STOCKTON, Calif. (KTXL) - Survivors of the Cleveland Elementary School shooting are speaking out after a federal judge struck down California's assault weapons ban. Although I have made progress in my mental recovery, I dont think I will ever truly feel closure from the shooting. She reportedly answered: "I don't like Mondays. I spent years of my life fearful of leaving my house. The shooting incident I experienced was on May 7, 2004, which was a Friday. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. When I hear of other mass shootings, it is a real struggle to not mentally go down memory lane and relive the shooting I narrowly escaped. We shouldnt have to live like this. When officers entered the house after Miss Spencer surrendered. Weve also had conversations about living your life with no regrets because you never know what might happen and always being kind to others because you dont know what they are dealing with. Under the terms of her sentencing, Spencer became eligible for hearings to consider her suitability for parole in 1993. 1979 mass shooting in San Diego, California, U.S. For the shooting in Northern California, see. I wanted a manual to walk through suffering, but also didnt want anyone telling me what to do or how to feel or heal. Every time I hear about another mass shooting, these thoughts tend to come back. We have created a browser extension. The shooting on that day changed the trajectory of our experience at school. I teach them the importance of communicating where they are and where they are going so in case, God forbid, something happens, someone will know where to find them. I never want anyone to feel as if their trauma will forever define them. Gabrielle Ben-Zaken. The assault at Robb Elementary School in the heavily Latino town of Uvalde was the deadliest shooting at a U.S. grade school since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook . Jan. 29, 1979: Brenda Spencer, 16, took a rifle with a scope that her father had given her for Christmas and began firing on Grover Cleveland Elementary School across the street from her home. Because this time, I am a mother of an 8-year-old. San Diego A freckle-faced teenage girl has been charged with 12 criminal counts including murder in connection with a sniper attack in the parking lot of Cleveland Elementary School that killed the principal and head custodian and wounded eight pupils. Other friends said the freckle-faced red-head was a fan of SWAT-style television shows. The shooter used a semi-automatic weapon. Learn how your comment data is processed. The shooter was 24-year-old Patrick Purdy, often described as a drifter. All rights reserved (About Us). This inspired the Boomtown Rats to write the smash hit I Don't Like Mondays. When I hear about another mass shooting, it causes me to have visual flashbacks of my own experience. Today, 25 years laterand one year after the . It forces me to remember the physical trauma I experienced and the paralyzing fear of my potential death. 388 Bergen Street, Newark, NJ 07108 . had few friends and didnt get along with her teachers. In 2004, I was a graduating senior with collegiate athlete aspirations. Contact info. He set his van on fire with a Molotov Cocktail and proceeded to use an assault rifle on the students. [31], The 1982 JapaneseAmerican documentary film TheKillingofAmerica depicts the incident. "We are the ones who have to teach these kids how to grieve and how to move on," she said. I do not like being in the middle of large crowds. According to Cleveland School Remembers, Purdy had walked onto the campus around noon on Jan. 17, 1989. According . NEW! Now that you know, have fun looking around! Legendary Irish rocker Bob Geldof described how he felt as the news broke on the sad day. 1. By Richard Brooks, Sun Staff Writer With material from Sun news services When it happened at Cleveland Elementary in Stockton, Calif., 23 years ago, many thought a school shooting couldn't get any worse. SAN DIEGO (NEWS 8) Tuesday marked 40 years since a deadly shooting took place at Grover Cleveland Elementary School. Investigators learned the ex-boyfriend drove away in a white SUV. The shooter - identified . It terrifies me. For her part, Brenda . There were a lot of beer and whisky bottles laying around., Merced Sun-Star (Merced, Calif.) February 1, 1979. I had a few classmates lose their lives and others get injured. More than 30 others were wounded by the gunman, who shot them with a semi-automatic rifle. I didnt feel safe for a long time anywhere. Thank you for