- Experts express concern about how shootings now occur in middle schools, too
- Middle-school youths are often impulsive and can’t think of consequences, expert says
- “A 12-year-old is barely past the age of believing in Santa Claus,” another expert says
- By law, 12-year-old suspect in school shooting will be charged as juvenile, analyst says
(CNN) — The New Mexico middle school shooting allegedly by a 12-year-old boy highlights how such gunfire is now occurring in America’s earlier grades, raising disturbing issues on whether such youngsters know the devastating consequences of such violence and on how they should then be adjudicated, experts say.
“It’s becoming more and more common, especially in the middle-school age, for these kids to be committing these violent acts,” said Sheela Raja, clinical psychologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Raja was referring to a list of school violence compiled by CNN tracing violence in U.S. schools, including shootings in middle and elementary schools.
That tally includes last October’s shooting in Sparks, Nevada, by a 12-year-old boy who killed himself after fatally shooting a teacher; a 2010 shooting in a Madison, Alabama, by a ninth-grader who fatally shot a boy, 14, in the head; a 2000 shooting in Mount Morris Township, Michigan, in which a 6-year-old boy killed another 6-year-old; and the 1999 shooting in Deming, New Mexico, in which a 12-year-old boy killed a classmate, 13.
Horrific as it is, the aftermath of such violence is complicated by the immaturity of the shooter.
“Middle-schoolers are impulsive and they can’t think of the consequences of their actions, and they can’t think of empathy,” Raja said. “Some of them have difficulty with empathy or taking on the perspective of another person.”
Not even the word “gunman” applies because the alleged assailant is still a boy.
“People should remember that a 12-year-old is barely past the age of believing in Santa Claus,” said Wendy Walsh,
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