We all remember the terrible tragedy which happened at ColumbineHigh School. On April 20, 1999, in Jefferson Country Colorado, two young men, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered 12 fellow students and a teacher, as well as wounding 24 others, before committing suicide. The world reeled from the tragic events, the media took hold of this senseless massacre considered to be the second worst school shooting in United StatesHistory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre. Hollywoodsensationalized the tragedy and documentaries and movies followed.
Canadians shook our heads in disbelief, and many people were convinced that this sort of thing would never happen in Canada. We are a peaceful country we have gun control. We can afford to be smug and point fingers at our American cousins. But how many Canadians even knew that Canadaalready had its own Columbine, right here in my own beloved city, Montreal.
On December 6, 1989, at the École Polytechnique of the Universityof Montreal, a lone gunman, Marc Lepine, walked into the university on a killing rampage. He entered a class room armed with a lightweight Sturm Ruger Mini-14, .223-caliber semi-automatic rifle. He ordered the men to leave and the 10 women presented in this engineering school classroom to stay. He killed six of the women. He left the classroom and continued shooting women as he saw them in the corridor. In the end he had shot and killed a total of 14 women before killing himself. Why did these women have to die? Their only crime was that they were "feminists" he shouted. He hated feminists and did not feel they had the right to become engineers. buhttp://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/mass/marc_lepine/index.html
It did not end there. Montreal's Concordia University became the scene of another mass shooting when this time, an engineering professor, Dr. Valery Fabrikant, killed four colleagues and wounded another in August of 1992. He was angry because he did not make tenure and had made accusations that his work was stolen and fraudulently published by the then chairmen of the department. Dr. Frabrikant is serving a prison sentence.
It happened on the 10<sup>th</sup> floor of the University Hall building. A month later I started classes on the 10<sup>th</sup> floor as a new student of the university. It was a very strange experience for me, as I walked those halls trying to make sense of what had just happened a month before.
The High Schoolof Montreal, my old high school also experienced a shooting. By the 1990's the High Schoolof Montrealbecame an adult education center and it also made the headlines when a disgruntled student killed a teacher who failed him.
There was also an incident of a gun shot fired at WoodlandElementary Schoolduring the 90's. Fortunately no one was hurt. But today, Sept 13, 2006people were hurt. A lone gunman with a blood hair, sporting a Mohawk haircut and dressed in a black trench coat entered the atrium of DawsonCollegeand opened fired. The students were caught by surprise. At first no one took this stranger seriously until the shooting began. To date two female students are dead, at least six students are in critical condition. Still others have been hospitalized with various degrees of injuries.
Eye witnesses recount the events of the day and all talk about the complete shock. "Who would have expected anything like this to happen?" they said. One of the witnesses explained how memories of Columbine rushed to forefront of their minds.
ConcordiaUniversityStudent Union representatives were among the first to rush to support the DawsonStudents just streets away. ConcordiaUniversityfollowed soon after by opening a reception room to feed and house the frightened young college students who had to escape the Dawsoncampus leaving all their belongings behind. Frantic parents made their way down to the university hoping their children were safe. Dawson's 10,000 student popular is largely made up of 16 – 18 years olds and is the equivalent of grade 12/13 in other Canadian provinces.
Can you imagine having to run down to see if your child was safe, can you imagine the panic you would be feeling. How about being a police officer who rushes to the scene of the crime to find that his daughter was one of the slain? This was the case for a Montrealpolice officer who rushed to the scene of the Universityof Montrealshootings discussed earlier.
My friend Lavinia was forced to remain in the MontrealChildren's hospital where she was visiting a family member while the fiasco was being sorted out. The SWAT team had cordoned off the streets closest to the College.
Peter Langman, director of psychology for KidsPeace, told CTV.ca there are three main types who commit school shootings:
Those who come from abusive, dysfunctional backgrounds;
Psychopaths;
Those who are mentally ill and suffering from delusions, hallucinations or paranoia, to name a few symptoms.
Other experts say media hype help to put the idea of school shootings into the minds of youth at risk. These young people are misunderstood, and feel ignored. They feel alienated by society. However with a gun in their hands they are no longer ignored.
In terms of prevention, Michael Hoechsmann, a professor of counselling and educational psychology at Montreal's McGill University, told CTV's Newsnet that society does not listen enough to young people.
"When you find a young person with a gun in their hand, you're more likely to listen to them than when they have a pencil or are sitting at a computer terminal."
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060913/shootings_why_060913/20060913?hub=CTVNewsAt11
What caused this 25 year old gunman to go off on his murderous rampage? We will never know. He was killed by a Montrealpolice officer while trying to flee the scene.
I attended three out of the five schools I quoted above, never did I feel unsafe. Now I question if they really are. Yet, experts maintain that schools are still the safest places.
My boyfriend called me minutes ago to say thank God his children did not go to Dawsonor he would be tearing his hair out at this point. His son is a student at ConcordiaUniversityand his daughter is a student of the Universityof British Columbiain British ColumbiaCanada.
We do not know why this man decided to kill innocent students and injure others but we know that Canadians can never again look at Columbine and say this could never happen to us. It did several times over.
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Comments: 27
Maybe it's good that your boyfriend's kids don't go to those schools, but whose to say it can't happen at their school?
Soon after Columbine two kids IN MY PARENTING CLASS planned something. One made a list, and someone else who was in the Cadets drew plans for some kind of bomb. They were both suspended. The kid who drew up the bomb plans was in my study group.
Scary stuff!!
Besides, places where guns are entirely legal and can be carried by anyone are far safer according to statistics.
Where we have gun controls, only the good people don't have guns. Where good people can have them as well, the bad guys think twice before attempting a crime for fear they will be shot. Women are considerably safer where they are allowed to carry guns.
Gun control makes everyone less safe, but I doubt that it has much effect on the Columbine type situations.
Best regards, Ben
Author "Leading People to be Highly Motivated and Committed"
I have an interesting idea for an article, based upon a book, my experiences in Montreal and now, based upon this incident.
Have not yet spoken to my sister in Mtl about this.
Thank you for publishing to The Renewed Activist.
Here in Boston the homicide rate is about 60 or so per year. But the official population count for Boston is Boston proper, 600,000 people.
The greater Boston population of more than 3 million has a much greater homicide rate, one we don't even know, becuase it would be counted as the state homicide rate.
Montreal is still extremely safe for North America.
The best thing for Any of us to Do is take notice of any kid that just Needs our Attention and Give it to them. Be it our ears or a good old fashioned hug. Taking the time at any particular moment when they have the Look of dispair could save countless lives. Getting into their head Before they plot and plan destruction is the key...not after they find a weapon. Gun control is not the issue or the problem. Box knives brought down a country and they are used in factories every day as tools. Anything can be used as a weapon. A kind word or a moment of sincere listening and Understanding can turn things around. These kids have Alot to deal with and they don't always know how to cope with the overwhelming things coming at them every day. Alot of expectations and pressures while parents are rushing out doors in business suits with brief cases...
Not all parents are bad and not all kids deserve a bum rap. The best we can do is open the lines of communication and remember to simply talk to eachother. Try Until we find a common interest with our kids if we've lost it. If we Don't we Could lose them to the peer pressure or an angry out of control killer.
It Never hurts to pray either. I couldn't send my kids out the door without it. Teaching them to pray and praying With them Even Better.
I don't think guns make us any safer; I don't think the lack of guns makes us any safer. Our alienation from one another is the problem. Or so I think.
If someone is so unbalanced and mentally ill that he can even conceive of committing such a despicable act there is no way to stop him. Rational people are not capable of thinking in those terms.