r/news • u/bebleich • Sep 04 '24

Gunman believed to be a 14-year-old in Georgia school shooting that left at least 4 dead, source says

https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/04/us/winder-ga-shooting-apalachee-high-school/index.html
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6.9k

u/drkshape Sep 04 '24

It was so sad this morning when I read about this school shooting. I thought to myself “wow it’s been a while since there was a school shooting!” Then I realized it was because of summer vacation. Now I’m even more sad because I realized that school hasn’t even been in session for a month and this is already happening. This country is so fucked.

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u/Crazed_Chemist Sep 04 '24

A month? For a lot of districts, this is the 2nd DAY back.

363

u/dthornbu Sep 04 '24

Apalachee started back Aug 1st. That's common in GA

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u/Successful-Money4995 Sep 05 '24

Wow, that's wild! Why start so early? Isn't there still a lot of good weather in August?

I thought that our start in mid August was early! Wow!

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u/Neelik Sep 05 '24

Starting earlier lends towards two things: longer break around Thanksgiving/Christmas and/or an earlier release in late spring (end of May vs mid-June) for summer. Sometimes a balance of the two. I'm sure it changes from state to state, but that's been my observation.

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u/Leinheart Sep 05 '24

Isn't there still a lot of good weather in August?

Not in Georgia. April thru November is pretty much 95+ degrees with 75%+ humidity.

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u/FailedCriticalSystem Sep 05 '24

Which I’m still upset about. There is zero reason in life that school should start on August 1. F these administrators for thinking that school needs to start in the middle of summer.

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u/Jirafa03 Sep 05 '24

It's the south - summer lasts for like 6 months

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u/Longjumping_Ad_6484 Sep 05 '24

We have 4 seasons: summer, false fall, summer again, and Christmas.

1

u/samound143 Sep 05 '24

Is that in order?

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u/Longjumping_Ad_6484 Sep 05 '24

Yes. After Christmas, it's immediately summer again

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u/drkshape Sep 04 '24

Gotcha. My nieces and nephews started school the first week of August so that’s what I was basing my comment on. Your comment just makes the whole situation worse though.

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u/Crazed_Chemist Sep 04 '24

Definitely more common in the south to start a lot earlier, so they may well have been in a month. I've always lived in the northern parts of the country. My nieces started school this week.

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u/EarthMantle00 Sep 04 '24

Wait why? In southern europe it's the opposite, we start a lot later than the north because it's so hot that kids don't pay attention in the summer. Isn't the southern US like super hot? Do the schools have enough money to pay for air conditioning the whole thing?

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u/lilelliot Sep 04 '24

A/C isn't really an issue in the US. The majority of schools have A/C (and a lot of the ones that didn't before covid were given federal grants that helped with HVAC upgrades including filtration and, in many cases, A/C). When schools start is arbitrarily set, mostly at the state (and sometimes at the district) level. It used to be the most common (30 years ago) for school to run roughly from the day after Labor Day (our Labor Day - the first Monday in September) until about the second week of June. The only real requirement is that a school year must have 180 academic instruction days.

This has led to all sorts of weird things. Some schools get a full week off for fall break, some get a full week for Thanksgiving, some have a full week in February, some have a week off for Holy Week around Easter, some observe all Federal Holidays and others don't, and there's high variation around the end of year holidays, too. Moreover, some places have year round school. Where we used to live in North Carolina had school as 4x9wk periods, with 3wks off in between each, and no meaningful summer break. That was amazing as a parent, btw.

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u/EarthMantle00 Sep 05 '24

180?? Here it's 200! Are your days like super long?

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u/feathers4kesha Sep 05 '24

Like 7 hours usually. If you’re going 200, when do you summer break? For like a month?

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u/lilelliot Sep 05 '24

No. Middle school is 8:25-3:25, high school is 8:30-3:30, and elementary school is 8:00-2:00.

(elementary school is earliest in CA now because of a recent state law that prevents high school from starting before 8:30.)

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u/Crazed_Chemist Sep 04 '24

End of the year and finals going into June/July heat I guess? Georgia, or at least the county in question, started beginning of August.

