Killings in Kentucky latest in string of school shootings — 11 so far this year
January 25, 2018 by admin
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ATLANTA — On Tuesday, it was a high school in small-town Kentucky. On Monday, a school cafeteria outside Dallas and a charter-school parking lot in New Orleans. And before that, a school bus in Iowa, a college campus in Southern California, a high school in Pierce County, near Seattle.
Gunfire ringing out in U.S. schools used to be rare and shocking. Now it seems to happen all the time.
The scene in Benton, Kentucky, on Tuesday was the worst so far in 2018: Two 15-year-old students were killed and 17 more people were injured. It was one of at least 11 shootings involving school property recorded since Jan. 1, and roughly the 50th of the academic year.
Researchers and gun-control advocates say that since 2013, they have logged school shootings at a rate of about one a week.
“We have absolutely become numb to these kinds of shootings, and I think that will continue,” said Katherine Schweit, a former senior FBI official and the co-author of a study of 160 active-shooting incidents in the United States.
Some of the shootings at schools this year were suicides that injured no one else; some did not result in any injuries at all. But in the years since the massacres at Columbine High School in Colorado, Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, gun-safety advocates say, all school shootings seem to have lost some of their capacity to shock.
Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action, a gun-safety group, said that was because in 2012 in Newtown, “20 first-graders and six educators were slaughtered in an elementary school.”
“The news cycles are so short right now in America, and there’s a lot going on,” she said. “But you would think that shootings in American schools would be able to clear away some of that clutter.”
Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin said the gunman who opened fire Tuesday morning at Marshall County High School in Benton, near the western tip of the state, was not a man at all, but a 15-year-old student. The authorities said the student entered the school with a handgun just before 8 a.m., fired shots that struck 14 people, and set off a panicked flight in which five more were hurt.
One girl who was shot, Bailey Nicole Holt, died at the scene; a boy, Preston Ryan Cope, died of his injuries at a hospital.
The suspect, who was not immediately identified, was taken into custody in “a nonviolent apprehension,” Bevin said, and officials said he would be charged with two counts of murder and several counts of attempted murder. But the authorities had not yet decided whether to charge the suspect, who was armed with a pistol, as a juvenile or as an adult.
Of the 17 people injured, five remained in critical condition, law-enforcement officials said Tuesday night.
The region was scarred about two decades ago by a deadly school shooting in West Paducah, about a 40-minute drive away. Three people were killed when a student opened fire into a prayer circle, and five more were injured.
The town of Italy, Texas, is not any bigger than Benton. On Monday, a 15-year-old girl there was hospitalized after she was shot by a 16-year-old classmate, according to local news reports. That suspect, a boy, was taken into custody by the Ellis County Sheriff’s Department. The authorities said Tuesday that the victim was recovering.
The FBI study that Schweit helped write examined active-shooter episodes in the United States between 2000 and 2013. It found that nearly one-quarter of them occurred in educational environments, and they were on the rise. In the first half of the study period, federal officials counted 16 active-shooter incidents in educational settings, meaning instances of a person “actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area.”
In the second half, the number rose to 23. (Many, but not all, of the school shootings tallied by advocates so far this year meet that definition.)
According to a report issued by the Government Accountability Office in March 2016, 19 states were requiring individual schools to have plans for how to deal with an active shooter. Only 12 states required schools to conduct drills, but two-thirds of school districts reported that they had staged active-shooter exercises.
School-safety experts say steps like the drills are crucial, if imperfect, safeguards.
In Kentucky, lawmakers have grappled with how to address the risk of school shootings. Last year, state legislators considered, but did not pass, a bill that would have allowed people with concealed-carry permits to bring weapons on to public-school campuses, where, proponents argue, they could be used to respond to active shooters.
A similar bill, limited to college campuses and certain other government buildings, has been introduced this year. It was not immediately clear how the shooting in Benton might affect the debate in Frankfort, the Kentucky capital.
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Dr. Larry Nassar Sentenced to 40 to 175 Years for Sexual Abuse
January 25, 2018 by admin
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The case and its ramifications are far from over. It has ignited outrage in the sports world and beyond, leading to the resignation this week of the chairman and several board members of the governing body for gymnastics in the United States, U.S.A. Gymnastics. Last week, the organization cut ties with the Karolyi Ranch, the training center at a remote Texas ranch where some of the abuse occurred.
