The New Jersey school administrator resigned after a student’s suicide

The Texas Top Cop, Col. Moser Torres, and Meryl Khloie, during the May 24 Shooting: Explaining the Emergency Call from Me and My Daughter

The armed responders sat outside the classrooms and checked equipment as they waited and talked and looked for any tools that would allow them to enter and kill the attacker.

Khloie was new to the school and they gave their room number to her while she tried to help her dead teacher. And when Khloie relays the operator’s directive for them to all keep quiet, Miah tries to hush her panicked and injured fellow fourth graders.

All the officers who were there should hear this audio so they can understand what the hell the kids are going through, and these suckers are just outside

They didn’t know a lot of law enforcement were responding, some just feet away from them, their friends and teachers. At least one teacher and a child were killed in the initial attack.

The parents of Miah want everybody to hear the call from their daughter, who was injured when a piece of furniture hit her head.

If children call and say that they are hurt, that shows that the responding officers are not as caring as they should be.

The chaotic, prolonged response on May 24 has been decried as a failure for months. Last week, the Texas Top cop did not give an update on what happened at a public meeting, but refused to provide full details of what happened. Instead, Col. Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, listened to family members’ anger and acknowledged some mistakes, before saying his officers “did not fail the community” of Uvalde.

Ruben Torres contrasted Khloie’s actions with the officers’ failure to respond after he heard the emergency call. “That day, the things that she did were absolutely incredible,” he said of his daughter. Of the adults who responded, he said: “None of them had courage that day.”

Wednesday was the first time Miah’s parents had heard the call and they said it helped them to understand more of what Miah had told them about that day and what she had gone through.

Can you give me some help? Miah asked at 12:20 pm, 46 minutes after the shooter entered the room but still more than 30 minutes from when he was stopped.

Are they in the building? She asks a lot of questions about law enforcement. Miah’s mother said that Miah was not familiar with the fact that they were on the other side of the door, just feet away, trying to get close to them.

Her family has tried to shield her from learning more about the failed response, but last month she found some of the body camera video online showing the distraction, delay and lack of communication.

Miah was able to tell CNN days later how she smeared blood on herself and played dead in the hope the gunman would leave her alone if he came back from the adjoining classroom. She even testified to the US Congress, sending a video message to a House committee investigating gun violence when she said what she wished for was “to have security.”

“She’s not Miah anymore,” her mother said simply, remembering how her middle child used to love playing pranks with her siblings and is now afraid of any loud noise.

Maryland teacher false-report stabbings investigation: A case study of missing students and teachers at a school in Monrovia

A teacher at a school called a store to report that there were multiple stabbings at the school before she went to explain what happened to the police, according to authorities.

The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office received a call about multiple stab wounds at Green Valley Elementary School in the afternoon on Thursday. West of Baltimore, is the city of Monrovia.

Instead, deputies quickly found out there had not been any stabbings in the school but that 27 students and a teacher were missing, the sheriff’s office said. Authorities soon found all the students and the teacher at a local cafe, the sheriff’s office added. All of the missing students were accounted for and reunited with their families and guardians, authorities said.

The teacher tried to call the front office to get permission to take the students outside but it didn’t happen and they believed the school wasn’t very busy.

The teacher made the decision to lead the students through the woods to the nearby cafe because of her involvement in emergency management procedures.

The children have been told to remove their brightly colored clothing and accessories and not to bring their shirt with them, to avoid detection.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/04/us/maryland-teacher-false-report-stabbings-investigation/index.html

Chaotic Response of a Shooter at Robb Elementary School: Calling 911 after Seeing a Bullet, but Not Reappearing

“We are grateful that this was a non-credible threat, but we know that the experience was upsetting for the students involved and our community at large. The school district regretted that it happened.

Authorities say that it does not mean the teacher was arrested or charged. She was taken to a hospital for evaluation but was not handcuffed, they added.