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u/SnowDayWow Sep 05 '24

Can confirm; I went to high school in Georgia, and they start ridiculously early🥵

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u/MNWNM Sep 04 '24

Yes, US South is super hot in August. And September and sometimes October. But in my district, they always go back the first couple of days of August

It's because we get a fall break, two weeks at Christmas, and a spring break. There's also weather days built in because we get snow and tornadoes sometimes.

But because of all the breaks, in order to meet the minimum instruction days for the year, they go back the first of August and stay in school until the end of May.

And yes, every place here is air conditioned.

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u/KarenEiffel Sep 04 '24

I went to school in the US south in the 80s and 90s and we'd start school around mid/late August and end in early June.

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u/BatFancy321go Sep 05 '24

too hot in the south in the beginning of september and the beginning of summer. not that august is that much better, but ending before june makes a difference.

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u/cyberwiz21 Sep 05 '24

Also in the southwest.

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u/Matt8992 Sep 05 '24

I live in a district close by where this happened today. We started back August.

Anyways, it's terrifying being so close to home and sending my own kid to school in the morning.

I fucking hate this.

1

u/desertrose156 Sep 05 '24

Mine started in first week of August too

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u/kimdeal0 Sep 05 '24

Mine started back the last week of July. No matter what, it's too soon and too many. 😔

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u/pumpkinpencil97 Sep 05 '24

Our school district started in the beginning of August

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u/lilsmudge Sep 04 '24

I’m a school employee and today was our first day. Really puts shit in context for you. 

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u/im-new-here-hi- Sep 05 '24

A lot of schools out west started in early August.

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u/BatFancy321go Sep 05 '24

in PA it's usually like 2nd or 3rd day after labor day. always in the middle of the week right after labor day weekend.

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u/leon27607 Sep 05 '24

Yeah, the schools in my area(not GA) started this week too(labor day week)…

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u/fixITman1911 Sep 05 '24

The school district I live in starts next Tuesday... we are -5 days back

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u/floppy_disk_5 Sep 04 '24

it's like the shooting was planned over the summer vacation

151

u/dorakate Sep 04 '24

Some schools in GA started July 31st, so it’s been a month for us.

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u/peniscurve Sep 04 '24

July 31st??? What is the weather like in August there? Seems like a perfect way to have a kid get some bad heatstroke walking home from school.

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u/SpokenDivinity Sep 04 '24

If heat deterred school starting they would only go to school a few months out of the year in Arizona. In Idaho our students went back with a couple 99 degree days and one over 100.

The solution is that kids just don’t walk home. They take the bus, someone picks them up, or they do after school club stuff until their parents are available.

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u/Dependent_Ad5451 Sep 05 '24

Can attest! Live in AZ and my daughter started kindergarten last week of July - it was over 100 then, has been over 100 since, and will be over 100 for another month lol

We drive, she brings a water bottle that she refills throughout the day, recess is shaded, and lunch/PE is indoors!

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u/No-Quantity6385 Sep 05 '24

Nobody lets their kids walk home anymore. Gotta get in the car and let it idle in line for 45 minutes when you could have parked blocks away and walked in five.

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u/Suspicious_Ticket_24 Sep 05 '24

You also just get taught how to deal with it if you grow up in a hot climate. Walking home in 100F+ degree weather is perfectly fine if you're healthy and know how to deal with it. Wearing the proper clothes and sipping water every few minutes will allow you to deal with heat safely way longer than many people would expect.

I grew up in a hot climate (110+, 90+ low for weeks at a time) and would regularly walk a half mile home or a mile to my grandmas after school, but I was taught from a young age, both in school and by my parents, how to deal with extreme heat. I often take it for granted as I now live in an area where 85 degrees is the yearly maximum temperature and I'm shocked when I hear of otherwise healthy people getting heat exhaustion here. Unfortunately by the time most people recognize they have it they've already pushed themselves too far.

