Kids in Prison (The Classmate)
Dedrick Darnell Owens
On my last article I wrote, “…a shooting happened during the month of May, year 2000 in Michigan. A six-year-old girl had been shot by her first-grade boy classmate. The girl argued on the boy. Two stories were said to be the reason behind this, one is for spitting on her desk or the girl refused to kiss him. Unknowingly, the boy had bought a gun in school which was used to kill the girl.”
I looked into many reports regarding this case. Many of them claim that this crime is the youngest one ever made. The little girl involved being the youngest victim of a school shooting while the boy is the youngest shooter in school ever.
Kayla Renee Rolland was six years old when she was shot by his male classmate named Dedrick Darnell Owens using his uncle’s .32 caliber handgun in Theo J. Buell Elementary School, Michigan.
There were reports saying that he was never put behind bars due to several reasons. One is that he was only a first-grader at that time. He also lacks the ability to form intent. However, his uncle and two other men were charged for the crime.
The crime happened during changing of classes. Two stories were debated as to what the time really is. One article said that it happened in front of the two children’s classmates and teacher, while another one said that it was when the two children were the only ones left as the class are on their way to a new room. School teachers and staffs were very alarmed over the incident which made doors and gates locked during that time. Panics were seen everywhere.
The little girl was declared death due to cardiac arrest at exactly 10:59 in the morning.
The boy was reported to suffer from anxiety and fear so his mother decided to never went back to school.
A film by Michael Moore titled Bowling for Columbine featured this murder.
Since the crime is really an interesting story to tell, many reports have been made throughout history. There were even reports talking about the following years after the shooting.
As I scan documents and articles regarding the crime, I found many flaws that will explain Owens behavior towards his shooting of Rolland. One thing is for sure about the boy, he is a convicted trouble-maker. There many filed cases in school that found Owen at a young age doing illegitimate things. Those involve him saying bad words already, flipping people off, stabbing classmates with a pencil, hitting, punching and just being a bully to others. Some accounts said that one certain day, Owen was seen with a knife that he carried to the school. Although the teacher got the knife, she failed to report the case in the Principal due to a said very busy schedule.
Honestly speaking, one thing I noticed was the gun. It was from his uncle who at that time, I think, he stole it from his house. In that case, I think a bad behavior of the uncle run towards the mind of the young child. If the guardians were on the right path and perspective, the boy would have not done such crime. This is why kids can’t understand the effects of their actions because the elderly don’t care about the kids.