On Monday morning in Aubagne, France, a small city about nine miles east of Marseille, a 14-year-old walked into Joseph Lakanal Middle School with a hunting shotgun and opened fire. The principal and a teacher were both hit by pellets, one in the thighs and lower back and the other in the thigh, and a third person was reportedly grazed.
Prosecutors say he fired at least four rounds, including one inside an occupied classroom that left nothing worse than a mark on the chalkboard. None of the injuries were life-threatening, and no students were hurt.
The shotgun was tucked inside a guitar case, which means we apparently have another El Mariachi wannabe on our hands. The difference, of course, is that the movies were fiction, and this was a school full of kids who spent their Monday morning running for cover.
A staff member, described as a supervisor by the mayor, disarmed the shooter before police arrived, and the school confined every student within seconds. Police then took the boy into custody, and a search of the family home turned up weapons. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez later confirmed that both of his parents were in custody as well, and investigators say they’re trying to understand how a kid like this ended up with the gun in the first place.
A student named Sara told the AFP that the fire alarm went off during her Spanish class. When she stepped into the corridor, she and her classmates bumped right into the shooter. According to her, he said, “I’ve only come for the teachers, not for the pupils.” Think about how warped that is when a kid is holding a shotgun and reassuring a hallway of children that they’re not on his list.
As far as a motive goes, nobody knows for sure yet. The regional prefect says the boy has no history of delinquency or radicalization. The mayor called him a child “just like any other,” and police say there’s no apparent link to the weeks of student protests rattling French schools recently.
About the only thread anyone has pulled so far is that the father reportedly asked for a meeting with the school’s educational advisor, and officials admit they don’t know anything beyond that.
As I frequently say, I’ve been writing about school shootings for 26 years, and I have never seen this many of them from outside the United States. Between this one and the shootings in Turkey, the Philippines, and Thailand, the trend is hard to ignore.
It used to be that this was our thing, a uniquely American sickness we exported mostly in the form of thoughts and prayers. Now it looks like America’s cancer has spread overseas, and worse, it’s metastasized.
(Sources)
Leave a Reply