White is scheduled to go to trial Aug. 6 for the Oct. 9 shooting, in which one shot was fired into the ceiling, then White allegedly aimed his assault rifle at an administrator and attempted several times to pull the trigger but the gun had jammed.
Mouton is scheduled to decide sometime within the next few days whether to allow White to go to trial as an adult, backing the earlier decision by Judge William Carl Crawford or remand the case to juvenile court. The latter option is favored by those writing the letters.
Court records indicate at least five "friend of the court" letters have been received, two from the leaders of national organizations. The interest of Justice for Juveniles in this case has already been noted, and one of the letters was from Donna Gallegos, the organization's administrator.
Also weighing in is Brenda High, co-founder and executive director of Bully Police USA, a group which advocates for strong anti-bullying legislation and gives Missouri an F for the way it deals with school bullies.
Letters have also been received from Kathy Harris, no affiliation mentioned on case.net, Susan Fillebrown, a "juvenile advocate," and Hope Baumel, no affiliation mentioned. Ms. Baumel's letter arrived June 29, according to the court records. The others came July 2.
The letter written by Ms. Gallegos was posted on the Justice for Juveniles message board. In it, she says:
The fate of Thomas White is about much more then the resolution of a school shooter case. It represents the sum total of America’s digression into state-sponsored cruelty and brutality toward young children. It illustrates a mean-streak that has infected our collective consciousness and turned us into a nation of child abusers. Thomas White was 13 with learning disabilities when he was charged as an adult. There was No thought given to whether he might be amenable to juvenile treatment and rehabilitation by the state or his ineffective attorney of record at the certification hearing in December.
White is charged with two counts of assault, and single counts of unlawful use of a weapon, armed criminal action, and attempted escape.
White is very lucky not to be charged with murder, had the weapon he attempted to discharge not malfunctioned, or even attempted murder since he did try hard to pull the trigger.
ReplyDeleteNot enough emphasis is on the fact that he would have willingly killed someone had the gun worked properly.
I think if the 1st person to blog will live a couple of lines at the top, then it won't lay on top of the title stuff.
ReplyDeleteAny way to fix this Randy, it is hard to read the 1st line. As a novelist, you know how important the 1st line can be!!
meant to say leave a couple of lines not live. Sorry, long day.
ReplyDeleteI apologize for that. I really don't know why it does that and I have not figured out a way to fix it, but I will keep on looking.
ReplyDeleteOnce again...to the original "annonymous" poster: HOW DO YOU KNOW THOMAS WHITE WAS ATTEMPTING TO SHOOT ANYONE? Were you there? Were you even in the the boy's certification hearing on Dec. 6, when Principal Gilbreth himself testified to the fact that he never saw Thomas' finger on the trigger and could not even begin to speculate whether the boy was actually trying to shoot him at all. You people, with your half-truths, your speculation and your ivory-tower judgements need to learn a thing or two about the American justice system. This boy is innocent until proven guilty by a court of law. Your opinions are OPINIONS, not facts, and you should be ashamed of yourself. WWJD?
ReplyDeleteMy mistake, I thought blogging was a way of giving my opinion. The facts as I understand were that he took a loaded weapon to school, blew a hole in the ceiling. Pointed the gun at the principal. Everyone present, my opinion is, felt as if their lives were in danger. As far as what would Jesus do? Hold him accountable and forgive him when he asks with all his heart.
ReplyDeleteBy the way you spelled anonymous wrong...too many N's! But ask and you shall be forgiven!
Oh yeah. I'm not ashamed of myself at all. I DID NOT bring a gun to school that was loaded.
ReplyDeleteWhat you wrote was that "HAD THE WEAPON HE ATTEMPTED TO DISCHARGE NOT MALFUNCTIONED..." That is an ASSUMPTION that he ever ATTEMPTED to discharge his weapon. He is accused of successfully discharging his weapon into the ceiling, but at no time has it been proven that he ATTEMPTED to discharge his weapon again - EVER. And please understand - it's not your OPINION that I'm offended by; it's your ignorance to the facts in forming your opinion, which has the dangerous affect of influencing other people's opinions, which will then be based on false information.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite obvious that anytime someone brings a loaded weapon to school, everyone's lives are in danger, but that fact does not equate to the notion that Thomas White ever ATTEMPTED to shoot anyone - or that he even would have if the gun hadn't jammed. Oddly enough, in your reply, you actually got the facts right and correctly followed those facts with YOUR OPINION. You're learning.
As for holding him accountable? In any other circumstance, a 13-year-old child is not held solely and entirely responsible for their actions. This is why they are called children. Their parents and other adult authority figures are ALWAYS accountable for what children do in their care.