your cooperation. Officers got to the scene and checked on the children and staff at Noble Elementary, Mecklenburg said. For 7.5 minutes, as I took cover under a table, I listened to the killers gun down friends and classmates, and waited to die. Now eligible for parole, is she being released from prison? Brenda Spencer shot and killed two adults, wounded eight children and a San Diego police officer at Cleveland Elementary School in San Carlos on Jan. 29, 1979, 40 years ago. Change). Juvenile Court Judge William L Todd, Jr said he will probably set a date next week for a hearing on whether Miss Spencer will be tried as an adult. SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - Survivors of the Cleveland Elementary School shooting in Stockton are speaking out after a federal judge struck down California's assault weapons ban, calling it unconstitutional. So I had to talk to my twins, starting at the age of 5, about the reality of school shootings. Julie Schardt was a second grade teacher at Cleveland Elementary School in 1989, when five kids, age 6 to 9, were shot and killed. Attendance boundaries are reviewed annually and are subject to change. Example video title will go here for this video. BRENDA Spencer, the "I Don't Like Mondays" school shooter, has been caged for 40 years since killing two people and wounding nine - aged just 16. Cleveland Elementary School shooting (San Diego), This page was last edited on 2 March 2023, at 15:06, ClevelandElementarySchoolshooting(Stockton), "SchoolSniperSuspectBraggedOf'SomethingBigToGetOnTV', "Lookbackinsorrow:in1979,ateenagegirlopenedfireonasuburbanSanDiegoelementaryschool;today,asthenationreelsfromarashofsimilartragedies,thesurvivorsstillstruggletounderstandwhyithappened", "GirlSniperKills2,Wounds9atSanDiegoSchool", "ClassmatesSayAllegedSniperSeemedLonely,FriendlessGirl", "40yearsago,BrendaSpencertooklives,changedlivesinamassshootingataSanDiegoelementaryschool", "SchoolShooterBrendaSpencerDeniedParole", "Schoolrifleattacknets25yearstolife", "Noparolegrantedfor'Idon'tlikeMondays'schoolshooter", "Shedidn'tlikeMondays,theydon'twantplaquemoved", "Tragicpast,uncertainpresent,brightfutureofClevelandElementary", "VictimsofSanDiegoSchoolShootingAreForcedtoCopeAgain10YearsLater", "WatchDeadlyCompulsionFullEpisode-KillerKids|Lifetime", "KillerKids-Season3Episode19DeadlyCompulsion", "DeadlyWomen|Season2Episode1ThrillKills", "40YearsAgo,BrendaSpencerTookLivesAtElementarySchool", "1993:ConvictedschoolshooterBrendaSpencerspeakswithSanDiego'sNews8-PART1", "1993:ConvictedschoolshooterBrendaSpencerspeakswithSanDiego'sNews8-PART2", "1993:ConvictedschoolshooterBrendaSpencerspeakswithSanDiego'sNews8-PART3", "1993:ConvictedschoolshooterBrendaSpencerspeakswithSanDiego'sNews8-PART4", MurderHistorian-IDon'tLikeMondaysBlog, UniversityofNorthCarolinaatCharlotte, LibertyPointInternationalMiddleSchool, CentralVisualandPerformingArtsHighSchool, "'NoWaytoPreventThis',SaysOnlyNationWhereThisRegularlyHappens", ListofschoolshootingsintheUnitedStatesbydeathtoll, Students and faculty at Grover Cleveland Elementary School. Redigera Wikidata. The Sun website is regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. There is still good reason for our second amendment. When you have a classmate shot and killed at school, you cant leave the experience without the belief that safety is an illusion. I was thankful I lived, but also wished I had died because the pain was overwhelming and the grief was suffocating. Although many of us don't enjoy the start of the work week, Brenda Ann Spencer had a really bad case of the Monday blues. The man was taken into custody without incident. A troubled man with an assault rifle killed five students. No one died, but the gunshots were real, the fear was deep, and the hours of uncertainty while trapped in a classroom were brutal. [4][5][6][7] After her parents separated, she allegedly lived in poverty with her father, Wallace Spencer. They didnt know if theyd be able to hug their children and take them home or have to face the worst day of their lives. The act specified put forth alist of firearms that would be considered assault weapons and prohibited people from buying them. For Christmas, she got a 22-caliber rifle, said Brian Higgins, 16, who was her classmate last semester at Patrick Henry High School. The Cleveland Elementary School shooting (also known as the Stockton schoolyard shooting and the Cleveland School massacre) occurred on January 17, 1989, at Cleveland Elementary School at 20 East Fulton Street in Stockton, California, United States. This addition included seven classrooms. Its incredibly isolating and its taken a huge toll on my mental health. Im capable of being in public spaces, whether its everyday activities such as grocery shopping or going to concerts like I once did. Acknowledging my progress encourages me everyday. I want to support them as they mark books lost in their catalog so shattered parents dont get automatic overdue notices. University of Iowa shooting in 1991, leaving 6 dead and 1 injured. Later I learned that I knew five of the victims, including my coach for softball and basketball, Dave Sanders. 