Shots fired at Episcopal School of Jacksonville

[Kaiser Soze]

While I will try to stay out of the NRA debate, can anyone, honestly, make a strong argument for WHY anybody should own an AK-47? I think we can all agree that the purpose for an AK-47 is to kill humans...so why should they be available to the public? Granted, this guy would have killed her with a pistol if he didn't have an AK, but the point remains the same. Why do people need high powered assault rifles?

So when our government decides that it means more than the people, the people have weapons with which to fight back.

Also love when people throw around buzz words like "high powered assault rifles."

[Jumpinjack]

Too much of this thread has to do with guns, using guns, types of guns, types of bullets, and on. 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.

[billy]

Interesting how a thread about an on-campus murder-suicide turns into a daisy chain of weaponry wonks.

(That's not an editiorial comment nor meant to imply any limitation on the constitutional rights
of anyone who possesses anything that could do me bodily harm.)

[Dog Walker]

Too much of this thread has to do with guns, using guns, types of guns, types of bullets, and on. 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.

+1

[ben says]

Agree with the above two comments.

[mtraininjax]

Getting back to the thread, I find it interesting how the teacher was hired by the Duval County Public School system and then flagged as DO NOT REHIRE after he left the DCPS high and dry owing them $1000 worth of the bonus they paid him early (when will DCPS ever learn, oh wait I know the answer already).

Why was it that EHS hired someone with that info in their record? If the TV news people could get their hands on it, same day, surely EHS could have done the same. His reports were very unflattering, per news reports, so he was average at best. Seems odd that EHS would have hired him with all those professional issues.

[mtraininjax]

It seems like a couple of other murderers recently have had Facebook pages displaying their rambling and rantings. Maybe school administrators should monitor their employees Facebook pages for signs of possible wackiness. Otherwise, how would you know if you had an unbalanced teacher on staff?

+1,

It would appear that more background checking is needed for every business, since we have had the Great Recession recently, you never know who still has a house, has liens against them or judgement, it all weighs people down and they thing bring that to work and you never know what causes someone to SNAP.

[Timkin]

It seems like a couple of other murderers recently have had Facebook pages displaying their rambling and rantings. Maybe school administrators should monitor their employees Facebook pages for signs of possible wackiness. Otherwise, how would you know if you had an unbalanced teacher on staff?

+1,

It would appear that more background checking is needed for every business, since we have had the Great Recession recently, you never know who still has a house, has liens against them or judgement, it all weighs people down and they thing bring that to work and you never know what causes someone to SNAP.

wow.  +1

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

It seems like a couple of other murderers recently have had Facebook pages displaying their rambling and rantings. Maybe school administrators should monitor their employees Facebook pages for signs of possible wackiness. Otherwise, how would you know if you had an unbalanced teacher on staff?

+1,

It would appear that more background checking is needed for every business, since we have had the Great Recession recently, you never know who still has a house, has liens against them or judgement, it all weighs people down and they thing bring that to work and you never know what causes someone to SNAP.

Just for information purposes only, right. 

I mean, it wouldn't cause you to SNAP any more or less after finding out that you were terminated from your non-finance industry based job because you were 'too great a risk' because of a low FICO.

[Tacachale]

Getting back to the thread, I find it interesting how the teacher was hired by the Duval County Public School system and then flagged as DO NOT REHIRE after he left the DCPS high and dry owing them $1000 worth of the bonus they paid him early (when will DCPS ever learn, oh wait I know the answer already).

Why was it that EHS hired someone with that info in their record? If the TV news people could get their hands on it, same day, surely EHS could have done the same. His reports were very unflattering, per news reports, so he was average at best. Seems odd that EHS would have hired him with all those professional issues.

That's apparently not accurate. Schumerth received a bonus after signing the three-year contract with DCPS; he broke the contract a year early to take the job at Episcopal. This is what led to the "do not rehire" status. He subsequently paid back the $1000 bonus for breaking contract and the "do not rehire" status was removed.

http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2012-03-06/story/suspected-episcopal-school-shooter-kept-himself-acquaintances-say

My understanding from talking to my parents (my dad was formerly on the Episcopal board) Episcopal hired him because they just really needed a Spanish teacher on pretty short notice. They had two vacancies open up when one teacher passed away and another left for another job.

