Another school shooting in Texas; lack of parental accountability in school shootings continue
Yesterday, a student pulled out a gun at the Timberview High School, in Arlington, Texas and began shooting wildly inside a classroom. Four people were taken to the hospital following this latest school shooting, including a person identified as an "adult male." A student is in critical condition. A pregnant teacher fell during the mayhem.
The suspect then took off. He was later taken into custody and charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Photo of Timberview High School courtesy of actionnews.com
Ownership of firearm under investigation.
Law enforcement vows to determine who owned the loaded gun the student brought to school.
If the gun fired at Timberview belongs to a parent, it is unclear what the parent would or could be charged with.
Historically parents have faced no criminal liability whatsoever after children take a parent's firearm to school. The main exception where parents have been held accountable has been when the weapon was illegally obtained by that parent, then taken to school by the school shooter.
Lack of parental accountability the norm, not the exception.
As previously reported by the WVPI, in a rare situation of parental accountability, the Marysville-Pilchuck High School shooter's father was charged criminally for illegally purchasing the gun his 15-year-old son used to murder five students, including his own cousin, at that Washington state school in 2014.
A teacher risked her own life attempting to wrestle the gun away from the killer during the carnage that occurred in the Marysville-Pilchuck cafeteria. The shooter then pointed the gun towards his head and committed suicide, inches away from her.
Conversely, as is the situation in many of the 50 states, parents in Texas could always face criminal misdemeanor charges if their kids fail to go to school pursuant to truancy laws. (Tex. Educ. Code § 25.093; Tex. Fam. Code § 65.253 (2019).)
Time and time again, guns students bring to schools belong to parents or close family members. By way of just one example, the gun that killed Kendrick Castillo and wounded several others during the May 2019 mass shooting at Colorado's STEM School Highlands Ranch belonged to the parent of one of the two school shooters.
The student whose parent owned the gun that murdered Kendrick was recently sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 1200 years. The parent who owned that gun the killer took to school has not faced any criminal liability.
Texas' latest school shooting at Timberview occurred just five days after last Friday's shooting at the Houston YES Prep public charter school when a former student shot his way into the school and a bullet fired grazed the back of the school's principal. The confessed shooter later told police he intended to confront another school employee.
YES Prep is located approximately 30 miles from Santa Fe, Texas, the location where the deadliest school shooting in Texas history occurred.
On May 18, 2018 a 17-year-old student armed with a shotgun and a pistol, also purportedly owned by his parents, opened fire at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe near Houston. Eight students and two teachers were murdered that day, and 13 others were wounded.
These incidents at all three Texas schools highlight not just the continuing problem that is school violence but also the ongoing occupational violence school employees face, dating back to the notorious Columbine High School mass shooting.
Dave Sanders, a Columbine teacher, was murdered as he ran through the school attempting to alert students and his co-workers of the onset of violence that ultimately took 13 lives before the two shooters, two seniors, committed suicide in the school's library on April 20, 1999.
Although the confessed Santa Fe shooter is the first to have ever faced federal charges that the WVPI is aware of, there is currently no trial date in sight for him. In 2019, he was deemed incompetent to stand trial, and continues to receive treatment at a Texas psychiatric facility as of this date.
The parents of the Santa Fe confessed shooter have been charged with nothing.
Read: Justice Delayed, Justice Denied in Santa Fe Texas:
Nor has the father of the 13-year-old student at Washington Middle School in New Mexico who murdered Bennie Hargrove, a fellow 13-year-old student in August 2021 with a firearm belonging to his parent.
That shooter's father has a history of firing guns near schools.
In 2018, he shot a man in the student pick-up line at Highland High School. However, even then, this parent was not charged with a crime. The district attorney's office responsible for investigating the shooting at Highland High School determined the father's actions were justified and occurred while he was standing on a public street, not on school grounds.
SOURCES:
https://www.newsweek.com/ray-fryberg-jaylen-father-sentenced-unlawful-possession-guns-378517
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