Red Lake High School Shooting Essay

Jeffrey James â€Å"Jeff† Weise was an Ojibwe Native American adolescent, and a student at Red Lake Senior High School in Red Lake, Minnesota. He killed nine people and wounded five others in a shooting spree on March 21, 2005, when he was just 16 years old. Weise first murdered his grandfather and grandfather’s girlfriend at his trailer home in Red Lake. He then shot and killed an unarmed security guard, a teacher and five students at Red Lake Senior High School. The shooting ended when Weise committed suicide. Research shows that Jeff was a strange young man, interested in Gothic things black clothing and Nazism, but a look a little further into his past led to a few interesting revelations. Jeff’s parents were never married, because his mother was only 17 when she gave birth. She was forced to give Jeff to his father when he was three months old. Then when he was two his mother took him back. She was reportedly an abusive alcoholic with a tendency to both physically and emotionally abuse her first born son. In 1997 Jeff’s father committed suicide after a two day standoff with police. Then in 1999 his mother suffered brain damage after a car accident in which she had been drinking and driving. Jeff was then placed in the care of his grandmother at the Red Lake Reservation. Jeff did not have the right start in life. His parents should have been older and more ready for a child when he was born. They also should have been married. Jeff also should have had a more stable home life as an infant. It is doubtful that he had a firm attachment with his mother or father considering that he was passed between them at 3 months old and 2 years old. He also should not have been physically or emotionally abused. His mother failed him in that aspect and the fact that she was an alcoholic makes it even worse. It is also doubtful that Jeff dealt with his father’s suicide in a healthy way. He did not have the support that he should have had from his mother. By the time he got to his grandmother’s care he had already led a very difficult life. This ties in to every chapter that we have discussed so far. It refers to attachment, abuse, adolescence and everything. It all goes back to the first thing we talked about that said when parents fail to give their child a good start in life everybody suffers, as is the case with the families of Jeff’s victims.