Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: 2 school shootings in 8 days in Huntsville, AL

This is topic 2 school shootings in 8 days in Huntsville, AL in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 02-13-2010, 01:52 PM:

Yesterday (Friday, Feb. 12, 2010) around 4 PM, a professor in the biology department where I work, at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, AL, was denied tenure and opened fire in a faculty meeting, shooting 6 people. Killed were 3 biology professors, including the head of the department, and wounded were 2 other professors from the department and one office staff member. As I left campus, I saw a ton of flashing lights from emergency vehicles in front of that building. Whether the professor who was denied tenure found out in the meeting, or earlier in the day before the meeting, depends on which of the numerous news stories is correct. Some stories are saying she ditched the 9mm gun in a restroom on the second floor of the building, then called her husband for a ride.

The building where I work is about 0.6 miles from the Shelby Center where this happened. The Shelby Center is one of the newest buildings on campus.

Last Friday, February 5, 2010, at Discovery Middle School (5.6 miles from my office), one 9th grader shot another 9th grader in the back of the head during class-changing time. The shot student died that night in the hospital.

Both of these stories went national.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 02-13-2010, 03:04 PM:

Pretty senseless tragedies.

I think a lot of Americans have become deficient with regard to social skills and abilities of empathy for other people. Our society is far more detached and impersonal than it used to be. We think texting and social networking are bringing us closer together, but there is no substitute for interacting with people face to face. We need to be spending more time talking with our friends, colleagues and neighbors face to face rather than typing out a message.

This problem is compounded by much of the past two generations of Americans being raised by one parent or even being passed off to other relatives. Kids who are raised to adulthood by both of their biological parents are now in the minority. I feel really sorry for children these days because so many are growing up thinking they're alone and can't count on anyone but themselves.

In the end, our society has a great number of people who can't cope when life throws them a serious curve ball and they lack the support system of family and friends to cushion the blow. The vast majority of people are forced to take it all in stride. Others act out and do rash things.

These two shootings in Huntsville could stem from those social issues. Or they could very well be sad, random acts of violence. Let's face it. Some people are just violent sociopaths and it won't matter how much love they got growing up. They're still going to do some horrible things. However, on the average, I think there's a lot of this crap we could prevent if we as a nation gave more of a damn about each other.

Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 02-13-2010, 06:23 PM:

The media is now reporting (Saturday, 2/13) this suspect also shot her brother in 1986 with a shotgun. I cant speak to her mental capacity, but I'd say we are going to find out she had a long history of violence and/or substance abuse.

As to her possible denial of tenure, I can only suggest she might feel she wasn't respected by staff or students alike and probably feared she may not have been able to fill her class rosters because of this animosity. Since I too teach at the college level, I am always thinking about the next semester and if I can get enough students so as to actually work. Nothing sucks more than that phone call two days before the start of the semester that that class you have been prepping day and night for only got seven students to sign up and, therefore, was automatically purged by the computer. Having tenure means they will still find something for you to do . . . no tenure means stay home.

Of course, we can only speculate the motive until a hearing is scheduled.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 02-13-2010, 08:53 PM:

To be fair, the news said the 1986 shooting by that woman was "accidental." Whether that's true I don't know. She probably has some kind of mental problem.

As for the high-school shoooters: I was thinking that the news should stop referring to these criminals as "the gunman" or "the shooter" and instead call them "the idiot" or "the obvious nut-case," or similar terms.

"This total idiot came into the cafeteria and started firing like a lunatic." That kind of thing on the news and in the papers might take some of the "glamour" away from some of these loonies.

Posted by Anslem Rayburn (Member # 1267) on 02-13-2010, 09:24 PM:

quote: Bobby Henderson
This problem is compounded by much of the past two generations of Americans being raised by one parent or even being passed off to other relatives. Kids who are raised to adulthood by both of their biological parents are now in the minority. I feel really sorry for children these days because so many are growing up thinking they're alone and can't count on anyone but themselves.

I would be curious to see if there is any correlation between violence such as spree killings and whether the criminal was raised in a single, double, or other type home environment.

I seem to recall many of the school shootings being perpetrated by middle class teenagers coming from two parent homes.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 02-13-2010, 10:03 PM:

I was speaking in broader terms of how our society is more rude and cruel than it used to be. We have a greater percentage of our population warehoused in prison than ever before in our nation's history. I think the break down of the two parent family has something to do with that problem.

To me it seems like more people see violence as a tool to solve problems and more likely to give into the impulse to commit an act of violence even if there's no way they're going to get away doing it. The perpetrators of both shootings in Huntsville are SELFISH IDIOTS.

On the subject of kids who are raised in two parent homes, the parents still have a much more difficult job raising their kids properly because there's so many more kids at school and elsewhere undermining that work. It's cool and glamorous to be bad. Children with just one parent at home whose absent much of the time, either because of work or the need to party all the time, learn how to make those bad yet cool choices first and then teach to the wusses who have both mommy and daddy at home.

Posted by Geena Phillips (Member # 3726) on 02-13-2010, 10:19 PM:

quote: Bobby Henderson
I was speaking in broader terms of how our society is more rude and cruel than it used to be.