As for Jesus' forgiveness? You should try it sometime - forgive.
In my opinion, he brought a loaded weapon to school. What do you think his intention was...show and tell? He knew exactly what he was doing and so does any other rational person.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, he should be held accountable for his actions - he isn't a "child", he is an adolescent capable of knowing the difference between right and wrong and he was in the WRONG! We aren't talking about a child who doesn't understand the results of his actions. This kid knew: if I pull the trigger someone will likely get hurt, and if I do it right someone will die! It astounds me that people actually use his age and this whole bullying crap as some sort of justification for him bringing a loaded weapon to school. The only thing he is - truly - is LUCKY that the loaded weapon he brought to school didn't go off and kill someone. Based on his actions of bringing the LOADED FREAKING WEAPON to school and claiming to be bullied, leads me to believe - IN MY OPINION - that he was there to hurt/kill someone.
Do I want this kid to go to prison? I'm not sure at this point. I read his mother's statements in the paper which did not indicate any remorse, in my opinion, just a justification due to bullying that he alledgedly suffered from. I would like it if he had severe consequences and if he worked up alittle remorse for all the people he scared etc. IT WAS A BAD THING THAT HE DID! IT WAS A HORRIBLY SCARY THING THAT HE DID! Stop making this some little trite thing that happened. It wasn't trite at all, in my opinion.
Anonymous #1 I have received 2 letters from him, trust me he has expressed remorse and he feels... well evil for doing this. Anyway... back to the orginal post, I work on Bully Police with Brenda High and I am so so glad she has gotten involved in this case, now I just have to see if I can get it to be a bit more public. Because on her past (and just the fact that she is a mom) she is a very very hard person to ignore, no matter how much she degrees with you.
ReplyDeleteRegarding his lack of "remorse..."
ReplyDeleteWhen you are fighting for your life in a legal case, you CANNOT publically show remorse because it is an admission of guilt. This is the ONLY reason you haven't heard a public apology from Thomas White - it is against his best interest in terms of his legal defense. Had he remained in the juvenile system, and been offered therapy and rehabilitation - even until he's 18 or 21 years old - however long it took - he would have apologized to the school district, the students and the entire community MONTHS ago. I know this because I work for the media and he ASKED me to include in an article I was writing his apology to all those mentioned, but was then told by his attorney that he could't publically apologize yet. Not until the case is settled through the courts. Wait for it!
If he feels he owes an apology and that is seen as an admission of guilt then he should just own the act that he did, plead guilty and apologize for his actions verbally and through any way that the Judge sees as Justice.
ReplyDeleteShame on you for not reporting this, if you knew that he wanted to apologize. If you are part of the media, your responsibility is to give the facts of the situation and not just to make the person look good.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the other person, if he feels the need to apologize then he knows what he did was wrong and pleading innocent is just playing a legal game.
It may be a legal game, but it's the game he's in now. He has NO choice but to play or he could spend the rest of his life in prison. Believe me when I say, the system is SCREWED up...but it is what it is, and what it ISN'T is based on anything close to LOGIC! Believe me...if you're a relatively logical person, who uses common sense and practicality to understand things, then NOTHING about the American Justice System should make sense to you. And that's the game he's in. You DO NOT admit guilt until you're proven guilty in a court of law and then you not only admit guilt, but you apologize profusely and hope it gets you a lighter sentence (unless, of course, the DA is offering you some sweet plea-bargain). It's called legal strategy and maneuvering and the defendants with the most money to pay for the best lawyers who are in the "good ole boy's club" are the only ones with a head-start on the rest of us little people. We don't have to like it, but once we're in it, we have to play it. For your sake, I hope you NEVER have to find this out personally (but if you do, I hope you're never stupid enough to admit guilt until you're proven guilty).
ReplyDeleteAlso...the boy's apology was given to me "off the record." A relative of his told me he wanted to apologize, "but had to check with the attorney first;" who then said, "No...do not publicly apologize." Not reporting things said to you "off the record" is called journalistic integrity. Once again, if you think you're getting the WHOLE story when you watch or read the news, you are being naive again, but that's a whole-nother SCREWED up system for another blog, eh?
In your earlier blog you stated "he ASKED me" and now you are saying it was through a family member?
ReplyDeleteYou lied.
It just goes to remind you that no matter what the situation, there's always going to be someone willing to argue the other side. Absolutely amazing.
ReplyDeleteWhy Aaron, I don't think it is amazing at all. (see how I argued with you just then?)
ReplyDeleteThere are always atleast 2 sides to every story, and every issue, it's pretty common, not amazing at all.