Suicidal 8th Grader Shot by SWAT Team

[AKA2D '91]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060113/...hool_evacuated

Middle School Student Shot by SWAT Team By KELLI KENNEDY, Associated Press Writer
5 minutes ago



LONGWOOD, Fla. - A suicidal eighth grader who pulled a handgun in class and forced another child into a closet was shot by a sheriff's SWAT team member Friday when he later threatened deputies, Seminole County officials said.



Sheriff Don Eslinger said the 15-year-old boy brought the gun to Milwee Middle School in his backpack. Eslinger said two students saw it and one persuaded the other to report it, causing a scuffle.

The alleged gunman told one of the students to go into a closet, ran from the classroom and "traveled with this firearm throughout the campus," Eslinger said. Deputies eventually isolated him in a restroom, and the school was evacuated.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060113/...hool_evacuated

[AlphaFrog]

15 and in 8th grade??? Not to make light on the topic, but I'd probably be sucidal too if I was almost able to drive myself to JR HIGH!!!!

[AKA2D '91]

The student was probably emotionally disturbed...

[Honeykiss1974]

Being 15 and in the 8th grade isn't that big of a stretch. I was 14 when I was in the 8th grade. Growing up in my school district, if your birthday fell after a certain date (I think it was September, but I can't remember that far back ), you had to wait a year to start school.

In any case, my prayers are with the young suicidal man, the injured "hostage" and everyone affected by this incident. Its so sad that someone so young felt that this was his only option. But then again, I know that when you are suicidal, you are not in your right state of mind.

[AKA2D '91]

True. Let's hope that the student has already celebrated a birthday. If not....

[ZTAMich]

This is where my mom teaches.

She says the school followed procedures and everyone cooperated during the "code red" while the situation was unfolding. But obviously it was a very scary thing. A lot of teachers were absent today as well which makes even more scarier.

Classes were moved into the gym until the standoff ended. My mom and her class of 8 autisctic kids were moved into an empty locker room so the noise wouldn't upset them. They even called parents to make sure they would be home when they got off the bus.

My poor younger sister was home sick, heard the story as it broke on the local news and is as shaken up as our mom.

Just keep the community in your thoughts & prayers.

[Taualumna]

Originally posted by Honeykiss1974
Being 15 and in the 8th grade isn't that big of a stretch. I was 14 when I was in the 8th grade. Growing up in my school district, if your birthday fell after a certain date (I think it was September, but I can't remember that far back ), you had to wait a year to start school.

In any case, my prayers are with the young suicidal man, the injured "hostage" and everyone affected by this incident. Its so sad that someone so young felt that this was his only option. But then again, I know that when you are suicidal, you are not in your right state of mind.

[hijack] Yeah, but it's so early in the year...[/hijack]

[Amaretto Sour]

No one else was injured. The sheriff's office confirmed later that the weapon was a pellet gun fashioned to look like a 9mm handgun.

Absolutely terrible that a fifteen-year old had to be shot over this.

I will say another thing: not for nothing, but Florida seems to have the worst and weirdest stories involving the handling of children and their many different problems.

Why do our youth think it's so easy to suddenly resort to guns and violence to get attention? Is it THAT bad these days?

[honeychile]

Originally posted by Amaretto Sour
Absolutely terrible that a fifteen-year old had to be shot over this.

He pointed a gun - a pellet gun looking much like a more powerful weapon - at a policeman. It's a wonder he's not already dead.

There are TOO MANY GOOD policemen ruined by these people who "commit suicide by policeman" in this fashion, and it really upsets me. Many people will jump on the mean, mean police/let's ban all guns bandwagon rather than look at the real problem - that a 15-year-old had problems that obviously no one paid attention to, or he wouldn't have done that.

Think of those poor children who had to see all of this, the teachers, the school staff. Think of this kid's parents. Think of the policeman, who probably went through some serious hell before he shot. THOSE are the people who are to be pitied!

[Amaretto Sour]

Originally posted by honeychile
He pointed a gun - a pellet gun looking much like a more powerful weapon - at a policeman. It's a wonder he's not already dead.

There are TOO MANY GOOD policemen ruined by these people who "commit suicide by policeman" in this fashion, and it really upsets me. Many people will jump on the mean, mean police/let's ban all guns bandwagon rather than look at the real problem - that a 15-year-old had problems that obviously no one paid attention to, or he wouldn't have done that.

Think of those poor children who had to see all of this, the teachers, the school staff. Think of this kid's parents. Think of the policeman, who probably went through some serious hell before he shot. THOSE are the people who are to be pitied!

Ahh, seriously.. I'm not disagreeing with you. I AM, however, saying that in the grand scheme of things, little guy didn't even have a real gun - the whole cotton-pickin' thing was for attention, and he got it: he was shot. So.. I will rephrase. It's a shame that a situation involving a young boy begging for attention culminated into him being shot by someone doing their job.

I don't believe you're assuming that *I* take the tone of "bad policeman/good kids (regardless of the hell you raise)", because that's not my style. I will, however, wonder how it got this far. As I said in my first post, what is going on for our youth to resort to violence and gun threats and attempted suicide to get attention? I don't feel sorry for that boy - I don't feel sorry for anyone who can recklessly put other lives in danger like that. But I don't deny that there's some emotional disturbance there that, if checked and maintained, could have prevented this. That's where my concern is - as a future teacher, I look to see how I could prevent this from happening at MY future school.

[Jill1228]

It is now officially Suicide by Cop

Fla. Eighth-Grader Shot by Deputies Dies
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060114/...hool_evacuated

Fla. Eighth-Grader Shot by Deputies Dies By KELLI KENNEDY, Associated Press Writer
2 minutes ago



A reportedly suicidal teenager who was shot by police while brandishing a pellet gun in his middle school has died of his injuries, his family's spokeswoman said Saturday.

