I'm not sure about anyone else, but I'm pretty tired of reading about school shootings. This week was a murder (of 5 innocent victims)-suicide at Northern Illinois in Dekalb, IL. I'll assume that you have heard of it, know the details, or will at cnn.com or wherever you get your news, but a couple of things stick out to me:
1) He completed his undergrad at NIU (where the shooting took place), but was a current student at U of Illinois (the Illini of the Big Ten).
2) He was a good student and was well respected by faculty at both schools.
3) As of now, there is no published motive - though I wonder if there is a reason the shootings took place at NIU other than familiarity from his undergrad.
4) He was a sociology student interested in matters related to prisons and criminals.
5) From a CNN.com article, "the AP reported that Kazmierczak's parents had placed him in a Chicago psychiatric treatment center after high school. A former employee of the center said Kazmierczak habitually cut himself and wouldn't take his medication, according to the AP." and that "He also told a friend that he was given a psychological discharge from the Army after six months in the service in 2001-2002, according to the AP."
6) Lastly, according to the same CNN.com article, "People close to him have told police he was taking medication but had stopped and had become "somewhat erratic" in the last couple of weeks."
Here's the link to the article: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/16/university.shooting/index.html
Has anyone heard what medications he was on before he stopped taking them? Anyone have any further information on his family or upbringing?
It'd be really easy to huff and puff about how our society is going down the drain and all of these school shootings are the same, but each shooter is unique and each situation should be studied independently to see what can be learned.
1) He completed his undergrad at NIU (where the shooting took place), but was a current student at U of Illinois (the Illini of the Big Ten).
2) He was a good student and was well respected by faculty at both schools.
3) As of now, there is no published motive - though I wonder if there is a reason the shootings took place at NIU other than familiarity from his undergrad.
4) He was a sociology student interested in matters related to prisons and criminals.
5) From a CNN.com article, "the AP reported that Kazmierczak's parents had placed him in a Chicago psychiatric treatment center after high school. A former employee of the center said Kazmierczak habitually cut himself and wouldn't take his medication, according to the AP." and that "He also told a friend that he was given a psychological discharge from the Army after six months in the service in 2001-2002, according to the AP."
6) Lastly, according to the same CNN.com article, "People close to him have told police he was taking medication but had stopped and had become "somewhat erratic" in the last couple of weeks."
Here's the link to the article: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/16/university.shooting/index.html
Has anyone heard what medications he was on before he stopped taking them? Anyone have any further information on his family or upbringing?
It'd be really easy to huff and puff about how our society is going down the drain and all of these school shootings are the same, but each shooter is unique and each situation should be studied independently to see what can be learned.
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