My brother had Schumerth last year and says he was a very awkward and poor teacher, to the point that he's gotten a tutor to catch back up in Spanish this year. I'm surprised they didn't get rid of him at the end of the year. As for this year, usually they would have just not renewed his contract at the end of the year, but evidently he was bad enough that they fired him in the middle of the week, in the middle of the semester.

[mtraininjax]

I mean, it wouldn't cause you to SNAP any more or less after finding out that you were terminated from your non-finance industry based job.

Losing your job is losing your job, right? No income to pay for your accustomed lifestyle, beans and rice instead of steak and potatoes, Raman noodles instead of Orsay. This guy already had a strike against him, who knows, his girlfriend could have dumped him, no one knows, yet, what caused him to SNAP, but getting fired is not a pleasant experience and it does cause a LOT of uncertainty.

You probably would not be terminated for a low FICO score, but the low score is the result of maybe a bankruptcy and or other issues that may raise red flags for concern. Check out a facebook page of someone, say they are spouting off against the constitution and bad mouthing the USA, and your company has the US Navy as a customer, would you think twice about keeping a loose cannon around?

[mtraininjax]

http://www.actionnewsjax.com/content/topstories/story/New-information-on-teacher-turned-suspected-killer/2g78arFTxku7KEwIq7_I-Q.cspx

Apparently the teacher was not really a focused teacher, giving kids A+ grades and discussing his political views.

Action News 30/47 did not state that the money was paid back before going to Episcopal. Not saying it wasn't paid back, just that I cannot find another site to confirm it.

I had teachers at Bolles who were not there 1 semester and were fired for poor performance and teaching. Perhaps better at interviewing than teaching. It does happen. 

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Losing your job is losing your job, right?

Not if you lose your job because of personal hardships. 

Isn't that what you meant by:

It would appear that more background checking is needed for every business, since we have had the Great Recession recently, you never know who still has a house, has liens against them or judgement, it all weighs people down and they thing bring that to work and you never know what causes someone to SNAP.

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

[Tacachale]

http://www.actionnewsjax.com/content/topstories/story/New-information-on-teacher-turned-suspected-killer/2g78arFTxku7KEwIq7_I-Q.cspx

Apparently the teacher was not really a focused teacher, giving kids A+ grades and discussing his political views.

Action News 30/47 did not state that the money was paid back before going to Episcopal. Not saying it wasn't paid back, just that I cannot find another site to confirm it.

I had teachers at Bolles who were not there 1 semester and were fired for poor performance and teaching. Perhaps better at interviewing than teaching. It does happen.

I gave the link in my previous post:

Five months later he moved on to Episcopal, repaying the county $1,000 for breaking his three-year contract with the district.

http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2012-03-06/story/suspected-episcopal-school-shooter-kept-himself-acquaintances-say

Everything I've heard about him confirms that he was a very ineffective teacher. He was apparently fairly strange and was into some political causes (nothing that would necessarily be a red flag) and would use his Spanish classes to go off on a tangent about his beliefs. My brother used to say "we don't learn Spanish" in his Spanish class, as the teacher get distracted talking about politics. Even as of Monday students were joking that he had recently graded a test on a 30-point curve - big no-no at that school. I don't think anyone was shocked he was fired, but it was unusual that it happened in the middle of the week, mid-semester. More details will probably emerge about his firing and the sequence of events.

It's just so sad that someone that young could go so off the rails, leading to a terrible tragedy. I know I can't stop thinking about it.

[dougskiles]

The situation still has me pretty shaken up too.  I don't have kids at the school, but do have one who swims for the club team, so we are at the campus 4 times a week.  I have gotten to know the coaching staff very well through the years and feel part of the Episcopal family.  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.