Stephen Nulty 1:55 pm on May 19, 2018
Tags: dimitrios pagourtzis, greg abbott, , , santa fe,   

Saturday 19 May 2018 – Mass shooting in Santa Fe high school, Texas

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Mass shootings in the United States have been a recurring feature in my blog over the last three years and here we are yet again with another one, and yet another in an American high school.  A student, named as 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis, entered his own school in Santa Fe, Texas, armed with a shotgun and possibly a revolver.  He opened fire on his fellow students and others killing ten and injuring ten others.  According to Texan Governor Greg Abbott, Dimitrios had left indications on his computer, diary and mobile phone that he planned to commit suicide after his killing spree.  However, he apparently changed his mind and instead was arrested and taken into custody.  He has now been charged with murder.  Mr Abbott said that Dimitrios “gave himself up” as “he didn’t have the courage to commit the suicide.”


Mr Abbott also said that “various kinds of explosive devices”  had been found in the school and warned students and nearby residents to stay away from any suspicious objects and “do not touch any items that look out of place.”.  He said that a “CO2 device [and] a Molotov cocktail,” pipe bombs and a pressure cooker contraption had been found in the gunman’s home and in a vehicle.  It is also believed that the gunman obtained the firearms he used from his father, who owned them legally.


Yesterday’s shooting began at around 7.30am local time (12.30pm GMT) when, according to witnesses, the gunman entered an art class and started shooting.  One witness told KTRK-TV: “There was someone that walked in with a shotgun and started shooting […] and this girl was shot in the leg.”  Another student, Dakota Shrader, told CBS News that everyone began running outside when the alarms went off.  It seems the alarms were set off by a teacher when they realised what was happening.  Miss Shrader continued: “Next thing you know everybody looks, and you hear boom, boom, boom, and I just ran as fast as I could to the nearest floor so I could hide, and I called my mom.”  She  added: “We were in first class. It was first period. […] All the teachers were like: ‘Get this way, get this way, come over here.’ Next thing you know we hear the booms and everybody starts running as fast as they can. […] And the next thing you know all the art [class] windows are getting shot, shattered.” Another student, Damon Rabon, described the gunman to CBS News: “Black trench coat, short kind of guy had a sawed-off shotgun.”


A school police officer, John Barnes, was injured in the shooting.  He has undergone surgery and was said to be in a critical condition before surgery but is now described as in a stable condition.  He is said to have been the first person to  confront the gunman, who shot him.  He suffered damage to a bone and a major blood vessel in his elbow.


A substitute teacher, Cynthia Tisdale, was among the dead.  Her niece, Leia Olinde, spoke of how her aunt helped her at her shop for wedding dresses: “She helped me put it on, she helped fix my hair. She was wonderful. She was just so loving. I’ve never met a woman who loved her family so much.”  Cynthia Tisdale had been married for forty years and had three children and eight grandchildren and loved cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the extended family each year. Miss Olinde’s finance, Eric Sanders, said of Cynthia: “words don’t explain her lust for life and the joy she got from helping people.”

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According to the Pakistani embassy in Washington DC, Pakistani student Sabika Sheikh (above) was also killed at the school.  Megan Lysaght, manager of the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange & Study Abroad program (YES), wrote to students in the program saying: “Please know that the YES program is devastated by this loss and we will remember Sabika and her families in our thoughts and prayers.”  The Pakistani embassy also said: “our thoughts and prayers are with Sabika’s family and friends.” Sabika was due to go home for a three-day holiday to mark Eid al-Fitr – the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.  The Pakistani Association of Greater Houston posted a message on Facebook saying: “May Allah bless her soul and may she RIP.”


THE PRESIDENT’S REACTION

President Trump, speaking a prison reform event at the White House, described the shooting as “absolutely horrific” and continued: “My administration is determined to do everything in our power to protect our students, secure our schools, and to keep weapons out of the hands of those who pose a threat to themselves, and to others.”  He also ordered flags to be flown at half-mast at the White House and all public and military buildings.  This shooting will undoubtedly reinforce Mr Trump’s desire to see teachers of America armed inside schools.  He repeated this wish when speaking to the National Rifle Association (NRA) in Dallas just two weeks ago and he may play on a recent incident where an armed police officer was thankfully able to stop a former student who opened fire at a high school in Illinois before he anyone was injured.  Having armed police officers on school campuses is one thing, arming teachers in the classroom is a whole different ball game.  There are some links in the Sources & Further Reading at the end of this post if you wish to read more about this contentious issue.


