On Monday, February 27, 2012, TJ Lane, a teenager, took a loaded gun into a high school cafeteria in Chardon, Ohio, and shot at students before being chased out of the school. Unlike in the previous horrible school shootings, he did not commit suicide. Therefore, we, as a society are left to deal with him, as a teen shooter. Lane is young enough that he does not have the scars of Columbine etched into his memory. I will forever be leery of teenagers dressed in black trench coats. I remember being in high school when the shooting happened, and I remember how it changed the landscape of high schools. We were no longer allowed to carry backpacks or wear coats. We were theoretically subject to searches. No one wore black trench coats. As time has progressed, there has been a concerted effort to stop bullying or at least address it to the degree that something like Columbine does not happen again. Yet, as so often happens, those without the scars repeat history.
Lane is being charged with three counts of murder and various other charges related to the attempted murder of other students and adults. So far, he has stood for preliminary hearings at the juvenile courthouse, but the prosecutor has warned that he will try Lane as an adult. Lane will not be eligible for the death penalty (Ohio does not permit the death penalty as an option for someone under the age of 18, regardless of the defendant being tried as an adult or juvenile), but he will be eligible for life without the possibility of parole . . . for each of his victims. Picking up on the New Yorker piece I blogged about earlier, this means that Lane's life is essentially done. He is done being a high school student, and he is now a suspected (and he admitted to it) murderer, and he will be a convicted murderer for the rest of his life once he goes through trial.
Undoubtedly, Lane's defense attorney will do his or her very best to introduce mitigating evidence about Lane's troubled childhood. While living with his mother, they occupied a house that had huge padlocks on the outside of bedroom doors. Somehow he went to live with his grandparents, and the police were routinely called to the home. Lane's brother has an extensive record with the law, and Lane himself was at an alternative school for behavioral issues. The prosecutor has already said that Lane does not show himself to be mentally well. It will be interesting to see how the judge weighs this evidence to arrive at a sentence for this yet child.
Overall, I have no great words of wisdom. This is yet another tragic event where someone needed help and did not receive it. Like last year's Tucson shooting, innocent people were made to pay the consequences of another's choices. I hope that Ohio and his community can offer Lane some help that he can use.
Lane is being charged with three counts of murder and various other charges related to the attempted murder of other students and adults. So far, he has stood for preliminary hearings at the juvenile courthouse, but the prosecutor has warned that he will try Lane as an adult. Lane will not be eligible for the death penalty (Ohio does not permit the death penalty as an option for someone under the age of 18, regardless of the defendant being tried as an adult or juvenile), but he will be eligible for life without the possibility of parole . . . for each of his victims. Picking up on the New Yorker piece I blogged about earlier, this means that Lane's life is essentially done. He is done being a high school student, and he is now a suspected (and he admitted to it) murderer, and he will be a convicted murderer for the rest of his life once he goes through trial.
Undoubtedly, Lane's defense attorney will do his or her very best to introduce mitigating evidence about Lane's troubled childhood. While living with his mother, they occupied a house that had huge padlocks on the outside of bedroom doors. Somehow he went to live with his grandparents, and the police were routinely called to the home. Lane's brother has an extensive record with the law, and Lane himself was at an alternative school for behavioral issues. The prosecutor has already said that Lane does not show himself to be mentally well. It will be interesting to see how the judge weighs this evidence to arrive at a sentence for this yet child.
Overall, I have no great words of wisdom. This is yet another tragic event where someone needed help and did not receive it. Like last year's Tucson shooting, innocent people were made to pay the consequences of another's choices. I hope that Ohio and his community can offer Lane some help that he can use.
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