Jack Ricchiuto on what happened at SuccessTech:

Schools need to redefine themselves. Away from places designed to remind children that they are problems to be fixed to places designed to remind children that they are gifts to be engaged.

The mistake is to think that violence has anything to do with security or the lack of security. It is a lack of engagement. When we understand engagement, safety will be remembered as a conversation of generations passed.

jack/zen » Blog Archive » On violence in schools

From Jeff:

What a horrible tragedy yesterday in Cleveland. Please keep the families of the victims, other students, and staff at Success in your thoughts and prayers.

To me, that is what we need to do - mourn with those hurt and look inwardly to find solutions.

The haps: Pray

Dig this over at Bad American:

When you take a fatherless home, a struggling mother, a deteriorating crime-ridden neighborhood and schools ill equipped to handle the social ills thrust upon it, is it any surprise that we don’t have more of these incidents?

What kills me is that underneath all that angst and rage, Asa Coon apparently had quite an intelligence. Reportedly, he had a gift for understanding the structure of mechanical and electrical machines and could take them apart and put them back together. He would not have been at SuccessTech if he had not had the smarts.

But his potential was overwhelmed by a lack of intervention on the part of the people that mattered most. Whether anyone or any agency could have reached this young man at some point before this tragedy is debatable. Thankfully, all four people who were shot will live so no more potential died with Asa.

Would it matter any less if the shooting had been at John Hay? Rhodes? Collinwood? It shouldn’t. Every live holds within it the potential for greatness.

The second issue here is the national media’s obsession with the case which is understandable. This could have happened anywhere, unfortunately it happened here so Cleveland gets yet another black eye.

Unfortunately, I have little faith that the city or the school system will do much other than put band aids on the wound. Yes, they’ll probably have metal detectors full time at SuccessTech and every Cleveland secondary school. That will not stop the violence once those students exit the school and perhaps not inside the school either…

Grab a cup of coffee and click thru for the whole thing. Add a comment while you’re at it.

Keep Your Head II; The Cleveland School Shootings « Bad American

That’s what Bill Callahan’s asking:

Um, “punched him in the face?” For accidental bumping? In CMSD’s geek school, the “calmest school” in the system?

Hmmm. And the school’s Student-Parent Organization has been asking for more security. Something else going on here, don’t you think?

There’s also a link in Bill’s post to MaryBeth’s blog re: the shooting. Sorry I missed it. I’m increasingly disappointed with Google Reader…

Callahan’s Cleveland Diary » Blog Archive » The shooting at Success Tech

On the shooting:

For my part I’ll only add that this is not a security problem. This is not a school problem. This is not an educational problem.

Primary responsibility for Asa Coon’s death and the injuries he caused lies with his family and his community.

And one year from today; nothing substantive will have changed.

IT COULD HAVE BEEN A NEIL YOUNG REPRISE…

So now they start communicating after 4 are injured and the shooter is dead. They didn’t include the incident Friday that happened outside Max Hayes High School after school let out. I guess because “it wasn’t on school grounds”…it happened behind a vacant gas station adjacent to school grounds.

Wednesday’s shooting spree at SuccessTech Academy was the bloody climax to a week’s worth of gun-toting incidents across the Cleveland school district.

Oct. 3: A Margaret Ireland School student was arrested after school security officers found a loaded .25-caliber handgun with a six-shell clip in his book bag. The boy told officers he paid $25 for the weapon and carries it for protection. He was arrested after a gang fight involving nearly three dozen students, according to school security reports.

Cleveland police arrested the mother of a 15-year-old Genesis High School student who came to the school with a loaded .22-caliber gun, according to police reports. The woman told police her son had been jumped by students at school and called his mother on his cell phone. She brought the gun and confronted the attackers outside, who then scattered.

Monday: Security officers found a semiautomatic rifle, a scope and 43 rounds of ammunition in a duffel bag belonging to a 17-year-old special education student at Max S. Hayes Vocational School. The boy said he didn’t know how the gun got there.

Tuesday: A student brought a high-caliber, semiautomatic handgun to Michael R. White K-8 School.

Wednesday: The same day as the SuccessTech shooting, security officers confiscated a .38-caliber handgun from an East Technical High School student.

