Tragic Workplace Violence Strikes in Middle School Shooting

Tragic Workplace Violence Strikes in Middle School Shooting

Posted by Melissa Fleischer, Esq. on Oct 24th 2013

Another horrific instance of workplace violence, this one directed at middle school students by a 12-year old boy. Thank God for the heroic acts of one of their own teachers who attempted to get the boy to stand down and lost his own life while doing so.

The question remains of whether in this terrible incident there were warning signs by this 12-year old boy. Perhaps there were warning signs that those in the school administration and even other students failed to see and/or failed to report. There were of course warning signs in the Navy Yard shooting only last month in which Aaron Alexis had reported hearing voices, had been detained by Newport, RI police who reported him to the Navy and had been involved in numerous previous incidents all of which were clear warning signs that should have been heeded in that case.

Perhaps school administrators and even students need to be better trained for what types of warning signs to look out for, to whom to report those warning signs as well as what to do if there is an active shooter on their school campus.