Kelly Swofford, a neighbor who had been with the family all morning, stood outside their home and confirmed that 15-year-old Christopher Penley had died.

"They want to donate his organs because that is what Chris would want," Swofford said. "The family is devastated, just devastated."

Penley, of Winter Springs, was accused of pulling the pellet gun in a classroom Friday and pointing it at other students before forcing one into a closet, then leading deputies and SWAT team members on a chase that ended in a school bathroom.

When he raised the gun at a deputy, a SWAT team member shot him, authorities said.

Officers who had responded to the 1,100-student school in suburban Orlando believed the gun was a Beretta 9mm, and didn't learn until after the shooting that it was a pellet gun.

Police had said Friday night that the boy was on "advanced life support." The hospital refused to release any information Saturday.

"Everybody in the whole neighborhood is really upset," Paul Cavallini, who lives across the street from the Penleys, said Saturday. "He was a quiet kid — polite and everything. He was just a normal teenager."

However, friends and investigators say he was also bullied and emotionally distraught, and went to school that day expecting to die.

Patrick Lafferty, a 15-year-old neighbor who has known Penley about six years, said he wasn't surprised by what happened. He said Penley was a loner who "told me he wanted to kill himself dozens of times."

"He would put his headphones on and walk up and down the street and he would work out a lot," preferring to keep to himself, Lafferty said.

Swofford said the boy had run away from home several times. Her 11-year-old son, Jeffery Swofford, said Penley had said he had something planned.

"He said `I hope I die today because I don't really like my life,'" Jeffery Swofford said.

At a news conference following the shooting Friday at suburban Orlando's Milwee Middle School, authorities put the pellet gun side-by-side with a Beretta. It appeared to have black paint covering the red or pink markings on the muzzle that may have indicated to officers that it was a nonlethal weapon.

"As you can see, it doesn't take a professional to see how close this looks to the real thing. I would not be able to tell the difference," said Joyce Dawley, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement special agent in charge of the investigation.

Seminole County Sheriff Don Eslinger said the incident began about 9:38 a.m., when another student saw Penley with the weapon and struggled with him for it. Pointing the gun at the other student's back, Penley directed him to a closet, dimmed the lights and left the classroom, Eslinger said.

The school went into lockdown.

From there, the sheriff said, Penley traversed the school campus before ending up in a bathroom. By then, more than 40 officers, including SWAT and negotiators, were on scene. He refused to drop the firearm, Eslinger said, and was shot after pointing it at a SWAT deputy.

"The student said he was going to kill himself or die," Eslinger said.

Jeffery Swofford said Penley had been in a disagreement with someone, allegedly over a girl. There was going to be a fight Friday, he said. "I heard a rumor that he had a BB gun, but I didn't think he really had one," he added.

At the school Friday, Marie Hargis, whose son and daughter attend Milwee, held a sign that read "Stop the violence."

"My youngest daughter is just very emotionally messed up," she said. "She started crying and said, `Mommy, I don't want to go back.' They should not fear having to go to school."

[nikki1920]

ITA w/ Amaretto Sour. I'm wondering why his non violent cries for attention were not heard... for the brief time that I was considering teaching Special Ed, I was trained that any mention of suicide was to be brought to the attention of the guidance counselors ASAP.

ZTAMich: my thoughts and prayers to your mom and sister and others affected by this tragedy.

[honeychile]

Originally posted by Amaretto Sour
Ahh, seriously.. I'm not disagreeing with you. I AM, however, saying that in the grand scheme of things, little guy didn't even have a real gun - the whole cotton-pickin' thing was for attention, and he got it: he was shot. So.. I will rephrase. It's a shame that a situation involving a young boy begging for attention culminated into him being shot by someone doing their job.

I don't believe you're assuming that *I* take the tone of "bad policeman/good kids (regardless of the hell you raise)", because that's not my style. I will, however, wonder how it got this far. As I said in my first post, what is going on for our youth to resort to violence and gun threats and attempted suicide to get attention? I don't feel sorry for that boy - I don't feel sorry for anyone who can recklessly put other lives in danger like that. But I don't deny that there's some emotional disturbance there that, if checked and maintained, could have prevented this. That's where my concern is - as a future teacher, I look to see how I could prevent this from happening at MY future school.

I'm terribly sorry if I came off that way. I get angry when I hear of kids who are not heard, who turn to this type of violence. It angers me as a counselor, and as a human being. It angers me as a person who grew up in a "suicide family" - no one in his family will ever be the same. Nor will any of the other students, the faculty, or their families - all in one moment. Truly, this is a sad and horrifying experience.

You make excellent points, and one can see that you'll be a good teacher. I wish there were more like you!

BTW, Yahoo has the teenager brain dead.

[Honeykiss1974]

The more and more I read this story, the more my heart is just crushed at this story. The young man that died, the cop that shot him (I can't imagine how he feels especially if he has kids that age), just everyone involved.

I hope everyone that reads this story takes away the lesson of taking all suicide threats seriously. I'd rather be wrong and embarrassed because it wasn't to true than to know that I could have done something to prevent a tragedy (or save someone's life).

[RedefinedDiva]

We don't know that his cries for help went unanswered. Maybe this is just what he wanted. As the stories said, he had a history of running away and talking about committing suicide. His family might have known about his suicidal talk. Someone had to investigate why he was running. There had to be a reason behind it. As the article stated that he was emotionally distraught, the young man could have been on medication. Some teenagers exhibit heightened thoughts and expressions of intent to commit suicide on certain medications.

My heart goes out to the other students, faculty, staff, and the police officers.