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2. The Copycat Factor: Mental Illness, Guns, and the Shooting Incident at Heritage High School, Rockdale County, Georgia
Pages 25-69

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From page 25...
... He then knelt, put the handgun in his mouth, and hesitated. Shortly thereafter, he surrendered the gun to a school official and was taken into custody by law enforcement officials.
From page 26...
... A total of 42 people participated in interviews, including law enforcement, local government, and school officials; some of the victims and their parents; journalists who had worked in the community; and community members, including adult residents and also young people, a number of whom had known T.r. Solomon and his family.
From page 27...
... The contending interpretations of his psychological condition, as presented by prosecutors and defense lawyers and decided on by the juvenile court and superior court judges, are matters of public record, available in the transcripts of the transfer hearing from juvenile to superior court and the sentencing hearing in superior court. We turn now to descriptions of the community, the school, the offender and his family, the incident, and the aftermath.
From page 28...
... Fulton County contains most of the city of Atlanta. DeKalb County lies between Fulton and Rockdale and contains a small portion of the city of Atlanta as well as another large city, Decatur.
From page 29...
... Their anxiety stems in part from the notoriety conferred on them by T.r. Solomon's deed, but their discomfort stems mainly from a public television documentary entitled The Lost Children of Rockdale County that aired on the series Frontline shortly after the Heritage High School shooting incident (Goodman and Goodman, 1999~.
From page 30...
... The syphilis outbreak had actually occurred three years before the shooting and had been excavated after the fact by the filmmakers. Local health officials had responded quickly, identifying and effectively medicating those affected.
From page 31...
... CRIME AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN ROCKDALE COUNTY The Heritage High School shooting incident occurred in a community with low and stable rates of crime, among both juveniles and adults. Figure 2-1 shows that crime rates in Rockdale County bear an inverse relationship to its prosperity, in comparison to its neighbors, the state, and the nation.
From page 32...
... Besides being the location of commercial entertainment, such as movies and the bowling alley, their parking lots were frequently filled with crowds of young people just hanging out. The participants in the youth focus groups confirmed that the law enforcement kept a close eye on their public activities: SPEAKER 2: Yeah, like a couple of years ago we all used to hang out in front of the Kroger's parking lot and it was like evervbodv iust solit and went their separate ways.
From page 33...
... Two law enforcement jurisdictions served the area, the Rockdale County sheriff's department and the city of Conyers police department. During our brief field visits, the representatives of these agencies conveyed an impression of progressive professionalism.
From page 34...
... Solomon was subject to a transfer hearing in juvenile court, which became the primary judicial forum in which evidence related to his deeds, intentions, and mental health was presented. Following the decision to transfer him to superior court, that evidentiary record then became the basis for the sentencing hearing that followed his guilty plea in superior court.
From page 35...
... Some common distinctions made by and of local youth were among "jocks," "preps," "Christian kids," "rednecks," "blacks," "Hispanics," "wiggers," "drama kids," "band kids," the "straightedge mafia," and "loners."
From page 36...
... School officials reported that 15 years ago there were relatively few loners, but that the number has increased. In a 14-month period in 1996 and 1997, two years prior to the shooting, Rockdale County experienced a series of three suspected suicides.
From page 37...
... After school and on weekends, different groups would gather in the parking lots of retail stores, such as Kroger or T!
From page 38...
... School officials reported that both before and since the shooting incident, day-to-day problems have been minor and infrequent, the most common being smoking in the restrooms, thefts from lockers, fender benders in the parking lots, and an occasional confrontation or fight between students. On a few occasions, students have been caught bringing drugs or knives into the school.
From page 39...
... The prosecution contended that he was mildly depressed, the defense that he was severely mentally ill. In assessing the available evidence, we conclude that he was severely mentally ill prior to the incident and that the shooting at Columbine High School, combined with this preexisting illness, triggered the incident.
From page 40...
... No one recognized that illness, because of his age and circumstances, the gradual developmental progress of mental illness during adolescence, and the nature of the particular form of depression that he suffered. This study is therefore relevant not only to efforts to understand, prevent, and control the sensational school shootings that have terrified the public, but also to broader concerns about mental illness and its prevention and treatTABLE 2-2 Timeline of T.J.'s Significant Life Events September 6, 1983 T.J.
From page 41...
... His parents separated when he was 4 years old, and their divorce became final two years later. In psychological interviews after the shooting incident, T.J.
From page 42...
... Other experiences much later in his life are far stronger indications of T.r.'s own suicidal intentions. After T.r.'s mother married Robert Daniele, the family went through a series of residential moves, including three moves in the six years prior to the shooting incident.
From page 43...
... To the extent that they socialized outside their own immediate family, it was usually with extended family members. They were religious, Roman Catholic, and attended church services regularly.
From page 44...
... She testified defensively to his normality in earlier childhood and voiced her fears about his well-being, especially in relation to taking Ritalin. She stressed her own careful monitoring and supervision as her primary response to these fears.
From page 45...
... The strongest evidence that a great emotional distance had opened between TV. and his mother comes from the videotape made by law enforcement officials immediately after the arrest.