34 children and a teacher were shot, killing 5 of the children, with an AK-47 knockoff. She told cops that she targeted kids and school staff as they were easy targets. Christy Buell, a survivor of the 1979 shooting, said that she was "shocked, saddened, horrified" by the headlines concerning the 1989 shooting. There was no option to opt our kids out of school that day. On Monday, SWAT officer Mike Hendrickson said police were told Miss Spencer had in the past fantasized in the past about being a sniper. A San Diego police spokesman confirmed that Miss Spencer had a juvenile arrest record and was involved in an incident last year in which several windows were broken at Cleveland Elementary School the same place where Mondays shooting occurred. Victims of San Diego School Shooting Are Forced to Cope Again 10 Years Later. One of Sweeneys classmates died. Before hanging up, however, she said, I have to go now. I teach my godchildren and younger cousins to never be distracted in public, to always keep their head on a swivel and practice situational awareness. A petition filed Wednesday in Juvenile Court by the district attorneys office accuses 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer of the shootings that also left a police officer wounded. It will forever be a part of your story but the degree to which it will affect you depends on choice and some intentionality. I think it is hard to get closure especially with something like this that was so tragic and so easily preventable. Killed in the 20-minute hail of bullets were Principal Burton A Wragg, 53, and Michael Suchar, 56, chief custodian at the school, which is across the street from the Spencers home. In the wake of the Uvalde shooting, HuffPost spoke to 11 survivors of such school shootings students and a few teaching staff, too about how the news of yet another campus shooting has affected them, and how the shootings at their schools affect them to this day. [13] She injured eight children; she began with nine-year-old Cam Miller, since he was wearing Spencer's favorite color blue. Although I didnt know Dominic, I heard that he was a fun-loving goofball and amazing friend. The Townville Elementary School shooting occurred on September 28, 2016, in Townville, South Carolina, located 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Greenville. In 1979, Spencer was convicted of the Cleveland Elementary School shooting. And I wish that this was one isolated incident in my life, but we had a gunman in the parking lot at one of the places I worked violating a restraining order against domestic violence. Spencer pleaded guilty to two murders, and assault with a deadly weapon. THAT WAS 29 YEARS AGO! The only place I feel truly safe is my home and my PTSD makes it difficult to go places as common as the grocery store. The Associated Press UVALDE, Texas (AP) An 18-year-old gunman opened fire Tuesday at a Texas elementary school, killing at least 19 children as he went from classroom to classroom, officials. According to Cleveland Heights Chief of Police Annette Mecklenburg, officers responded to a report of shots fired in the street on the north side of Noble Elementary School on Ardoon St. at. And it has stuck with them. During negotiations between police and the girl, police spokesman Bill Robinson had described her as being under a lot of pressure. He added that he didnt know if the girl had any prior problems with authorities. