School safety, security, and violence prevention resource

A Canandaigua student killed himself on May 5, after writing a journal entry and carrying a whole of ammo with him. According to reports, Thomas Kane had a shotgun, two Molotov cocktails, and about 30 rounds of ammunition on him. While he had plans to bring others down with him, he ended up changing his plans and killing himself instead in a school bathroom. The reasons behind his change of plans remain unknown.

The Democrat and Chronicle has the story:

Thomas Kane, who later committed suicide in a school bathroom, wrote in his journal that he was “not just another school shooter.”

“This is not a case of a kid being so tormented that he knows no other way to lash out and I’m not just someone looking to be famous. I could care less about all that,” Kane, 17, wrote in an entry dated May 5, the day he shot himself.

Canandaigua Police Chief Jonathan Welch said Wednesday that it was clear Kane planned to commit greater acts of violence but decided against them for unknown reasons.

“A larger potential tragedy was avoided that morning,” Welch said, “with the end result being that Thomas Kane chose not to inflict physical harm on anyone else.”

Several points…

One, we can say that all is well that ends well, at least for the rest of the student body who were not harmed. Then again, the same cannot be said of the family of Thomas Kane. It is clear that he was a disturbed kid and I believe that no matter how far gone he was, he could have been helped had the signs been detected earlier on. I am not pointing fingers here. Instead, I am merely stating a fact.

Two, the state of mind of Thomas Kane is profoundly disturbing. These kinds of statements, coming from an adult are enough to cause alarm in anyone. How much more when it comes from a kid going to school? I am sure that there are a lot of factors that contributed to his state of mind, but is there anything that could have been done by the people around him to have prevented it?

Three, how was he able to bring those weapons into the parking lot? Maybe we are being too focused on the immediate premises such as door ways and other entries. Perhaps we should also place some degree of security in school parking lots and similar sites. After all, these places are also prone to violence, as previous experience has taught us.

One thing is for sure, parents and school officials in the area have been awakened to the dangers that children face in school. Let’s hope that something good comes out of this.

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