Damien Haglund Shot Dead, Mt Horeb School Shooting, Mount Horeb, Wisconsin: My first major story was a school shooting plan that occurred at the high school in Burlington, which is located forty miles southwest of Milwaukee. It was reported in November 1998, two months after I had started working for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Burlington is a population of 10,000 people.
The kids who had planned to kill certain classmates and staff members were apprehended as a result of a tip that was given to the police.
It all appeared to be a little bit weird.
Following that, I was dispatched to cover the historic school shooting that took place at Columbine High School in Littleton, which is located in the state of Colorado and has a population of 40,000 people. A total of thirteen persons, including John Tomlin, who was sixteen years old and had spent the majority of his youth in Wisconsin, were murdered by two students, who subsequently committed themselves.
During the time that I was covering John’s burial, which was less than a year after the birth of my daughter, I discovered that I had shed tears on the job for the very first time in my fifteen years of experience as a reporter.
According to the authorities, a pupil who was equipped with a firearm was shot and killed by police on Wednesday outside of the middle school in Mount Horeb, which is located approximately 20 miles southwest of Madison. There are approximately 8,000 people living in the community, which is affectionately referred to as “the troll capital of the world.”
Damian Haglund, a student at the school who is 14 years old and in the eighth grade, was recognized as the pupil by the news reports. According to ABC News, which cited sources, he was in possession of what seemed to be a long gun. However, the authorities have disclosed very few additional details.
When it comes to school shootings in the United States, one thing that is very obvious is that, despite widespread sentiments of “I never thought it could happen here,” the most tragic occurrences typically take place in smaller places.
The worst school shootings typically occur in more rural areas.
James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University, stated that since 1988, the vast majority of mass school shootings in the United States have taken place in rural or suburban areas, generally by white male teenagers. Mass shootings are defined as incidents in which at least four people are shot and at least two people are killed.
According to what he claimed, “the copycat effect is strongest when there is similarity with the role model for the copycat.”
Since 2014, there have been other instances of mass shootings at schools in major cities, including Nashville, St. Louis, and Santa Clarita, California, according to the data that he has gathered. On the other hand, six of the incidents took place in smaller communities: Uvalde, Texas (15,000), Oxford Township, Michigan (22,000), Santa Fe, Texas (13,000), Parkland, Florida (37,000), Benton, Kentucky (5,000), and Marysville, Washington (72,000).
As to the findings of David Riedman, the researcher who established the K-12 School Shooting Database, eight of the ten most deadly school shootings that have occurred in the United States since 1966 have occurred in communities that have a population of less than 50,000 people.
According to Riedman, “What these incidents have shown over the course of sixty years is that students of all ages, all different demographics, all different backgrounds, and all different levels of academic performance have committed these attacks.” People in every community need to be aware of the warning signs, thus it is important that they do so.
Individuals who share plans or manifestos on social media, as well as those who threaten to injure themselves or others, are included in this category, according to him.
According to the data provided by Riedman, there have been 59 school shootings that have resulted in four or more individuals being injured since the Columbine shooting.
In addition, there have been 272 “near-misses,” which are occurrences that did not result in any injuries or fatalities, or a shooting that resulted in victims being killed or injured but had the potential to be far more detrimental.
Similarities were found between the near-miss that occurred in Mount Horeb and the school shooting that took place in January at Perry High School in Iowa. With a population of 8,000 people, Perry is located forty miles to the northwest of Des Moines. An incident occurred in which a student who was 17 years old killed one student and injured six other students. Additionally injured was the principal of the school, who passed away ten days later.
According to Fox News, it is important to consider the fact that mass killings take place in private houses a great deal more frequently than they do in schools or other public venues.
Mount Horeb’s response to the situation
Adam Mertz, a member of the Mount Horeb School Board and a resident of the town for the past 25 years, received a phone call from his daughter, Siobhan, who is a junior at the high school, which is located directly across the street from the middle school. Siobhan informed him about the incident that occurred in his neighborhood.
According to what he stated, the schools were forced to remain closed until the evening because of worries regarding whether or not there was a continuous danger.
He said, “You are shocked, saddened, but not surprised, which is a sad reaction,” and he was referring to your reaction. However, we spent what we had always thought would be an excessive amount of time as a board reviewing the many safety measures that were under consideration.
The implementation of protected entrances, shatterproof glass, a school resource officer, equipment upgrades to improve police communication within schools, and mental health programs for students were among the measures that were taken.
According to Mertz, “I believe that there is a tremendous sense of relief” currently present in the community. “There is a tremendous amount of pride in the work that our teachers, administrators, and police officers accomplished on Wednesday, and I have received nothing but ecstatic responses from the children over how they handled the entire situation. In a circumstance such as this, everyone performed everything that they were required to do, and that was a significant factor in preventing us from becoming one of those names.
In addition, there are speculations regarding the student who was murdered.
Mertz stated that “I think that a lot of people are placing their focus on the young man who was so distraught that he felt like this was his best option, even after being confronted by police.” Although there were no other injuries, Mertz believes that a lot of people are focusing their attention on the young man.
“I am aware that by doing so, a great number of individuals who have just recently exerted a great deal of effort to make mental health a topic that is worthy of concern are being torn apart. Having the impression that you were unable to get in touch with this child when it was obvious that he required someone to talk to is something that I am aware is weighing on people.