School officials held a meeting with the parents of the kids who were impacted, and also held additional mental health staff at the school to provide support for children and staff who need help, the district said.

Uvalde’s acting police chief knew there were “eight to nine” children alive and needing rescue from a shooter in the classrooms at Robb Elementary but failed to organize help, new audio of a phone call and CNN analysis of newly obtained video shows.

Communication failures and a lack of leadership in the chaotic response are partly to blame for why it took 77 minutes to stop the shooter, and some officers claim they were not made aware of the calls from the children.

The officer was told that the room was full of victims at 12:44 p.m. through a body camera worn by another officer.

The conversation, recorded routinely as part of police procedure, shows Pargas calling at 12:16 p.m., about six minutes after Khloie reached 911 and when she was still on the line with a dispatcher, and four minutes after the call information was relayed on the Uvalde police radio channel.

Pargas asks: “So how many are still alive?” and is told: “Eight to nine are still alive. She’s not too sure … She doesn’t know how many are injured or DOA. We are trying.

Based on analysis of surveillance and body cameras at the scene, he walks back into the hallway at 12:17 p.m. and mentions injured victims to a Border Patrol officer. He did not mention the kids when a Texas Ranger talked to him about organizing the flow of information.

Pargas is last observed walking away from the school’s entrance at 12:20 p.m. According to the new angles obtained by CNN, Pargas does not return to the hallway near room 112 after he sees police in the hallway.

videos from body cameras raised questions about whether Pargas had acted to assume command when he was placed on administrative leave by the Uvalde Mayor. “This administrative leave is to investigate whether Lt. Pargas was responsible for taking command on May 24th, what specific actions Lt. Pargas took to establish that command, and whether it was even feasible given all the agencies involved and other possible policy violations,” McLaughlin said in a statement at the time.

When CNN reached Pargas by phone seeking comment for this story, he said he was unable to talk about anything to do with the police department on the advice of his lawyers.

I would like to defend myself. He said that he did on Monday. There is a lot of stuff that I would love to defend myself on. And that’s the problem we’re having right now … the victims and everybody’s saying everything they want to say, but we can’t say nothing because we were told not to talk to, you know, we can’t say anything cause we’re still under that, not to talk to any, media or anything.”

He added: “It’s not that we’re afraid because there’s nothing to be afraid of. We did what we could, but the thing is that we’ve been told that we can’t (speak publicly).”

Investigating the Uvalde Investigation: Acting Police Chief Martini Pargas and the Shooting of a Teacher in Ruiz’s Classroom

Pargas was reelected as the Uvalde county commissioner last week and defeated three write-in candidates including the father of a victim in the shooting.

Pargas was told by a former police officer that his wife, a teacher, was shot in her classroom. He said he observed the officer, Ruben Ruiz, tensing, and decided he should be disarmed and taken out of the hallway.

“He was holding the gun real tight,” Pargas said of Ruiz in his interview. We had been afraid that he would try to run in the classroom and do what he wanted to do if I could have done it.

Later in the interview, he added: “The last thing we thought was that he had actually shot the kids. We thought he had shot up into the air. We didn’t know what was behind those doors.

He told investigators that someone came into his office to report that there had been an accident and a man with a rifle, which is about a mile away from the school.

“The minute I saw Pete Arredondo … I figured this is school property and we’re here to assist pretty much. When something happens at the school, we usually help it out, Pargas told the Ranger.

Arredondo has said he never considered himself the incident commander, though he did try to negotiate with the shooter as well as issue orders to those in the hallway with him.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/14/us/uvalde-investigation-acting-police-chief-mariano-pargas/index.html

Investigation of the incident of a student killed in a school building: A UPD officer asks about border patrol tactical teams and says it saved more lives

More officers from more local, state, and federal agencies arrived, and there was no clear direction of what was going on inside or outside the school building.

As they stood at the entrance door at 12:10 p.m., guns drawn but static, a UPD detective asks Pargas about the Border Patrol tactical team: “Are we just waiting for BORTAC, or what’s going on?”

