Need for Dialogue

280 rounds of .22 caliber ammunition and a semi-automatic rifle. That’s what police in Englewood, Colo., say they found in a suspended high-school student’s possession.

They say he may have intended to "shoot up the school and take hostages." The statement and others, about Englewood High school, which the teen attended, were made in recent days. Today, he was arrested trespassing on school grounds. The gun was in the backseat of his car. The school is five miles from Columbine High School in Littleton and 40 miles from last Wednesday’s shooting at Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colo.

Across the country in Nickel Mines, Penn., five Amish families are preparing simple funerals for their slain children.

All of us should be posing the question: what has sparked this violence? A national dialogue is needed to target this problem. We in the media should be part of the conversation to ensure we do not glorify these events only to encourage more like them.

It is not an issue to only be addressed by those affected. This is a national crisis. As demonstrated by recent shootings, no community is immune and a proactive response is needed.

An Exploding Epidemic

When I started this blog it was not my intention to write about school shootings on a near-constant basis. Yet again that is the topic of the day. Pennsylvania State Police report a number of people dead after someone commandeered a one-room Amish school in Nickel Mines. We’ll take a closer look at this story once more details emerge.

Four school shootings have dominated headlines on this continent in the past two-and-a-half weeks. This is the first time ever we’ve had so many school shootings in the United States, three to be exact, in less than one week. It is heartwrenching. Another day, another shooting. A new wave of school violence is upon us.

"Not Again"

A friendly hello just didn't feel right. "Not again, August." That is how a close friend began our phone conversation Wednesday evening. Disbelief is the only way to describe how people have responded to the Platte Canyon High School shooting, in and out of Colorado. Another friend covering the story says, "he was going to kill all of them." That gunman Duane Morrison didn't is something of a miracle.

That is little consolation to the family of Emily Keyes. She's the 16-year-old killed when SWAT teams stormed the classroom where Morrison was holding her. After firing a shot at the advancing team, Morrison turned and leveled his gun at Keyes who was trying to flee.

The impact of Wednesday's shooting will be broad. For SWAT teams, it presents new procedural questions. In 1999, as National Guard troops enveloped Littleton neighborhoods around Columbine, SWAT teams were criticized for entering the school too slowly. The question being asked now is: did they move in too fast? Was their decision predicated in part on criticism from Columbine. That siege added a chapter to SWAT team manuals on hostage situations known as active shooter situations. The concept requires law enforcement to enter a school before a SWAT team is fully readied; if the shooter or shooters is killing hostages. Before the raid into the Platte Canyon classroom, Morrison had not killed any hostages. He had released four of them. Officers and deputies were presented with a new dilemma, however, when it became apparent to them he was sexually assaulting the remaining girls.

Until now, the most high-profile case Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener had dealt with was a triple homocide carried out by two teenage gunman. A forthcoming book, "Simon Says," by Colorado Springs journalist Kathryn Eastburn chronicles that bizarre story. Wegener will now have to justify his decision for SWAT teams to enter the classroom. Wegener knew his decision would weigh heavily -- his own son is a student at Platte Canyon High School.

Wegener did have control of his decision and whether it was justified will be the target of numerous post-operational reviews. What he had no control over, however, is an epidemic of school violence over the past decade.

This week, Colorado saw it's second school shooting. Today, the nation saw it's second school shooting of the week in Wisconsin. If you include the shooting at Dawson College in Montreal, there have been three in two weeks.

In the days following April 20th, 1999, in between my radio live shots, I would walk through the makeshift memorial that took up a corner of Clement Park adjacent to Columbine. In one direction, it stretched a quarter-mile. People from around the nation sent flowers, cards and placards they had signed. They pleaded for peace and an awakening to come from the darkness of that Tuesday morning. That was seven years ago. Why does it seem we are so quick to forget?

Echoes of Columbine

Seven years ago, I was reporting from Clement Park, the Littleton park adjacent to Columbine High School. Anyone who covered Columbine will tell you it left searing memories – not just on those involved – but on legions of seasoned journalists who rushed to cover the story. At the time, I was a 17-year-old cub reporter filing stories for stations across the country. The impact was three-fold…a national-level crisis was unfolding in the state I love most. A sanctuary of learning, where safety should never be compromised was now marred with bodies, bombs and pools of blood; textbooks in the school library – tools for learning, were stained with cerebral fluid. The pain seemed personal. I was reporting on a massacre of people my age, my peers.

On Wednesday, a tidal wave of Columbine memories flooded audiences across the nation as gunman Duane Morrison took students at Platte Canyon High School hostage making Colorado one of only two states to be the scene of two school shootings.

Coincidentally, moments before I learned I would anchor KOMU’s national report for the first time, I got word from a colleague on the unfolding scene in the tiny mountain town of Bailey. I had spent a decent amount of time there too during both the massive Hayman and Hi Meadow wildfires. I immediately tuned in to Denver stations, listening and watching many of the same reporters from Columbine. My stomach was put in a knot. The only reassuring fact was the number of students inside the school was low, and several hostages had been released. This country has become accustomed to students killing classmates. This time it was not a student though. Morrison was 53-years-old, a drifter who a former neighbor says was gruff and customarily aloof.

Why?

The same haunting question asked throughout Columbine is being posed once again: why? Who was Duane Morrison and what were his motivations? Morrison had a criminal history, but only for minor offenses. Those who knew him say they never expected this. What compels a grown man to perpetrate such a crime? Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener thinks he may have an answer. The sheriff says Morrison left a suicide note. Wegener has yet to elaborate on what it says. Like Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, Morrison may have addressed his motivations. Sadly, in the end, he had to address his emotions not only with words, but weapons.

***There are more blog entries to come on this topic. They have been delayed until now due to other stories Skamenca is working.***