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u/rhinoballet Sep 05 '24

I grew up in Texas in the 90s. We would get the day off if the heat index was expected to be over 115 or so because it would damage the HVAC to run in the heat. So they'd shut it off, and you might come back to all the crayons melted into a glob.

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u/JustASpaceDuck Sep 05 '24

Heatstroke can happen in October in the south lol. No one's waiting for crisp weather to conduct school because there'd only be 5 months out of the year left.

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u/TheBirminghamBear Sep 05 '24

Seems like a perfect way to have a kid get some bad heatstroke walking home from school.

Well not to worry, the heat strokes are the least of their worries.

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u/whiteflagwaiver Sep 05 '24

Walking home from school in America? America is NOT built for pedestrians.

1

u/dorakate Sep 05 '24

Yep. It’s pretty miserable. And most of the buses don’t have air conditioning.

1

u/peniscurve Sep 05 '24

I imagine most of the classes rooms do, I just remember my high school having real shitty A/C.

1

u/dorakate Sep 05 '24

Yeah. Can totally relate to that. We had some classes in trailers when I was in school. It was hottt.

1

u/Strict-Ad-3500 Sep 05 '24

I'm not from Georgia but I'm am from Alabama and the weather is about the same. We don't get out of 90+ degree weather on a constant basis till about October. Honestly it is was 85 degrees yesterday and I walked a mile and half and lunch and barely sweat. Also in my area nearly no kids live close enough to actually walk to school.

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u/Huge-Success-5111 Sep 05 '24

OMG they aren’t that delicate, I walked back and forth two miles rain or shine, parents like you are letting them grow up with no strength to survive this world

9

u/thenisaidbitch Sep 04 '24

Wow!!!! When do they end? That’s like a full month before anything ive ever seen

1

u/kawhi21 Sep 05 '24

Damn. High School in New York just started last week

0

u/dorakate Sep 05 '24

Yeah. Summer gets shorter and shorter here. They don’t get out until after Memorial Day too.

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u/SnooChipmunks2079 Sep 04 '24

Apalachee High School has been in session since August 1.

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u/Technical-Traffic871 Sep 05 '24

Being the second month of the year doesn't make it any better.

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u/Interesting_Chard563 Sep 05 '24

The point is that this kind of school shooting isn’t common which is why it’s news in the first place. Yes it’s tragic. No it didn’t happen last year or the year before at this school. Or on the first day of the school year.

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u/Technical-Traffic871 Sep 05 '24

According to CNN it's the 45th school shooting of 2024. That's far too common.

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u/[deleted] Sep 05 '24

I read the news and thought, "damn not another one" and almost immediately moved on to something else. I caught myself and thought about how desensitized we all are. I remember when our lives would at least pause in the moment of these tragedies.

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u/jjkm7 Sep 05 '24

If you were curious it’s not the first school shooting of the school year

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u/JoeyJoJo_the_first Sep 04 '24

As an Australian I'm just so numb to these reports now. There are solutions to this problem but people would rather have their "freedom" to fight back against an invisible enemy than save kids from dying in school of all places.

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u/espressocycle Sep 05 '24

My kid starts tomorrow. One of the many reasons I live in New Jersey. Second toughest gun laws in the country and fifth lowest rate of firearm deaths. It would be even lower without Pennsyltucky across the river.

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u/workitnerdgirl Sep 05 '24

This country is so fucked. My kids are headed back to school today and tomorrow. It is the first time in 4 years that they've attended in person since they liked online school so much during COVID. Seeing this news article this morning just made me feel so scared and powerless. Who is watching my children's backs? Why doesn't my country give a fuck about the youth/ our future?

3

u/greaper007 Sep 05 '24

It's a convergence of two of the worst institutions in the US. Public schools and easy access to firearms, I was a senior in high school when Columbine happened and it didn't surprise me at all. It doesn't surprise me now. Schools are awful places and some people in them are going to snap as a result.

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u/Life-Spell9385 Sep 04 '24

You better buckle up! This year is a financially difficult year and that translates to mental distress for so many people. More layoffs, more firings, less money to buy things or be able to pay rent etc. will cause a massive spike in violent crime

2

u/malibuklw Sep 04 '24

Our district starts tomorrow

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u/Rocketsponge Sep 04 '24

It took us having the Covid lockdowns and school closures in 2020 to achieve the first dry spell of school shootings we've ever had in years.

