Shots fired at Episcopal School of Jacksonville

[MissMinda]

Looks like depression and suicide were things he was thinking about much earlier. This is from his facebook wall.


Shane J Schumerth
I always knew Jacksonville ranks in something. Before I came down here Forbes ranked it as the 5th best place to start out. I still want an apology from them for this. They should have considered quality of life. Depression: Jacksonville coming in at number 2. Suicide coming in at number 9 and divorce coming in at number 7. This is what all that abusive navy ethics dogma comes too...which is because i am married I can treat you like sh*t. Navy ethics is no ethics. Period.
Share · November 5, 2011 at 7:34pm ·

    Michael  likes this.
        Shane J Schumerth Where is the love? The not so abusive kind....
        November 5, 2011 at 7:34pm
        Shane J Schumerth As to the Navy because old whats is name wrote a book in 1906 isn't to forget the wright brothers invented the airplane in 1913. Outdated: bad dogma.
        November 5, 2011 at 7:35pm

[mtraininjax]

Letting go of people before they snap because of personal issues that may or may not affect their work.

Don't bring your personal baggage to work, right? Separate what you do at home from what you are paid to do.  Odds are people around you at work can tell if you have that elephant (from home) with you in the room at work.

With this guy, the students stated that they took his class because his class was NOT about Spanish, but about political topics. So he was undoubtedly fired because he did not teach, but rather used his position as a pulpit.

Firstcoastnews just reported that he had been speaking with neighbors about the United States turning more and more to socialism.

[Jumpinjack]

The situation still has me pretty shaken up too. A part of me is trying to understand how this could happen, and another part hopes that I will never understand what would motivate someone to do something so evil.

Today we've spoken to people who work at Episcopal or knew Dale Regan and they feel the same as you. Tonight I watched as the tv reporters interviewed the kids and they sound so lost and pathetic. It is a terrible thing to have your youthful life at school, so predictable so ordinary, so utterly destroyed so quickly. It would be a good thing if we as adults could help them understand and cope with the change but one thing adults know is there are no easy answers.

[Jaxson]

The problem with these tragedies is that we end up in the same reactive stance that we took when the last such senseless slaying took place.  We all have those moments when we are agonized over how we could have let (insert event here -- e.g. GMAC shootings in Baymeadows, the murder of a student at the University of North Florida, the sucker punching of a Ridgeview High School student).  We only have the power to retrofit our defenses against what has already happened.

I am further troubled by the apparent lack of safeguards to protect against disgruntled ex-employees from retaliating against their former employers.  For example, I have read in the media that students were making comments about the newly-fired teacher coming back to the school.  If it already hit the gossip mill around the school, what is to say this teacher also knew that he was the talk of the day?  This kind of firing would definitely have been better done at the end of the work day.  I do not blame the late headmistress because she was carrying out a policy that was approved by someone higher.  I believe wholeheartedly that timing is everything in this case.  I am assuming that this teacher obviously had to do the walk of shame in front of former colleagues and students.  Whether or not he knew that this termination was coming or not also raises a few more questions from me.

In the end, we are trying to make sense of this murder-suicide.  May we all seek some peace and some answers.

[I-10east]

Start another thread to talk about ways to kill people and leave this one for folks to grieve and express support for the school and its students and teachers.

Yeah, that 'mortality' thread would really take off with alotta replies. It's a controversial hot button topic concerning the weaponry in this awful incident; IMO that talk WASN'T hijacking this thread, because it was within the sub-catergory of the thread. Of course this was a terrible tragedy at Episcopal. Was a lil' gun talk within the confines of the thread stopping anyone from giving their well wishes and prayers? No. Was it way off base to queston/criticise/comment on the weapon (AK-47) involving this incident? No. But of course someone had to obligatorily get on the high horse. Why don't we let the moderators etc decide on what talk is inappropriate or not? Look at the thread title 'Shots fired at Episcopal School of Jax'; Now if it would've read something concerning on looking back at the life of Dale Regan, then I would agree that gun talk would be hijacking the thread.

[ronchamblin]

Such a terrible tragedy, but there are many in the U. S. similar to this each year.  I suspect that more than a few individuals, especially those who have been around a few decades, who have been abused by various and powerful or controlling authorities, who have endured relationship problems, job problems, survival problems etc….  have had thoughts of the ultimate revenge pass through their minds.  The fact is that a very small percentage of highly stressed and desperate individuals do engage that ultimate act of killing either someone, or themselves. 

Thank goodness that most individuals holding those thoughts, do so only fleetingly, allowing other thoughts to enter the mind, thoughts about moving on, about recovery, about options or alternatives, about the probability of sure punishment, or of death, and even thoughts of forgiveness, or at least understanding why the abuser or the authority entity acted against their interests.

It seems that individuals who “snap”, do so sometimes as a consequence or their perception that they are being treated with gross unfairness by some entity having temporary power over them.  An employer.  A legal system.  A judge.  An attorney. A spouse or former spouse.  A city, state, or federal agency or employee.  A police officer.  A bank or other lending institutions.  We see each year, individuals fighting back in the only way they feel that they can, and this as an act of final desperation, as they see no other route, no method to recover, or to survive.

Most of us have at least a small cushion of money, of assets, of friends, of options.  But a small minority endure living on the edge of survival, existing in a world where they are vulnerable to ruin or collapse if they are exposed to more than two or three catastrophes or disasters at a time.     

If one of those disasters occurs as a consequence of a natural event, such as a fire burning down their uninsured house, there is no immediate cause or target for revenge or desperate reaction.  If however the disaster, the third one especially, such as losing a job, or losing a custody fight for children, or losing in a love triangle, offers a target individual who can be perceived to be the cause of the disaster, then that is a scenario that can produce the kind of tragedy recently occurring at Episcopal. 

I do not mean to qualify the actions of the fired teacher.  However, this kind of thing, this use of temporary authority, by employers and others who can yield ultimate and powerful decisions upon others, should be used with care, with great caution, as one never knows how close to the edge some might be, whether an individual has recently endured two other disasters already, and if the third disaster we are about to place upon him or her, will push them over the edge, and perhaps to the act of murder and suicide.     

Anger and desperation can overcome and consume.  Most of us have attributes within us giving the ability and inclination to recover from gross abuse of power against us by any entities.  We can get up and walk again.  Some, by whatever circumstances, cannot, and they can become desperate, much like an animal trapped in a corner.   

[Jumpinjack]

Those are good comments, Ron. From my view, this person was having reality problems for some time before the event. People and his students noticed it but not everyone is trained to see potential trouble.

I too wondered about the timing of his dismissal - in the middle of the school year, early in the day. Something caused this hasty action by the administration. It's more common to wait until the end of the school year and not renew the contract.  And to escort him from the campus, another signal of threats of violence.