That is a giant load. If anything, modern society is almost too polite for its own good.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 02-14-2010, 01:22 AM:

The polite ones (the vast majority of us) are the ones who are working hard not to do any stints in prison. Still, we get off orgasmically on violence and cruelty in our entertainment. There's no argument with that. And there is a real cost with it.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 02-14-2010, 02:10 AM:

There's nothing wrong with enjoying violent entertainment.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 02-14-2010, 03:31 AM:

BTW, the woman who did the shooting for not getting tenure also previously shot and killed her brother.

http://wbztv.com/local/amy.bishop.braintree.2.1492964.html

It was recorded as being accidental although in that article, an officer they spoke to described info that's not present in any of the official reports. But the article also notes that at the time of the incident, her mother was in a high place of authority in that town.

Posted by Elise Brandt (Member # 5552) on 02-14-2010, 04:51 AM:

About that one parent-two parents thing. I simply refuse to believe there is actual correlation there, one-parent raised or two-parent raised children. Usually even a single parent home starts out as two parents, don't they? I will say that one good parent is way better than two bad ones. It's the quality, not the quantity!

I would not go as far as to demonise parents who simply try to make the choices that they are able to make to the good of their bigger or smaller families. Let's not forget, if one parent works all the time, it's quite possible that two will as well. We can't all be stay-at-home parents (isn't it usually the mom anyway)... And even if we could, would it make us better at parenting? There simply are bad parents all around, no matter what their family size or make.

To add fuel to the fire; what about two-parent families where both parents are of the same gender? [Big Grin]

Posted by Michael Voiland (Member # 5386) on 02-14-2010, 05:09 AM:

reason number 10 billion why people are dumb.

kids need to be spanked more (i was spanked)
and values need to be upheld more.

Posted by Mark Ogden (Member # 43) on 02-14-2010, 06:42 AM:

These things have little to do with empathy. Leaving aside the truly psychologically disturbed, the subtext on nearly all of these shootings is the typical person’s wildly inflated sense of entitlement and self-importance, coupled with the ability to do something devastating about it. “You’re denying me tenure? I don’t think I deserve it, so you die.” “You’re firing me, even for cause? I don’t think I deserve it, so you die”. “You’re leaving me for someone else? I don’t want you to, so you die”. “You say you’re gay, or you perform abortions, or something else that offends my sense of morality? Sorry, you die.” “You don’t see things my way, or allow me to force my will on you, or otherwise refuse to bow to me? Well, here’s my gun, eat lead.”

People fantasize about power more than anything else, more than sex, more than riches, more than talent or fame. Everybody has their daydreams about bending people to their will, telling off the boss, walking off the job and having the company collapse behind you, leaving their spouse and having them beg you to come back (and before I am called a scold let me say that I am not holding myself above any of this, except actual murder. At least I think.). Some people are disturbed enough, and well armed enough, to act on the fantasy. This is the kind of people we have become, and this is why I grate my teeth when I hear teachers of barely literate schoolchildren spending more time reinforcing self-esteem than teaching actual skills. Lack of self-esteem is possibly the least problem we face today.

Posted by Hillary Charles (Member # 769) on 02-14-2010, 08:12 AM:

quote: Mark Ogden
These things have little to do with empathy. Leaving aside the truly psychologically disturbed, the subtext on nearly all of these shootings is the typical person’s wildly inflated sense of entitlement and self-importance

Mark, you seem to be contradicting yourself. Empathy, by its very nature, subjugates one's own ego, and certainly mitigates an inflated sense of self-importance. If people thought more about others, they'd commit fewer such devestating acts. I do agree that our society in general feels overly entitled.

Because of the entitlement issue, I tend to agree with Bobby that parental guidence is often sorely lacking these days. Parents need to teach their children that not everybody deserves to be American Idol, and that a participation trophy is meaningless. Additionally, parents can tell us that the violence we see is not to be emulated or admired. Without parental advice, how does a child process what he/she sees?

Some single parents can and have raised reasonable empathatic people, but I do see people treating empathy as a weakness rather than a virtue, and often this mindset comes from neighborhoods in which two-parent households are the exception.

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 02-14-2010, 10:41 PM:

There is now news that the UAH professor who did the shooting Friday, in addition to killing her brother in 1986, was also a suspect in a mail bombing attempt in 1993.

Posted by Chad Souder (Member # 343) on 02-15-2010, 06:00 PM:

I'm guessing this school will be actually performing background checks from now on.

Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 02-15-2010, 08:55 PM:

Ah yes, just like Ted Kazinski who was a math professor at Columbia was it? And 1993, wasn't that about the time the FBI cracked that case with the help of Kazinski's brother? This lady sounds like a wayward copycat to me.

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 02-15-2010, 08:57 PM:

The problems wouldn't show on a background check if she'd never been charged or convicted of anything. Her record would have been as clean as mine.

Posted by Chad Souder (Member # 343) on 02-17-2010, 05:26 PM:

Somehow the press was able to dig up the IHOP assault and the "accidental" shooting of her brother in a matter of days if not hours. If they can find it, so can the school who should have had a release of information waiver signed upon application.