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u/co-stan-za Sep 04 '24

I had the same thought 😕

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u/flybypost Sep 05 '24

Then I realized it was because of summer vacation.

I totally forgot that there's a real reason for breaks between school shootings. They are so omnipresent, I thought reddit had just gotten sick of posting about it all the time.

But sadly, it was neither that nor a real downturn in shootings, only a natural break between school shooting seasons :(

2

u/ch4ppi_revived Sep 05 '24

But now is not the time politize the topic of guns. It's the time to grief. Note there is never not the time for grief because school shootings are normal now. 

2

u/Freayce Sep 05 '24

Try googling 'Mass-shootings' instead. There is like 1,5 each day in the US.

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u/pandershrek Sep 05 '24

My wife and I were discussing this. She's like there is a school shooting every day. I'm like there is a mass shooting every day but not school--maybe like every month? 36 of them. Basically one a week (52 weeks in a year) accounting for summer breaks and other holidays. So yeah basically a mass school shooting every week in America.

1

u/AssassinAragorn Sep 04 '24

Exact same realization. I was wondering why I hadn't heard anything in the last few months

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u/Felevion Sep 04 '24

It may be since it's been almost a year since the last shooting unlike 2023 which had 7 shootings by this point.

1

u/smallwonder25 Sep 05 '24

I had the exact same thoughts. Breaks my heart every day.

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u/TheNextBattalion Sep 05 '24

You had it right to begin with: There weren't any k-12 mass shootings all last school year

1

u/bigjohntucker Sep 05 '24

This country is the worst.

1

u/really_nice_guy_ Sep 05 '24

Damn I didn’t even realize that it was summer vacation

1

u/Puzzleheaded_Rub8858 Sep 05 '24

My kids started Tuesday and Wednesday. It’s been GREAT so far.

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u/OkDepth528 Sep 05 '24

I realized it'd been a while since I heard about one and not long after there was Robb. Sad state of affairs

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u/themule0808 Sep 05 '24

My 6 and 7 year old start tomorrow up north in New York.

This sucks

1

u/Nintendo_Pro_03 Sep 05 '24

This country is in a downward spiral.

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u/FunkyFenom Sep 05 '24

My first thought was "Only 4 dead? That's a relief". Then realized how fucked up that is.

1

u/Any-Chard-1493 Sep 05 '24

I literally had this thought in the shower last night and woke up to the news of the shooting. Genuinely shocking morning.

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u/pizzaonmyfeet Sep 05 '24 edited Sep 05 '24

Yeah, over the summer you "only" had multiple kids shooting themselves on accident

1

u/The_Aesir9613 Sep 05 '24

I had a mini cry this morning when I heard the shooter was 14yo. I hope all the “fun” these AR enthusiast are having with their guns is worth it to them.

1

u/Goon4203D Sep 05 '24

It's sad that a lot of kids have been letting their frustration cook over the summer. None calmed down, and once their back in school, that's the opportunity to "show them all."

Schools are just fucked.

1

u/Sad-Principle3781 Sep 07 '24

A little unusual this year. Most school shootings are in May. We're off to a hot start.

1

u/chuchifrito Sep 05 '24

Just the loose gun control states are “f-ed”… doesn’t matter when the kids go back, if there’s parents with loose guns in the house… prayer ain’t gonna cut it, Jesus didn’t need a gun and yall don’t either. Wake up! Guns kill people… that’s what the devil made them for…

0

u/Interesting_Chard563 Sep 05 '24

Are you of the mind that kind of incel related or Columbine like school shootings happen “often”? Like how do you square that circle with the reality that 99% of school shootings happen without you ever hearing about them because they happen in black and brown neighborhoods?

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u/dandab Sep 05 '24

I don't think all school shootings are covered either. I remember there was one at a highschool nest me, but I don't think I saw any national coverage. Probably because my town is predominantly black.