Another Shooting Rampage at a School

Red Lake High School, Minnesota on a Native American Indian Reservation; A 17 year old high school student kills his grand parents, his grandfather was a police officer, steals his weapons and his police car, goes to the high school, shoots the security officer on duty by the metal detectors makes his way into the classroom kills fellow students and a teacher then finally himself.

Ten people are dead as tribal police investigate the worst high-school shooting since Columbine. Fourteen others were wounded. One thing is for sure, this school thought it was prepared for this kind of violence. It underestimated the threat.

The boy was a loner, he threatened violence before, his family was troubled, and kids teased him. He had all the classic warning signs and yet he was underestimated.

"Lockdown, lockdown" was shouted as many students and teachers hid in classrooms and doors to offices were barricaded. This action probably saved the most lives.

The school safety director, Pat Mills, reported, "It was chaos at the time. I think the main thing that contributed to fewer casualties was that the teachers had a plan, and for whatever reason they fell back on their plan, they got the students out of the school as quickly as possible."

As the memorials and vigils are held, we hope to learn the 'whys.' We all need to learn how we can prevent this from happening again. Can we prevent it? We rarely hear the stories of the prevented attacks; just the ones that were not prevent it.