Texan Governor Greg Abbott described the shooting as “one of the most heinous attacks that we’ve ever seen in the history of Texas schools. It is impossible to describe the magnitude of the evil of someone who would attack innocent children in a school.”  Meanwhile, First Lady Melanie Trump tweeted: “My heart goes out to Santa Fe and all of Texas today.”  A professional athlete from the state, Houston Texan NFL team member JJ Watt, has offered to pay the funeral expenses of the victims of the shooting.


The NRA, as is often the case after school shootings, has made no comment.  The Lieutenant Governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, tweeted for his Twitter followers to “please pray for all those at Santa Fe High School,” while Texas Senator Ted Cruz said the victims were “in our prayers.”  As is so often the case, this sort of response is the norm and does absolutely nothing to address the crisis of school and mass shootings in the United States or the absolute essential need for meaningful gun control.  Political inactivity on the issues has only helped to spur on the popular protests such as the March For Our Lives group that emerged after the shootings in Parkland, Florida in February.


Adam Winkler, a UCLA law professor and author of Gunfight, a History of America’s Struggles Over Firearms, wrote: “Another school shooting plays to the narrative that we need to do somethings drastic to stop this.  It is becoming increasingly clear that the NRA’s answer – to do nothing – is not working.”  Despite Donald Trump’s early hopes that he might be more robust on gun control and on the NRA, going as far as to call some Republican Congressmen of being “afraid of the NRA”, the President has backed away from taking any meaningful measures and his recent speech to the NRA only reinforces the opinion that he is in their pocket.  The fact that he has also taken tens of millions of dollars from the NRA, despite saying he needed no such money during his campaign, is further evidence of the power the NRA hold over the current President.  The only concession the President has followed through on was the restriction on so-called bump-stocks, which followed on from their devastating use in the Las Vegas shooting in October.

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It is not just the President who is resisting change on gun control issues.  Congress is proving equally inept.  Executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Josh Horowitz, said: “Congress have proven to be unable to deal with these issues – we simply have to wait for elections for a new Congress.”  Mr Horowitz was more optimistic about change on a State level: “There has been a dramatic uptick in state legislation – Americans seem to be more resolved in moving on this issue.”  For instance, Florida, Maryland and Vermont have introduced so-called “red flag” or “extreme risk” laws that address the issue of vulnerable people obtaining weapons.  Ironically, the Governors of these three states are Republicans.  Texas, however, still remains the state with the laxest gun laws in the Union and it seems unlikely that the latest mass shooting in their state, which follows on from the high-profile shooting at Sutherland Springs church in Texas last November, will make any dramatic change to their gun control laws.  Despite the horrors and outrage over that shooting, which killed 26 people and injured 20 more, nothing changed so let us not expect the cold-hearts of those who enact laws in the Lone Star State to react with common sense or humanity this time.


Quite the opposite is likely in fact.  In Texas it is already legal for teachers to carry firearms in the classroom, which questions the logic of the NRA and Trump that arming school teachers would prevent school shootings.  Tell that to the families of the 10 who died yesterday in a Texas school.  Texas is also considering introducing “constitutional carry,” which amazingly would means Texans would not even need a permit or safety training to carry firearms in public.  The chance of change is also compromised by the fact that the Texas legislature only meets every second year!  This year is an off-year and won’t meet again until next year.  By then, I imagine, they will be hoping the memories of yesterday’s shooting and any calls for gun control legislation will have died down enough for them to ignore it all and carry on as normal.


They shouldn’t be complacent however.  As part of the March For Our Lives movement 20,000 people protested in Austin, Texas, in March and up to 5,000 students, including many from Santa Fe High School, took part in a school walkout in protest.  Despite the lack of action from the politicians in the State, polls show that the majority of Texan favour more gun control.  A poll by Quinnipiac University found that 55% of Texan voters support stricter gun laws across the US, and an astonishing 94% want to see background checks on all gun purchases.  Of course, Texans aren’t calling for the ban on guns that I would support, and they are vehemently supportive of the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms, but it is clear that most Texans see the dangers of vulnerable and dangerous people being able to easily obtain firearms.  Ed Scruggs, vice-chair of Texas Gun Sense, a pro-gun group who campaign for common sense policy on gun laws, said: “The ground is shifting.  For a while people around here thought they were immune from these types of tragedies. Now they know that surely we are not.” 


