See Something; Say Something
They Did; Unfortunately, Action Wasn’t Taken
Prayers and condolences can only do so much. How many times have these words been spoken to the families of those that lost loved ones to violence. This has been going on for many years and it’s been done under both political parties.
There’s always speculation as to what can be done to keep certain weapons out of the hands of madmen. We believe one thing for sure, like Mother Nature – if a person is bent on destruction, they will find someway to carry it out.
Yes, again this editorial is in response to tragedy that happened again in a school system. This time, it was Parkland, Florida where 31 were gunned down and 17 killed.
The authorities were notified about this madman from a close relative. He posted on his media sites, and videos about his intentions. The FBI admitted they dropped the ball big time on this one.
From www.FBI.gov:
Official Press Release:
On January 5, 2018, a person close to Nikolas Cruz contacted the FBI’s Public Access Line (PAL) tipline to report concerns about him. The caller provided information about Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting.
Under established protocols, the information provided by the caller should have been assessed as a potential threat to life. The information then should have been forwarded to the FBI Miami Field Office, where appropriate investigative steps would have been taken.
We have determined that these protocols were not followed for the information received by the PAL on January 5. The information was not provided to the Miami Field Office, and no further investigation was conducted at that time.
We were relieved about the arrest of twin brothers Christian and Tyler Toro in New York, one of which (Christian) was an ex-teacher. They were paying students to bring bomb making materials to their apartment. School Authorities later discovered instructions for manufacturing explosive devices on Christian Toro’s work laptop after it was turned in.
There was an article written by Dennis Malloy from 101.5 AM Radio entitled: “How to End Mass Shooting at Schools: Get Rid of the Schools.” Here is a link if you want to read it: http://nj1015.com
Recently, I heard parents who were upset at the Administration of Ramapo Ridge Middle School in Mahwah, New Jersey. They were recently given a notice regarding a student who planned to shoot up the middle school on February 23, 2018. The threat was made in late October 2017. That student was expelled from school for the rest of the 2018 school year. A school official stated that the first notification did go out in October 28, 2017, but did not go into great detail.
The following is an excerpt from a Press Release on the East Brunswick, NJ website:
At its February 15, 2018 Meeting, the East Brunswick Board of Education unanimously approved a resolution to engage the East Brunswick Police Department to have armed police officers at all of its schools throughout the entire school day to insure the safety of our students and staff. The armed police officers will supplement the District’s already existing staff of 71 security officers – all of who are retired police officers – to further enhance the security at all of East Brunswick Board of Education facilities throughout the school year. It is the Board of Education and Superintendent’s commitment to take all necessary measures to insure that our students, staff and visitors remain safe and secure in our schools.
Also posted was how the school system handled a recent terroristic threat by a student:
This morning, a high school student was arrested and charged with making a terroristic threat based on an on-line posting. This on-line posting was brought to the attention of District staff by a parent and student at the beginning of the school day. The offending student was immediately identified and escorted to the Main Office by a District Security Officer. East Brunswick Police Officers questioned the student and then took him into custody and will be charging the student with making a terroristic threat.
It would be interesting to look at the statistics of some of the states that have the strictest gun laws and what are their stats on gun violence. Gun laws are not consistent in every state. A National Registry has been discussed.
Listening to the radio earlier today, people called in to talk about when they were in school, they had shooting clubs. They would bring their guns to school and the teachers would hold them until it was time for their practice class. No one thought anything of it. When the practice was over, they would give their teachers the guns back. After school was over, the teachers would then hand the students back their guns.
One of the radio hosts wanted to have this verified. He found out in 1975, 80% of New York District Schools had a shooting club. In 1985, 10 years later it dwindled down to 65%. In 1995, the classes were discontinued due to lack of interest.
The implementation of Social Media has changed our lives in so many ways. Sometimes for good and sometimes for the worse. Unfortunately, we have to concur that the best solution presently is what East Brunswick is implementing. This is the world we live in.
C.M. & K.M.