From page 46...
... Robert Daniele immediately puts his arms around T.r. and strokes his head.
From page 47...
... And his withdrawal was successful. He maintained enough of the appearance of normality, to his family and to others, that he seemed just a little immature, not mentally ill.
From page 48...
... On the same day in February when he was reported to have brought a gun to school, he left school early with another boy, got drunk with him, and returned home late. His stepfather punished him by spanking him with a belt, reportedly the only time he ever applied corporal punishment that severe, but also rather striking for the age at which it was administered.
From page 49...
... was suffering from mental illness that had grown steadily more serious since the family's move to Georgia two years before and had
From page 50...
... had previous thoughts about enacting his own version of Columbine, their timing is uncertain. The prosecution in his court proceedings maintained that the former document had been written the morning of the incident.
From page 51...
... In the latter version, from testimony at T.r.'s transfer hearing, the act in question is shooting up the school. In subsequent legal proceedings, the defense and prosecution attorneys agreed that TV.
From page 52...
... . he would put song lyrics to a band in his book bag so people would blame it on the band." The classmate further identified the band in question as Korn.
From page 53...
... Remarkably, several of the other students who were on the bus that day reported to law enforcement officials that they had not seen anything unusual about TV. One, however, later reported he had noticed TV.
From page 54...
... While several people had called 911 to report the event, it was a student in the school using a cellular phone who first contacted law enforcement. Within four minutes, sheriff's deputies were on the scene and immediately took T.J.
From page 55...
... He arrived minutes later and began assisting in evacuating the school and helping to tend to the injured. Some in the Rockdale community expressed contempt that the officer was not present to prevent or respond to the shooting incident.
From page 56...
... In support of this, one law enforcement official pointed out that while T.J. was shooting from the hip and aiming low, many if not most of the students in the commons area that morning were seated on the floor or on benches and as such were directly in harm's way.
From page 57...
... The principal criminal justice proceedings that ensued were a transfer hearing in juvenile court on August 2, 1999; a sentencing hearing in superior court on October 2, 2000; a decision by the state parole board in May 2001; and, most recently, a court order in superior court amending the original sentence in response to the action of the parole board. At the conclusion of the transfer hearing, the juvenile court waived the offender to superior court, to be tried as an adult.
From page 58...
... Other provisions of state law define the conditions that would require such involuntary commitment to a mental institution to include "disorder of thought or mood which significantly impairs judgment or behavior" and presenting "a substantial risk of imminent harm to that person, himself, or others based on recent behavior." These standards thus involve much less pronounced forms of mental illness than the severe psychotic disorders that typically must be demonstrated in cases of pleas of not guilty by reason of insanity in adult courts. This situation set the terms for most presentations and interpretations of evidence during the transfer hearing.
From page 59...
... The arguments over whether he was committable for mental illness also had to deal with events that occurred in between the shooting and the transfer hearing. While in detention in Lawrenceville, TV.
From page 60...
... was evaluated by psychologists and indicted in superior court, where he entered, and the superior court accepted, a plea of guilty but mentally ill for 29 criminal charges, including aggravated assault (for the gunshots) , cruelty to children (for the injuries to the victims)
From page 61...
... mentally ill. He said, "I understand mental illness.
From page 62...
... In light of his previous actions and his most recent attempt, which was reported to have come close to succeeding, it is uncertain whether or how the judge's order might affect T.r.'s future actions. This uncertainty illustrates some of the difficulties of dealing with mental illness through the criminal justice system.
From page 63...
... Two of the victims testified in the juvenile court transfer hearing and others provided testimony in the sentencing phase. Victims and their families differed considerably in their attitudes toward TV.
From page 64...
... This media resentment, however, was shaped more by the public television documentary on the teenage syphilis outbreak than by the shooting incident. It was easier to rationalize T.r.'s actions as those of a lone "mental case" than to deal with external perceptions of local youth related to the syphilis outbreak, but the combination of the two created a special burden.
From page 65...
... They described it as 'Yeah, he had problems with X, Y Z and he just lost it.' They were not angry with him." Two years later, in two separate youth focus groups, we heard similar statements.
From page 66...
... I don't think it will ever get as loose as what they were. But they are getting looser about you carrying a gun." The primary area in which there is evidence of decisive, long-term change in institutional policy is that of relationships between school officials and law enforcement with respect to weapons in schools.
From page 67...
... CONCLUSIONS This case study, although focused on but one of the recent incidents of extremely serious school violence that have troubled the United States, raises a number of issues of potentially more general interest. These include public perceptions of the role of bullying in generating these incidents, the possible existence of a copycat wave of behavior, the role of mental illness, and the handling of mental illness among youth both by the criminal justice system and by society.
From page 68...
... At a minimum, the increasing passage of time without further recurrence would seem to be favorable, to the extent that a copycat process has occurred. If, however, the trend of mass school shootings does subside and, in so doing, diverts attention from the plights of other youths as seriously mentally ill as T.r.
From page 69...
... 2001 The growth of youth gang problems in the United States: 1970-98. Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.


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