Tom Mauser, who son Daniel died at Columbine high school nearly twenty years ago said that the latest shooting will fire up activists even more, but he was skeptical about change: “In terms of the general public. This was another school shooting. For most Americans, sorry, this was just another day in America. Another tragic day, certainly, but ‘our thoughts and our prayers’ – that’s as far as it goes for most people.”

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Yesterday evening, several hundred students, parents and residents gathered near the school to hold a vigil at sunset.  Many were wearing the green colours of the school’s sports teams. Santa Fe has just 18,000 residents, 1,400 of whom are students at the school, so the shooting has had a significant impact on the community.  At the vigil, John Overbeck – a final-year student at the school – spoke to the BBC: “I don’t know how to feel. I don’t know if it’s hit me yet. When something like this happens, it’s just so easy to be distracted from it. […] I feel like when I’m isolated later, I’m going to break down.”


A Santa Fe student, Paige Curry, told TV journalists – after being asked “Was there a part of you that was like, ‘This isn’t real, this would not happen in my school?’” –  said “No, there wasn’t. It’s been happening everywhere, I’ve always kind of felt like eventually it was going to happen here too.”  Her response to the dumb question even went viral, demonstrating the level of popular horror at the scale of school shootings in the United States.  Resident, 39-year-old Vicknair, answered a similar question with: “People say that, but I always [pauses…] Yes. I think that kind of stuff can happen anywhere.”  Vicknair’s father added: “It makes you wonder. Like I hear people say all the time, [school is] supposed to be a safe place. But I guess nowadays it’s just not.”  Vicknair also commented: “It’s just a shame and hopefully there will be changes nationwide to secure these schools. I’ll leave that up to the professionals. I think we’ve got officials and stuff that can make those decisions.”

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Raymond Dorcek, who is 56 and runs a meat market in Santa Fe and whose daughter is a Santa Fe High School student, said: “You have to look at it that it could happen anywhere. You just hope that it doesn’t. I don’t know how to stop it and I don’t think gun control’s the answer. We grew up having guns, hunting, none of that ever happened when we had guns. We went to school, used to have guns in the back of our pickups, on the racks. Long as you didn’t take them inside, you know? Nothing like that ever happened.”

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The organisation March For Our Lives tweeted: “To the students and faculty of Santa Fe High School, we are with you. #MarchForOurLives.”  They also linked to a statement which read: “We are deeply saddened by the tragedy at Santa Fe High School and send our love and support to the families affected as well as the entire community.  Though this is the 22nd school shooting this year, we urge those reading this not to sweep it under the rug and forget.  This is not the price of our freedom. This is the most fatal shooting since the one at our school and tragedies like this will continue to happen unless action is taken. Santa Fe, we are with you, and we will do whatever we can to support you as the days go on.”


The shooting referred to by March For Our Lives was the February shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida.  Seventeen were killed in that shooting, which many regarded as a tipping point in the long campaign for meaningful gun control in the United States.  It inspired students and others to protest and march for change, and led to the creation of the nationwide movement, which has had some progress in creating debate and change.  Nevertheless, the killings continue at an alarming rate.  In 2018 there have already been 31 fatalities and 76 injuries in 16 school shootings that have resulted in death or injury, including yesterday’s shooting in Santa Fe.  In fact, according to the Wasington Post, there have been more school shooting deaths in the US this year that military personnel have been killed.

THE GUNMAN

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Dimitrios Pagourtzis, although he left plans of his intent to kill in his diary, computer and mobile phone, seems to have not been known as a risk to authorities before he went on his rampage.  Governor Abbot remarked: “Unlike Parkland, unlike Sutherland Springs, there were not those types of warning signs. We have what are often categorized as red-flag warnings, and here, the red-flag warnings were either nonexistent or very imperceptible.”  There, however, were some clues on his social media sites before the shooting.  In them he described himself as an atheist – although being an atheist is not an indication of intention to kill – and said he hated politics.  Last month he posted an image of himself wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “Born To Kill” emblazoned on it.  According to The Guardian, Dimitrios played on the Santa Fe high school junior varsity football team, was a member of the dance squad at a local Greek Orthodox Church.  Despite his apparent social activities, it will undoubtedly be shown that he was an angry, possibly isolated and alienated, young man who no-one suspected could do such terrible things.  Dimitrios is now in Galveston County Jail on charges of capital murder.  As a minor he will not face the death penalty.

Sources & Further Reading:


Links on arming teachers in school: