Deadly Lessons Understanding Lethal School Violence (2003) / Chapter Skim
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5. No Exit: Mental Illness, Marginality, and School Violence in West Paducah, Kentucky
5. No Exit: Mental Illness, Marginality, and School Violence in West Paducah, Kentucky
Pages 132-162
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From page 132... ...
It is based on more than 75 interviews with more than 100 individuals and participant observation in the school and the community conducted by the authors in May and June 2001. Information from this fieldwork is supplemented by local and national media coverage, police investigative materials, Carneal's own writings, depositions from civil lawsuits, psychiatric and psychological evaluations of the shooter, and an interview with Carneal's most recent treating psychologist, as well as materials from Heath High School and the McCracken County School District.
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From page 133... ...
We were unable to interview other Heath students suspected by some in the community to be coconspirators in the crime, although we did read the police interviews and civil depositions they provided. The events discussed below have been variously described and interpreted by the people involved.
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From page 134... ...
Old school loyalties run deep. With between 500 and 600 students each year, Heath is the smallest of the three county high schools, each of which is fed by a middle school and two elementary schools.
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From page 135... ...
Participation in the church was equally important to the Carneal family, as it is to most of the families in the area, where religiosity is highly valued and the church is a center of social activity. John Carneal is a long-time unemployment compensation and injury lawyer, and Ann is a homemaker with some postgraduate education.
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From page 136... ...
Indeed, one of the shooting victims spent time at the Carneal's in part because she was at odds with her own parents. Hence the atmosphere surrounding Michael Carneal was that of a well-educated household with high expectations for academic performance and an older sister who had excelled.
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From page 137... ...
He had several friends from middle school and from band, including shooting victim Nicole Hadley, as well as friends from his neighborhood. These friends accompanied his family on occasional trips, and he slept over at the houses of the boys on occasion.
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From page 138... ...
These infractions represent a pattern of fairly minor behavior problems that may have first surfaced when Carneal was in middle school. Heath Middle School administrators reported having no problems with Carneal, although students in classes with him in the eighth grade reported that he had set off a stink bomb at school and that he had taken fish out of a fish tank and stomped on them.
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From page 139... ...
They had "walked together" at middle school graduation, a custom of some significance in the community whereby graduates choose someone important to them to accompany them during graduation ceremonies. Nicole had been to the Carneal home and felt friendly enough toward Ann Carneal to confide her hopes that Michael would become more religious.
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From page 140... ...
Carneal often had strange things in his possession and commonly showed them to people for the purpose of getting attention. The week before Thanksgiving, Carneal warned students that "somethin~ bin is Doing to hannen on Mondav" and even warned some suecifi~ ~ ~ ~ 1 1 J 1 catty to stay away from the school lobby.
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From page 141... ...
Carneal told his parents and sister that the large bundle that he brought to school contained props for a skit he was going to do in English class that day. In reality, it contained the two shotguns and two .22 rifles wrapped in a blanket.
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From page 142... ...
Carneal told one psychiatrist that he felt like he was in a dream. Carneal stopped firing when he saw bullet holes in the wall and Nicole Hadley laying on the floor covered in blood, with another friend of Carneal's calling her name.
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From page 143... ...
CAUSES Why did Michael Carneal shoot eight of his fellow students, none of whom he particularly disliked? In this section, we evaluate the evidence for and against seven interrelated theories: family factors, gun culture and availability, bullying and teasing, peer and social relations, mental illness, exposure to media violence, and adult-child relations.
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From page 144... ...
Because we were not able to interview either Michael or his parents, our understanding of their internal family life relies exclusively on information gleaned from civil depositions, psychiatric and psychological reports, and our own interview with Kelly Carneal. Our portrait therefore cannot be considered definitive but is suggestive of some of the problems Carneal may have been experiencing as he moved down the pathway toward the shooting.
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From page 145... ...
This theory hypothesizes that guns and violence are culturally acceptable means of resolving disputes and solving problems in this part of the country and that norms about family honor and masculinity demand retribution for insults. As episodes of lethal school violence have spread to the Western and Northern states, this theory has waned somewhat in popularity.
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From page 146... ...
Carneal told his therapist that this bullying had increased significantly after the publication of the column. This was one of the factors that precipitated Carneal's slumping grades in eighth grade.
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From page 147... ...
Because of his paranoia and general inability to read social cues (see the section on mental illness, below) , Carneal probably magnified the impact of very real ill treatment such that it provided a motivation for the shooting.
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From page 148... ...
One friend reported to the police that Carneal had said the previous Wednesday "that the hypocrites in prayer group were going to go down, 'cause he was going to bring 'em down." At the same time, it is important to remember that Carneal was friends with at least some of the students in the prayer circle through band, including Nicole Hadley, whom he later described as his closest friend. Statements by Carneal and others in the psychiatric and psychological reports indicate that he was envious of other students who were more successful socially and academically, and this broad category included both preps and "good kids." Some of these feelings seem to have been exacerbated by Carneal's perceived inadequacy in comparison to his sister, who was a school valedictorian and popular among her peers.
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From page 149... ...
While he was becoming friends with the unconventional Goth group, he also retained video game-playing friends from middle school and made friends with band students, many of whom fit the "good kid" stereotype that he derided with his Goth friends. He had a crush on Nicole Hadley, who was in the band, a devout Christian who was trying to persuade Carneal to become more religious.
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From page 150... ...
He reportedly hopped on top of the furniture to avoid touching the floor in his bedroom. While we cannot determine whether or not Michael Carneal met the diagnostic criteria for mental illness at the time of the shooting, we believe that his paranoia, fears, and misreading of social cues contributed to the shooting.
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From page 151... ...
3 O'Connor believes that mental illness was a primary factor in the shootings, that Carneal committed the homicides in part because he was unable to continue functioning in normal society, and that the shooting relieved him of the need to do so. Exposure to Media Violence Carneal was undoubtedly exposed to a variety of violent video games, movies, and imagery.
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From page 152... ...
While there is clearly no one-to-one correspondence between exposure to violent video games and behavior, ) 7 we agree with one of his psychiatrists that "Michael's exposure to media violence can be regarded as a factor which contributed to the attitudes, perceptions, and judgment which led to his violent behavior." ~8 One of his teachers recalled that Carneal's solutions to hypothetical problems often involved "shooting someone with a bazooka." Carneal and his friends discussed a number of violent fantasies that were in part based on things that they had seen.
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From page 153... ...
According to one of the Carneal family attorneys, employing the Alford plea in this case might be advantageous in the civil suits that were looming. ~9 Tim Kaltenbach, the prosecutor in the case, said that he accepted the deal because Carneal had agreed to the maximum sentence.
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From page 154... ...
The day after the shooting, more than 200 students attended the prayer circle, and three days later 2,000 mourners filled the largest local church for the memorial service honoring the three slain girls. One student put together a web page honoring the trio, including photographs, tributes written by other students, and an address where donations for a memorial fund could be sent.
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From page 155... ...
Civil Suits and the Second Life of the Shooting The parents of the three slain girls had little sympathy for the Carneal family, however. They commented that the Carneal parents were given a
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From page 156... ...
They also hoped that the suits would help prevent future shootings by illuminating the causes of the Heath shooting and by putting a wide variety of people and institutions on notice that it was their responsibility to prevent them. Among those against whom they brought suit were Michael Carneal, his parents, and the neighbor from whom Carneal stole the guns; students who had seen Carneal with a gun at school before the shooting; students who had heard that something was going to happen on Monday; students who may have been involved in a conspiracy; teachers and principals at Heath High School and Heath Middle School; and the producers of the Basketball Diaries, the makers of the point-and-shoot video games that Carneal played, and the Internet pornography sites that he visited.
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From page 157... ...
As an example, they point to the fact that some large national retailers no longer sell point-and-shoot video games, and education professionals are paying close attention to prevention of school violence. Preventative Changes at Heath High School There were a number of changes at Heath High School and Heath Middle School in response to the shooting.
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From page 158... ...
to McCracken County high schools and middle schools. Before the shooting, there was little to no police presence at Heath, and officers were called to the school no more than once or twice a year.
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From page 159... ...
There are enduring reminders of the shooting, such as a plaque in front of the school in memory of the slain girls and the ever-present identification tags, which ensure that each new group of entering ninth graders are made aware of the awful events of December 1, 1997. For the students who were freshmen at the time of the shooting, friends and classmates of both Nicole Hadley and Michael Carneal, the shooting was the defining event of their high school careers.
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From page 160... ...
While many of the values of adults and children are shared and the hierarchies of the adult world are mirrored in the adolescent world, the social dynamics of adolescence are almost entirely hidden from adult view. The insularity of adolescent society serves to magnify slights and reinforce social hierarchies; correspondingly, it is only through exchange with trusted adults that teens can reach the longer-term view that can come with maturity.
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From page 161... ...
McCracken County School District. 4In a deposition taken in February 2000 for the civil suits, Carneal said that he had actually stolen this gun approximately a month before the shooting.
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From page 162... ...
However, by virtue of their distance from adolescent society, they at least have the potential to provide guidance and direction, and thus it is with them that one places responsibility.
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