St. Louis School Shooting

(TW: School Shooting)

A school shooting occurred on the morning of October 24th, 2022 at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis. Once notified by a school security guard, the school went on lockdown. 

According to NBC News, the police received a call from the school at around 9:10 am and arrived at the scene four minutes later. They located the gunman eight minutes after arriving and managed to secure him after engaging in a gunfight. 

The gunman was 19-year-old Orlando Harris, a 2021 graduate of the high school. Police say, according to ABC News, he left a document in his car talking about his desire to “conduct a school shooting.” He had no previous criminal records. The police asserted that the school doors were locked before the shooting occurred, and it is unknown how Harris got in. After being secured by the police, he was taken into custody and later pronounced dead. 

Seven students were injured and sent to the hospital, and all are in stable condition. 61-year-old Health teacher, Jean Kuczka, and 15-year-old Student Alexzandria Bell were the only victims that died in the shooting. 

A majority of students at Central are not aware of this event, and they were surprised they didn’t hear about it.

Junior Julia Hopkins is one of the many students who did not hear about this event, and she was “extremely” surprised that she didn’t. “Why would you want to cover up a school shooting?” she says. She felt that the event was “tragic.”

“It’s really strange that it happened in an area I would consider close to me,” she says. “I feel like it’s easier to separate yourself when it’s farther away. It feels very different.” She also says that she doesn’t read the news very often, but found it weird that the shooting did not pop up on her suggested articles on Google. She says that no one she knows talked about it at all. “Every time there was a school shooting, someone would be talking about it.” 

“I feel like I’m usually so up to date about these things,” senior Erin Patton says. When she heard about it from a friend, she didn’t feel great about it. “I feel like when a school shooting happens, it’s usually a pretty big thing. I’m kind of surprised it wasn’t everywhere.” 

Seniors Alex Murphy and Lily Wedig are some of the few students who did hear about the shooting. 

Murphy heard the information from his mom, and he was horrified that it happened. He said, “If it had been a year earlier, my mom’s friend’s son would have been dead.” His mom’s friend’s son is a recent graduate of the high school. 

Wedig received a text from her mother asking if she was okay the day the shooting occurred. Once she heard about it, she was in shock. “I think it’s terrible,” she said. 

There could have been many factors on why a majority of people did not hear about the shooting, and students share their insights on why that might be. 

“When we think of major school shootings, it’s like dozens of people that get seriously injured,” Patton says. “But I think that since less people were killed that might’ve just made it… not as important [to the public]”

“I feel like it has to do with the lack of news coverage and comparison to other stories,” Hopkins says. “Two people died, and compared to other school shootings, that doesn’t spark.” She described the internet as “shallow and callous.”

“The world runs on drama and what’s going to catch people’s attention. And comparing school shootings where dozens of people have died, even though this one is still tragic, the internet isn’t going to be interested in it and they’re going to skip right over it.” 

Murphy says, “It’s probably because few people died, but that shouldn’t matter. It still happened. People died and got hurt and it’s not okay no matter how few people actually died.” 

“It’s because school shooting has become so normalized. We’ve just become so desensitized,” Wedig says. She mentions previous school shootings at Sandy Hook, Columbine, and Florida Parkland, and explained why they were talked about heavily on the news, where either it was something unprecedented or a high number of people died. “The news is flooded with everything else and people don’t care as much anymore, to be honest. People are too busy fighting about their own things and preserving their second amendment rights when there are humans that need to be helped and it’s disappointing.” 

The high school was closed the next day, October 25, 2022. There is no doubt that many students will have trauma due to this event. Superintendent Kelvin Adams in the NBC article tells students and parents of the school that “counseling is underway” and the school will continue to gather additional resources from their mental health, medical, and school district communities.

Sources 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/two-students-injured-shooting-saint-louis-school-rcna53715 

https://abcnews.go.com/US/hurt-shooting-st-louis-high-school-suspect-custody/story?id=92003996