention on the matter.
Today, I read multiple different articles discussing the shooting and I was surprised by some of the information they provided. I learned how the shooter was a 14 year old female, who had moved to the area about 6 months ago, apparently was an A student, and died of self-inflicted gun shot wounds. The one person the shooter shot was a female student, most likely did not know the shooter, was shot in the bathroom, and did not have life threatening injuries. What surprised me about this information was how young the shooter was and how she probably did not know the girl she shot.
I found it odd that the she, the shooter, probably did not know the girl she shot. I feel like if her motive was to display her hatred for the school and/or students, she would have continued to shoot more students. Since she only shot one person and she shot her in the bathroom (a fairly private location), I wonder if her motive was not to shoot others, but was to end her own life and another student was just in the wrong place at the wrong time?
Also, why is this not being discussed more in the media? Is it due to lack of information, the fact that it was a female shooter, or because no one but the shooter died?
I would appreciate to hear your thoughts on this!
I have also been wondering why there was not more about this in the media. Typically with situations like these its all over the news! When I first heard about the shooting I automatically thought it was an older male. When I learned that it was a female I automatically thought maybe she was jealous about her boyfriend breaking up with her. After reading your thoughts on what may have been the situation it does sound like something that could have happened. Maybe the other student was just at the wrong place at the wrong time?
ReplyDeleteI had similar thoughts to you about the shooter, which was one of the reasons I was surprised to find out the victim was someone the shooter did not know. That is partially why my thoughts went towards maybe the victim being in the wrong place at the wrong time, instead of being a target.
DeleteI also found it very surprising the shooter was female. I'm not sure why it's such a surprising element to the story, besides that the situation was just very abnormal for a shooting incident. Your theory about the female shooter wanting to commit suicide and the other person being in the wrong place definitely seems like a possibility. I hadn't thought of this situation before but when you think about the mental illnesses or struggles this young lady could have been battling at such a young and pivotal age makes that theory seem much more likely. A young woman at the age of 14 might be going through a lot of physical and mental changes and since she just moved from another town that may have put her in an even more sensitive state. The entire situation is very sad and makes me wonder if the school will look deeper into the situation and the mental health of their students.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about her age too, and that as an adolescent she was more prone to being impulsive and acting on her emotions. That's why when I discovered that the shooter most likely did not know the victim, and did not continue to shoot other people besides herself, that my thoughts went towards ending her own life instead of shooting other people.
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ReplyDeleteGosh that is seriously so sad. Once you said she didn't even know the other person that was shot I thought the same thing, that she was probably in the wrong place at the wrong time. Thankfully the other person is okay though. It's hard for me to wrap my head around stories like this where people are so messed up in the head that they want to take peoples lives like its no big deal at all. I guess no one will ever know why.
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