Parents Tell of Church Shooter’s Anguish

Feb 27, 2008
Associated Press

DENVER (AP) — A young man who killed four people at a church and a missionary training center had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and harbored bitterness for being an outcast, his parents said in their first extended comments.

Matthew Murray however gave no indication he was about to explode in violence, they said in an interview to be broadcast Thursday and Friday on James Dobson’s Focus on the Family radio program.

Campus counseling center understaffed
 

University Wire –The Poly Post
February 26, 2008
 
As many universities are pumping additional funds toward student counseling services following several school shootings last week, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education, Cal Poly’s Counseling and Psychological Services has been denied funding for additional psychologists due to budgetary reasons.
The International Association of Counseling Services states that universities should have one professional counselor per 1,500 students. The national average is one counselor per 1,969 students.
Cal Poly has a ratio of one counselor to every 2,850 students.

 Why are we tolerating this madness?

NewsWithViews.com
February 19, 2008

Once again Americans sit transfixed in front of televisions, soaking up the images of violence emanating from Northern Illinois University. Six are dead including the shooter — a 27 year old man; a former student at NIU who, like so many before him, was a “nice young man” who had gone off his meds and started acting erratic.

How does one mass shooting beget others?

The Kansas City Star

Flowers, candles and notes sat in the snow at Northern Illinois University on Friday. Student Julian Magdaleno was among the many who couldn’t hide emotions. Flowers, candles and notes sat in the snow at Northern Illinois University on Friday.

Flowers, candles and notes sat in the snow at Northern Illinois University on Friday.
With each gunman-on-crowd shooting — Columbine, Virginia Tech, Kirkwood, the Omaha mall and now Northern Illinois — the next one becomes more likely.

Illinois Shooter was Treated with Psych Meds Prior to Shooting Rampage

Natural News 
February 17, 2008

It comes as no surprise to anyone who’s been following school shootings all the way back to the Colombine High massacre in Colorado: Every young, male shooter that has gone on a killing spree in the United States also has a history of treatment with psychotropic drugs — typically SSRI antidepressants. These shootings have three things in common:

 Mental Health and School Violence

Friday, February 15, 2008
By Katherine Tweed

A college gunmen was “off his medication” for an undisclosed condition before he opened fire on an Illinois university campus, the police chief of DeKalb, Ill. said Thursday.

It is not known whether Stephen Kazmierczak, 27, who killed five people and himself at Northern Illinois University on Valentine’s Day, was suffering from mental illness or some other condition.

Timeline: a Decade of School Shootings

Chicago Sun-Times
February 15, 2008

A look at some school shootings in the United States in the last decade.

Oct. 10, 2007: Asa Coon, 14, fatally shoots himself and injures two teachers and two students at SuccessTech Academy, in Cleveland, Ohio.

April 16, 2007: CHO SEUNG-HUI (left), a 23-year-old Virginia Tech senior, kills 33, including himself, and injures another 30 at Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, Va. The Virginia Tech shooting was characterized as the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Jan. 3, 2007: Samnang Kok, 17, was fatally shot in the face at Foss High School, Tacoma, Wash.

 A Time Line of Recent Worldwide School Shootings

Infoplease.com

Legal doorway closes for Columbia gunman;
Judges say high school shooter gave up right of appeal in plea deal
 

The Times Union (Albany, New York)
 November 2, 2007 
 
ALBANY – A state appeals court has ruled that Jon Romano cannot appeal his sentence for opening fire inside Columbia High School three years ago, injuring a teacher.
In a lengthy dissent, Appellate Division Justice Anthony V. Cardona argued Romano, who turned 20 on Tuesday, was too young and mentally disturbed to understand his waiver of appeal during his guilty plea before County Judge Patrick McGrath in November 2004.
Romano’s attorney E. Stewart Jones appeared in May before the Appellate Division for the 3rd Judicial Department to argue that his client’s 20-year prison sentence was extreme given the circumstances and should be reduced in the interest of justice. Jones also argued that Romano did not understand when he agreed as part of the deal to waive his right to appeal.
The justices had granted Jones the hearing despite that waiver.
In a decision released Thursday, the court ruled Romano was aware of the circumstances of his appeal and that the waiver will stand, thus barring any appeal of his sentence.
“Given the circumstances under which this particular plea and waiver were entered, it is both disingenuous and legally inconsistent to argue that defendant’s youth, inexperience and psychological condition were such that he was unable to understand that he was waiving his right to appeal without also arguing that these same facts precluded a voluntary plea in the first instance,” the majority wrote in their decision.

Antidepressants and School Shootings, Suicide, Addiction