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Another School Shooting: Great Mills High School

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Clark chapter.

There was another school shooting.

On March 20, a student shot and critically wounded two peers at a Maryland high school. Before the attack could continue, a campus security officer ended it by firing a single shot at the shooter, the Sheriff Timothy K. Cameron said. The shooter fired back, but the school’s resource officer, Blaine Gaskill, was not injured.

The shooting took place before school started at Great Mills High School, 70 miles south of Washington D.C. Around 8 a.m., a male and a female student were both shot with a handgun by Austin Wyatt Rollins, 17. The male, 14, is in stable condition, but the female student, 16, is in critical condition. Rollins and the female student had a prior relationship, Cameron said.

The school was placed on lockdown.

“On this day, we realized our worst nightmare,” Cameron said. “Our children were attacked in a bastion of safety…The notion that it can’t happen here is no longer a notion.”

The shooter and the two students were taking to local hospitals in critical condition. The shooter, who has not been identified, was pronounced dead at 10:41 a.m.

“You never think it’ll be your school and then it is,” Mollie Davis, a student at Great Mills High School, wrote on Twitter. “Great Mills is a wonderful school and somewhere I am proud to go. Why us?”

You never think it’ll be your school and then it is. Great Mills is a wonderful school and somewhere I am proud to go. Why us?

— Mollie Davis (@davism0llie) March 20, 2018

 

Emma González, who has been one of the students who has spoken out since the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, tweeted her support for the students.

 

We are Here for you, students of Great Mills ? together we can stop this from ever happening again https://t.co/bkzL1FcVgu

— Emma González (@Emma4Change) March 20, 2018

The motive is still unclear.

Yes, it happened again, even though there has been more talk to stop this. This marked the 17th school shooting int the United States this year alone. This is why it is so important for you and your friends to walk this Saturday.

March for Our Lives, partly organized by student survivors of the Parkland high school shooting in February, takes place Saturday, March 24. It is in hopes to make lawmakers pass tighter gun control laws. It is a student-led, kid friendly event.  There are near 700 worldwide events for this cause.

There are two marches nearby that Clarkies could attend. Here are the details:

March for Our Lives: Worcester

                Rally: 12 p.m. at Worcester City Hall and Common (455 Main Street)

                March: After the rally, down Main Street, crossing Highland onto Grove. The march will go in front of the old Worc Voke building and then back down Main.

March for Our Lives: Boston

                March: 11 a.m. at Madison Park (75 Malcom X Boulevard) heading toward the Boston Commons

                Rally: 2 p.m.

Header Image: Alex Brandon/AP

Monica Sager is a freelance writer from Clark University, where she is pursuing a double major in psychology and self-designed journalism with a minor in English. She wants to become an investigative journalist to combat and highlight humanitarian issues. Monica has previously been published in The Pottstown Mercury, The Week UK, Worcester Telegram and Gazette and even The Boston Globe. Read more of Monica’s previous work on her Twitter @MonicaSager3.