Student Brings Gun to High School in Roosevelt
A KSL Report – Friday, February 3, 2006

Coincidentally, only hours before this story broke, Reed Cowan, a graduate of Union High School in Roosevelt, Utah testified before a Utah Senate sub-committee hearing on an anti-bullying resolution. During his testimony he described being severely bullied at Union High and the fact that “NOTHING was ever done about it.” (video coming)

It is clear from the KSL article that the “the teen” had some bullies.

“The teen told Mckenna he was being bullied and needed a gun for protection. But he refused to give details. On Tuesday he also told his friends he had problems.
Henry McKenna: “He was very depressed, very angry about certain things that we’re not sure.”

Eric Dongaard, Student, Union High School: “All I heard was that a kid brought a gun to school because he was getting made fun of at class with a bunch of kids, and got sick of it and brought it to school.”

What’s interesting is that the readers’ comments about the article on the KSL website are all about gun laws, pat-downs, and punishment. Not one post mentioned the part about the student having been bullied.

This kind of myopia will be a huge challenge in getting S.R.C 1, the Anti-Bullying Resolution, passed through the house.

A year after Columbine, a $2m Secret Service study concluded that 75% of school shooters were bullied or harassed at school. Since then a great deal of research has, and is being conducted. We now know that bullying is involved in almost all cases of school violence. We also know that bullying is by most measures, an epidemic. The AMA has called it a “major national health risk.”

That is why everyone from the Governor Hunstman and The Utah State Board of Education (in a unanimous decision) on down to “the people” screaming, are in support this resolution.

In an almost freakish response, www.mybully.org, a website I set up for this resolution received over 360 emotional pleas and comments in support of the resolution in four days. KSL received a similar response when some 250 comments appeared on their website after they did a 3-part series on schoolyard bullying in February 2005.
Yet many remain in stubborn denial because they still don’t know what none of us knew before Columbine.

This problem IS solvable. And the result brings with it, improved grades and reduced alcohol and drug abuse.

There is a 75% chance “the teen” with the gun at Union High was a basically gentle kid at wits end, if not scared for his life. The bad kids were the ones that nearly drove him to an act of desperation; to bring a gun to school.

Maybe he figured he could get his tormentors to stop by finding a way of letting them know, he had a gun and he wanted to get caught. That is of course not a good enough reason to bring a gun to school, but I suppose it’s better than “bullycide”

This kid was well trained in handling guns. He knew that by keeping the ammunition in a different place, it would signal that he was never an immediate threat.

These are our rural Utah schools and this is the fourth or 5^th such incident in Utah in the past year.

Long-term studies ending this year will reveal that one of the effects of eliminating bullying in schools is that grades go up across the board.

In other words it is LIKELY that we will soon be told that the number one best AND least expensive way to increase academic performance (and the passion for learning) is too eliminate bullying.

23 states have passed anti-bullying laws since 2001, mostly sponsored by Republicans. There is also federal legislation waiting for the president’s signature.

It is possible to completely eradicate bullying in schools. It’s being done in other countries, and it’s not expensive. It mostly takes will and commitment on the part of faculty, staff, and parents. When good kids trust teachers to enforce justice and fairness, starting in kindergarten, they will stand up to bullies and support their friends in doing so…and the bullies become the protectors celebrated for their courage.

2-Year Program to Eliminate Bullying in a School. (one page)

Sign the petition supporting the proposed Utah anti-bullying resolution