Bath Revisited By Christopher Orlet

The nation's worst school massacre occurred in the spring of 1927, in the farm community of Bath, Michigan. Forty-five people, mostly second grade students, were killed that day, and 58 were injured. The perpetrator, Andrew P. Kehoe, 55, was a bankrupt school board member and electrician angry about a property tax levied to fund the school. One May morning, after about six months of careful planning, he murdered his wife, burned down his farm, and blew up the school, students and all.

What, if anything, has that tragedy to do with the latest school massacre? On November 7, Pekka-Eric Auvinen, an 18-year-old Finn, opened fire randomly at his high school, killing eight. Police and the media immediately described Auvinen as a "bullied teenage outcast" and an "alienated youth," a "school gunman profile that has become the norm since the 1999 Columbine massacre in Colorado."

Unfortunately the profile is wrong.

Bath Revisited ...

Sphere: Related Content