Last school year: Districtwide, there were 304 incidents involving possession of dangerous weapons such as guns and knives. Assaults on security guards nearly doubled from the previous year. At SuccessTech, there were just nine incidents.

Cleveland schools record several gun incidents - cleveland.com

CMSD schools are closed today:

Really wish my first random day off was due to a snow day, not a shooting.

YaY Cleveland.

Happenstance: Blargh…

Carrie Callahan (from Chicago):

One of the teachers who was shot at SuccessTech in Cleveland today was my eighth grade math teacher, David Kachadourian. The Plain Dealer said he was taken to Metro Hospital in “good condition,” and I hope that’s completely true. Also I hope his family is doing ok, considering, and they’re with him and he’s awake. Let’s all put a lot of happy wishes and prayers in their direction; they’re all good people and hopefully the good karma they’ve accumulated is kicking in and his recovery will be a fast one…

Carrie Callahan

From Bob Rhubart:

On the heels of the shootings in Wisconsin comes the news of similar violence right here in Cleveland, just a couple of blocks from where I’m sitting right now.

Who needs Al Qaeda? We’re doing a damn good job of terrorizing and killing each other without foreign intervention. Can Homeland Security protect us from ourselves?

Bob Rhubart’s Weblog: BBC NEWS | Americas | Students shot at Cleveland school

From Christine:

I hope city leaders learn something from the tragedy — and the bad, bad press generated by it — and adopt the following attitude:

THINGS CHANGE. NOW.

Really Bad Cleveland Accent: School Shooting in Downtown Cleveland

I’m sick to my stomach right now because the shooting today at Success Tech High School didn’t need to happen for two reasons.

First, student safety should have been a priority over uniforms and it was obviously not. Second, last Friday and Monday there were incidents involving guns carried by students at Max Hayes High School. Friday a gun was shot off three times outside right after school let out during an altercation between students. Monday a rifle was discovered in a student gym bag with several rounds of ammo (this was confirmed to me yesterday by Channel 19 News who reviewed the police report).

Four people have been shot at Success Tech High School at 1440 Lakeside Avenue in Cleveland.

The shooter is dead.

The victims were two men ages 57 and 42; and two boys ages 17 and 14. A 14-year-old girl hurt her knee leaving the building but was not shot.

All the children are in good condition and the two adults’ conditions were “slightly elevated,” according to Mayor Frank Jackson. The mayor and schools CEO Eugene Sanders came to the school and have been giving brief updates to the media.

Early reports were that the shooter was 14 and was in custody. Officials would not answer questions about the suspect.

After it was obvious that the School District was not communicating the details of these incidents to parents and staff I called both the Plain Dealer and Channel 19 News. I spoke directly with the Education Editor at the Plain Dealer on Monday. I also spoke with a reporter at Channel 19 news Monday and yesterday to warn them both that something was seriously wrong with how these incidents were being handled.

After Virginia Tech I couldn’t believe the Cleveland Municipal School District did not institute a communications plan or use mobile metal detectors the morning after any confiscation of guns as part of overall measures. It is my understanding that the Cleveland Heights School System at least has a communications plan in place regarding incidents that happen that threaten student and staff safety.

It is also my understanding that there have been several other guns in schools incidents since the beginning of the school year that the CMSD has essentially enacted a hush policy about. The result of this inaction is that staff and parents have not been provided with the critical information needed to allow themselves to makes decisions about the safety of themselves and their children.

Because of this inaction it is obvious that both Mayor Jackson and Eugene Sanders should be held accountable for the death and injuries that occurred today. Both the lack of communications and any plan and the resulting injuries and loss of life are the direct result of a complete lack of competent leadership. When you are a leader and you can not ensure the safety of those you are responsible for you are then responsible for communicating with them when their safety is at risk.

Multiple people shot at Cleveland high school; shooter dead - Cleveland’s Top Story from The Plain Dealer

P.S. I regret that I didn’t post here at BFD about the problems at Max Hayes Friday and Monday to at least offer a warning. I had a feeling in my gut something bad was about to happen.

P.P.S. Methinks we should redirect the .25 cents county sales tax increase toward making our schools and streets safer. That would do more for economic development than a Medical Mart (and I did a post here this past July 25th about an article that highlights how improving basic infrastructure is how successful cities grow).