Three children and three staff have been shot dead at a school in the United States. The pupils who died at the Covenant School in Nashville were all just nine years old. The attacker was Audrey Hale, a 28-year old transgender ex-pupil, who was armed with three guns, including a semi-automatic rifle. Hale was shot dead by police during the incident yesterday morning.
America’s tragedy is that such appalling incidents just keep happening. Only last week, a 17 year-old wounded two support staff at a high school in Denver; in February, three students were fatally shot at Michigan State University; in January, two teenagers were killed in a ‘targeted shooting’ at an educational institute in Des Moins.
Local police chief John Drake said ‘resentment’ at attending the school might have played a role in the attack
But this latest atrocity in Tennessee has made headlines, even in the UK, amid speculation over Hale’s gender identity and whether it may have been a significant factor. Hale, who was born female, used the pronouns ‘he/him’ on a LinkedIn profile. Local police chief John Drake said ‘resentment’ at attending the school might have played a role in the attack. According to Drake, police ‘feel that she (Hale) identifies as trans, but we’re still in the initial investigation into all of that and if it actually played a role into this incident’.
Amidst plenty of speculation, the police must be given time to ascertain the facts of the case. But this is made harder, given the focus on which gender Hale identified as. Drake referred to Hale using female pronouns. Meanwhile, USA Today announced that ‘police on Monday afternoon said that the shooter was a transgender man. Officials had initially misidentified the gender of the shooter’.
Does this matter? I might be transsexual but I am also a teacher and I care far less about the misgendering of a perpetrator than I do about children being shot dead in their school. Schools are places of learning but they are also environments where children should feel safe, and be safe. But yesterday, three primary school pupils – in England they would be in Year 4 or Year 5 – went to school and never came home.
Police released their names as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney. These were two girls, and a boy, who had their lifetimes to look forward to. Now, they are dead. Killed alongside them were teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, headteacher Katherine Koonce, 60, and school caretaker Mike Hill, 61. They are the people we need to remember, along with their families who are left bereaved – and another school community that has to process such a dreadful atrocity.
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