Bends first school shooting

[541joseph]

Bend is pretty upset tonight as someone chose to taje their own life because he was bullied so harshly. It saddens the entire town and its very upsetting. And it's more upsetting knowing that it hasn't even gone to Portland news and it just shows you that the media only cares about mass shootings. I'm just asking for prayers for the family and friends. My spouses cousin knew this young man quite well and it's taken a toll on him and our town

 

[cleveland48]

That's terrible news that a kid has to resort to that, all because some kids wanna bully someone around to make them look cool. I wish schools would enforce harsh punishments on these wanna be tough boys. And you are correct about the media only covering mass shootings. Prayers for this kids family.

 

[541joseph]

Thank you.

 

[BrianSD_42]

I'm sorry to hear about this suicide. It sucks that it ended up this way.

Suicide cases are complicated and it is difficult to pin down why people take their own life.

I remain against any new "anti-bullying laws" because I don't want the state to start putting kids in jail for just being kids. We have this ongoing debate in CA where the state keeps proposing new anti-bullying laws and the citizrenry pushes back.

When the movie bully came out it shocked many people, especially the harshness of the other kids and the fact that one of the children documented killed themselves. What the movie left out was that the child (in the movie) who killed himself had severe mental issues which most likely contributed to his decision. The movie cast all the blame on the other school kids and skipped the facts with regards to his medical mental state.

 

[Jumpkix]

I have family in Bend, and my prayers go out to all those affected by this awful event.

And yes, as much as I wish we could do more to prevent bullying among grade school kids, the answer lies within parents being active in the lives of their children. Government is almost never the answer to problems, but only tend to make things far worse.

 

[BrianSD_42]

Here is a link to an article about the tragedy ..

I looked it up based on OPs description.

Bend High student shot himself in modular classroom; Grief counseling available at Bear Creek Elementary tomorrow

Bend high school student shoots self in front of classmates | OregonLive.com

Grief counseling available at Bear Creek Elementary tomorrow
Published Feb 7, 2014 at 12:41PM

Bend Police and Bend-La Pine Schools officials held a press conference at about 4 p.m. today giving further details of the incident at Bend High this afternoon.

Superintendent Ron Wilkinson told the media a young man brought a gun to school and shot himself in a modular classroom on the high school campus. No one else was injured in the shooting.

Police and school officials declined to identify the student or other information about the incident.

Bend High will be closed through the weekend, and all events are canceled today.

Grief counseling will be available from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Bear Creek Elementary, which is located at 51 S.E. Bridgeford Blvd., in Bend.

Below, read the media release that Bend-La Pine Schools communications director Julianne Repman sent out at 2:40 p.m. this afternoon:

Bend Police and Emergency Responders were called to Bend Senior High School shortly after a noon 9-1-1 call that a student had allegedly committed suicide on campus. The school is in lockdown at this hour as police investigate the situation. There is no further threat to students or staff and the building is secure. A crisis team has arrived on campus and is meeting with those affected.

Staff will begin escorting students out of the building, by wing, to their vehicles, buses, and off campus - for pedestrians and bike riders - at approximately 2:35pm. Student pedestrians and drivers will exit campus via the 6th Street and Clay campus exit. Parents can pick up their students at the Presbyterian Church on 9th Street. Campus will remain closed to visitors through the weekend.

Students, staff or community members who would like to meet with counselors, at no cost, can drop in to Bear Creek Elementary School between 9am – 2pm tomorrow.

All evening activities are canceled at Bend Senior High.

Our hearts go out to the students, staff and our community at Bend Senior High School.

Normally, the District and law enforcement would not share public information regarding a suicide, but due to the circumstances, the District felt it important to share this sad information with families and the community.

For more on this tragedy, pick up a copy of The Bulletin on Saturday.

 

[BrianSD_42]

Our 14 year old goes to Bend Senior High. She said the bullying is pretty bad there. We are waiting to see if this kid was someone she heard of that was being bullied for being gay...freaking sad, awful and horrific. My heart goes out to his parents and to these students. WAKE UP TEACHERS. WAKE UP PARENTS. Bullying should NOT be tolerated! EVER!

A lot of people make comments like this and I know the situation sucks and I understand that parents are scared BUT I don't think stronger laws or new even stronger "no tolerance" polices are the answer either.

A lot of schools have started to enact no tolerance polices in the last 15 years and those policies have had a lot of unintended detrimental effects, particularly on your male students who are more prone than girls to act out, get in fights, and do general mischief. Schools are now starting to prosecute and jail such kids.

Google "school to prison pipeline" as that is a direct result of no tolerance policies and general criminalizing of "kids being kids" ...

It even happened to a co-worker of mine. His son was bullied outside of school and defended himself against the bully. They were off school grounds but in CA the school can legally consider your actions "on school premise" until you reach your home doorstep. Because the school has a no tolerance policy against fighting or bullying they expelled both of the two children even though there were witnesses that my co-workers son did not throw the first punch.

Sorry to get too far off but I just want to point out that more laws, and stricter school policies are not the answer.