by Jason on January 27, 2009
The Dispatch today reports that a man that is accused of planning a Columbine-style attack in conjunction with a teenager in Indiana has had the trial postponed.
Lee Billi of Lakewood exchanged e-mails in April with an Indiana teenager to discuss simultaneous mass murders at the teen’s high school and another location police haven’t identified.
The article does not tell us why the trial has been postponed unfortunately. I know that the accused have many constitutional and statutory rights in this country, but I think that having a speedy trial by prosecutors would send the right message that we take these types of things very seriously in this country.
Billi has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and other charges. He could face a sentence of more than 300 years’ imprisonment if convicted.
If what he is charged with turns out to be true, he should rot the rest of his days away in a jail cell. Its important to send a message loud and clear to those that contemplate planning such attacks.
by Jason on November 25, 2008
Many people write these days about the needs of various types of reform that might improve our public school systems. As an educator at the secondary and post-secondary levels, I do have many opinions on this topic and hope to begin posting more frequently about these ideas. But today I am addressing only one challenge that we face in all school systems, not just the public ones….school violence.
According to the Columbus Dispatch, a central Ohio student was found to be carrying an armed weapon at Independence High School. While we were all very lucky that this scary story had a safe ending, the student was arrested, there is some good news contained in the article.
The positive part of the story is that not only was the gun safely removed from the school, but that it was brought to the attention of administrators by another student. Students were placed in a lock-down while the situation was dealt with. This occurred once at my high school, and luckily it turned out to be a toy gun, but we were also placed on lock-down for several hours. Once again, students were the ones that informed administrators of this potential situation.
It is important that each school create a learning environment and climate where students feel safe to inform teachers or adminstrators of these very dangerous situations. I think we should all give thanks to the student that alerted adults of this potentially very dangerous situation.