There have also been calls for the resignation of the president of Michigan State University, where Dr. Nassar spent decades on the faculty and treated its athletes. He also treated some members of the United States national gymnastics team there. The N.C.A.A. on Tuesday formally opened an investigation into the university’s conduct.
A number of civil lawsuits have also been filed.
The sentencing hearing itself, streamed live on the internet, garnered much attention for extending several days to allow for victim impact statements from girls and women who said they were molested by Dr. Nassar over the years. Many of the victims had not previously identified themselves. Initial plans to conclude after four days were altered as more women came forward.
Judge Aquilina was a fierce advocate for the victims, often praising or consoling them after their statements. The hours and hours of victims speaking candidly about their abuse unexpectedly turned the hearing into a cathartic forum. Dozens of women who had remained silent came forward with accounts of abuse.
Gymnasts Confront Larry Nassar Over Sexual Abuse
Aly Raisman and Jordyn Wieber were among several gymnasts who spoke during the sentencing hearing for Lawrence G. Nassar, the former team doctor, who pleaded guilty to molestation charges in November.
By NEETI UPADHYE on Publish Date January 19, 2018.
Photo by Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal, via Associated Press.
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Among those who have accused him are the Olympic gold medalists Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney, Gabby Douglas, Jordyn Wieber and Simone Biles.
The final three victims spoke on Wednesday. Rachael Denhollander, who was one of the first women to come forward with public accusations against Dr. Nassar, was the last to speak at his sentencing hearing. “Larry is the most dangerous type of abuser,” she said. “One who is capable of manipulating his victims through coldly calculated grooming methodologies, presenting the most wholesome and caring external persona as a deliberate means to ensure a steady stream of young children to assault.”
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Judge Aquilina praised Ms. Denhollander for opening the floodgates. “You are the bravest person I have ever had in my courtroom,” she said.
The sentence carries a minimum 40 years imprisonment, adhering to the terms of the plea agreement, but the judge advised that should Dr. Nassar improbably live longer than any human has, and come up for parole after serving the federal and state sentences, his time in prison should extend to 175 years.
“Imagine feeling like you have no power and no voice,” Ms. Raisman said in court on Friday. “Well, you know what, Larry? I have both power and voice, and I am only just beginning to use them. All these brave women have power, and we will use our voices to make sure you get what you deserve: a life of suffering spent replaying the words delivered by this powerful army of survivors.”
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“I was told to trust him, that he would treat my injuries and make it possible for me to achieve my Olympic dreams,” Ms. Maroney said in a statement read by a prosecutor on Thursday. “Dr. Nassar told me that I was receiving ‘medically necessary treatment’ that he had been performing on patients for over 30 years.”
“Dr. Nassar was not a doctor,” she said. “He in fact is, was, and forever shall be a child molester, and a monster of a human being.”
As part of a lawsuit settlement, Ms. Maroney had signed a nondisclosure agreement with U.S.A. Gymnastics that would have caused her to be fined more than $100,000 for speaking about the abuse. After several celebrities offered to pay the fine for her, the organization said it would not fine her, and she was able to make her statement.
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Ms. Wieber made a statement in person on Friday, saying: “Nobody was protecting us from being taken advantage of. Nobody was ever concerned whether or not we were being sexually abused.”
Dr. Nassar objected to the many statements, saying that Judge Aquilina had turned the hearing into a “media circus.” The judge dismissed his complaint. “Spending four or five days listening to them is significantly minor, considering the hours of pleasure you had at their expense and ruining their lives,” the judge replied.
A lawsuit has been filed by scores of victims against Dr. Nassar, U.S.A. Gymnastics, the sport’s governing body and Michigan State, where he worked.
Moments after the judge delivered her sentence, the United States Olympic Committee issued a statement calling on the entire gymnastics board to resign and announcing other steps to investigate Dr. Nassar’s conduct and repair the damage done to the sport. The Olympic committee’s chief executive, Scott Blackmun, also apologized for not attending the hearing, after gymnasts took the U.S.O.C. to task for failing to protect them.
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