Another local officer then asks him for an “OIC” – an officer in charge – and Pargas appears to direct him to Texas Ranger Christopher Ryan Kindell, who is himself now suspended and under investigation for actions he failed to take at Robb Elementary.

The lack of an incident command was a problem, according to a Texas House committee report. The report, which faults the choices Pargas made, said the fact that UPD officers responding to reports of a crash and a man with a gun were first on scene would have made them initial commanders, and while Arredondo could then have assumed command at the school he would have needed to go outside the building to coordinate effectively.

Pargas then walks inside the school building where officers from local, state and federal law enforcement agencies were lined up at the end of a hallway leading to the classrooms.

But then he gives some praise to the operation: “I think keeping him contained, I think it did save a lot more lives that could have been taken that day.”

The principal of the New Jersey high school where a student killed herself after being attacked in a video has resigned, the district announced.

Four students at Central Regional High School in Berkeley Township, located in Ocean County, New Jersey have been charged in the attack. The incident has sparked outrage among students and parents who say it reflects a culture of bullying in the district.

The Case for a New Jersey Teen Suicide After a Violent Attack: The Central Regional School District formally notified the school district

The following day, February 2, Adriana stayed home from school due to her injuries, her father said. The last time Kuch saw his daughter was around 10 p.m. that night on footage from one of the security cameras in the family’s house. The next morning, there was a dead woman in her room and she called for help.

The school district didn’t offer any more information on Parlapanides’s resignation. CNN contacted Parlapanides but did not hear back.

“The Central Regional School District is evaluating all current and past allegations of bullying. The District has contacted the Department of Education and will undergo an independent assessment of the District’s anti-bullying policies and ensure every necessary safeguard is in place to protect our students and staff,” the district’s statement reads.

After meeting with school officials, Kuch said he would file a report at the police station. He said the video was already making the rounds on the video-sharing site.

The school district was accused of failing to respond to the attack. He says police should have been notified immediately and that his daughter should have been taken to the hospital.

John Galifi, a father of two children at the high school, told CNN affiliate News 12 New Jersey that other children at the school have also dealt with serious bullying.

Dozens of students staged a walk out on Wednesday to demand that the district take stronger action to hold bullies accountable.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/12/us/new-jersey-teen-suicide-after-violent-attack/index.html

The New Jersey Teen Suicide After a Violent Attack, a Lossy New York teen’s Mom, Revisited

Bre was one of the friends that knew about how far it was going but she didn’t know how threatening it was.

“We don’t always press charges which are based on each individual case,” Parlapanides said. We always report the incidents to the police. There were several cuts and injuries toAdriana.

Kuch wrote on Facebook that he wanted the entire world to know what happened to his daughter. I’m not sleeping until their family watches them plead guilty and be sentenced.

“Please know that you are never alone in this world and there is always support during bad times to help change things for the better,” the superintendent added.

The four minors accused in the attack and their guardians were served with charges and have been released “pending future court appearances,” according to Billhimer, the Ocean County prosecutor.

Billhimer said that he offered to meet with the protesters to hear their concerns and spoke with them on Wednesday. He said he also met with Parlapanides Friday morning to “discuss ways to improve the district’s response to incidents within the school.”

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/12/us/new-jersey-teen-suicide-after-violent-attack/index.html

Susan Ferro: A Suicide Prevention Expert at the National Suicide and Crisis Hotline in the States (with an Appendix by Jennifer Ferro)

Adriana’s sister-in-law, Jennifer Ferro, told CNN in an interview that the family does not want people to remember Adriana “as the girl who sadly passed away at the age of 14.”

“We want everyone to remember her as the fun-loving little girl we always loved being around,” Ferro said. We don’t want people to remember her in a bad way, we want them to remember who she was.

If you are in the US and have considered suicide, you can call The National Suicide and Crisis Hotline, but you will first need to connect with a trained counselor.