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, also called Newtown shootings of 2012, mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012, that left 28 people dead and 2 injured. Material on this site is provided for purposes of education, criticism, commentary, cultural reporting, entertainment, historical reference, and news reporting/analysis. Governor Newsom ripped into the judge's decision, vowing to fight it. Yet, at the same time, they've also dumbed down several weapon related charges in recent years, that in turn has taken away law enforcement's ability to hold criminals accountable for their actions. It was one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. With it being so close to home, it really hurt. When she saw stuff like that, shed say, Oh, wow,' one friend recalled. For further details of our complaints policy and to make a complaint please click this link: thesun.co.uk/editorial-complaints/, Brenda Spencer under arrest after opening fire on Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, The shooting spree ended when cops talked the teenage killer down with a promise of a Burger King meal, Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof co-wrote I Don't Like Mondays with bandmate Johnnie Fingers, Spencer - shown above during the 1990s - targeted youngsters who had gathered at the school gates, Some lawyers believe she can be safely released from jail after 40 years behind bars, Cops managed to save countless lives on the day of the shooting, School shooter Brenda Spencer speaks of her hopes for the future during 1993 interview. My eyes would always scan a classroom searching for the safest hiding spot in the scenario a shooting would happen again. He said: "Judge Benitez knew exactly what he was doing when he prepared his 94-page document. Welcome to our school - we are excited to have an opportunity to teach the next generation of great leaders. Hearing people scream or run in the halls makes my blood run cold. The school went on lockdown for 45 minutes at 11 a.m. after an employee hit a panic alarm. On the right, Julie Schardt, who was a second grade . They say she was skinny, shy, frumpy and came from a broken home. Julie Schardt || Cleveland Elementary School shooting in Stockton, California, on Jan. 17, 1989. All those hit by gunfire were outside the school. Prom went on as planned on May 14, senior farewell and graduation all commenced without skipping a beat as if four students werent just shot on school grounds. Diego Esquivel, left, and Linda Klaasson comfort each other as they gather to honor the victims killed in Tuesday's shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Wednesday, May 25, 2022. I dont like Mondays, the girl reportedly told the Tribune. They were huddled in the classroom with the police running around the campus and dogs barking as someone pretended to try to get into the classroom. I will get closure once I know that it is safe to go into a classroom, or a grocery store, or place of worship. The victims would not have wounds, theyd be dead. Susan Rodgers. He was armed. If the case is handled in Juvenile Court, the girl could be free within seven years.In addition to murder, the red-haired Patrick Henry High School junior was charged with nine counts of assault with intent to kill and one of assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer. And the journalists interviewing her said, 'Tell me why?' It was her first teaching job in California. June 10, 2021 / 8:42 PM The other victim who was killed is Dominic Blackwell. It was a dark moment in Stockton history, remembered for its impact on the community with the lives of five students, none older than 10-years old, lost. Among the nine persons wounded was Officer Robert Robb, 30, who was shot in the neck as he tried to carry a wounded student to safety. I was directly across the hallway from where the shooting occurred. [27] In 2018, the school was demolished to construct a housing development, and the plaque was relocated to the former school's southern edge, at the corner of Lake Atlin Avenue and Lake Angela Drive. The Cleveland Elementary School shooting is also known as the Cleveland School massacre and the Stockton Schoolyard Shooting. Theyre also now part of another sobering, distinctly American stat: Since Columbine in 1999, more than 311,000 students have experienced some form of gun violence at school. At the end of Drew Pescaros sophomore year, a gunman and former UNC student barged into a classroom and opened fire, killing two students and wounding four. [5][7] Police officers found beer and whiskey bottles cluttered around the house but said Spencer did not appear to be intoxicated when arrested. Five people were shot, including a future classmate of mine who would later show me her bullet wound scars and describe her dread about testifying at the trial. When we were finally escorted out, we could see the quad where it happened. According to the San Diego Police Museum, Spencer took an early liking to guns and to stories about violence.