Even though this terrible event has occurred, the two students did survive the incident. One student is in critical condition but the other student is stable. The school was closed down Wednesday, but the school will reopen Thursday. Many students are afraid to come back to school fearing that the incident will reoccur. The only thing that the school knows is that there will defiantly be three students that will be missing. 13 year old Kendal Saunders who got shot in her right shoulder, an unnamed 12 year old who got shot in the chest, and of course the suspect of this crime. The police have stated that the gun that was used during the attack belongs to one of his parents. He has been taken to an unspecific location in Albuquerque. A judge has ordered the suspect to receive an evaluation and a mental health treatment. Since he is a juvenile officials have not been able to name him; however, this might change if he gets tried as an adult.
After this incident has occurred, the police department issued three search warrants allowing them to go through his locker, school bag, and his home. Out of these warrants they were able to find evidence of him planning the shooting. Authorities also believe that before he fired he gave out a warning to a few students who must have know what was going to happen in the gym because they ran out just before it happened.
Between all this tragedies there was a hero that did come out of this story. A brave teacher, John Masterson, stood up the shooter after the third shot. Masterson did not know that the gun ran out of ammunition so when he stood up to the shooter in his mind he knew he had a chance of getting shot. The teacher stood up to the student and had a gun pointed, doing such a heroic act.
It seems like shootings are starting to become more common in school. Not just middle schools but there have been incidents in universities, high schools, even elementary schools. The other issue is that these are not incidents that happen in one isolated area of the United States. This can happen anywhere and to anybody. I asked two students about their insights regarding to situations like these. Shanel Sabino, a Saint Leo freshman said,“ I feel very safe here at Saint Leo University and I don’t believe that anything like that would happen here but things like these can happen to anybody. It just takes one unstable person to make a tragedy like this happen and that unstable person could be anybody.” Another student that attends Saint Leo had a slightly different opinion about her safety here in, not only at Saint Leo but in this area of Florida in general. “I always watch the news and I never expect things like this to happen near my home. Just a few days ago I saw a headline involving a shooting that happened in The Cobb theatre in Wesley Chapel. That is a place I go quite often and if it happened that close to where I live then who knows, something like that could potentially happen here.” Says Grace Quarles.
