Last month, two teens were charged and convicted of having a murder plot to murder their classmate to try and “resurrect” Adam Lanza, who took his life after committing a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school, taking the lives of 6 adults and 20 children. The two were stopped before they were able to act out their plan, but it’s a part of a growing trend.
The two students, 14 year old Lois Lippert and 15 year old Isabelle Valdez, were students at Lake Brantley High School. The two were obsessed with the TCC (which stands for True Crime Community), a community that started with people who shared a common interest in researching crimes, which has, as of late, turned into a community for those obsessed with school shooters. These communities promote violence, actively encouraging people who are lonely or bullied to commit acts of violence at their school.
The obsession with school shooters is nothing new, and scenarios just like this exist all over the country, and now the world, with copycats showing up as far as Europe. While many claim their love of school shooters is purely innocent, with many content with just drawing fan art, writing fan fiction, or making video edits in memory of them, a growing number are aiming to honor their favorite cases by committing their own acts of violence. Cases like Natalie Rupnow who targeted her school Abundant Life, which led to Solomon Henderson who in turn targeted Antioch High School. Others too, like Randy Stair who was inspired by cases like Columbine to attack their place of work.
Lippert and Valdez decided on their target after alleging one of their classmates “looked like Lanza”, the perpetrator of the shooting at Sandy Hook. Along with Columbine, the attack at Sandy Hook has become infamous due to what people online call its “kill count”, leading many assailants to draw inspiration for committing their own attacks, just like Lippert and Valdez. The two believed that by killing their classmate, it would create a blood bond between them and Lanza, therefore resurrecting him.
The two were intercepted at school the day of the planned attack due to an anonymous tip sent, with Valdez found with a knife in their backpack, which they admitted “to use to cut the victim’s throat or stab him in his stomach while in a school bathroom” according to ABC News. Prosecutors have said they planned to “leave flowers at the scene and smoke a cigarette after the homicide was completed”.
The two were arrested and charged as adults, laughing in the cop car while roleplaying as Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the assailants in the attack on Columbine. While many saw this as shocking, this sadly isn’t out of the ordinary.
But what’s causing this rising trend? Aside from the obvious of online radicalization, what at our schools could be pushing students to attack their classmates? It might be already in front of us. According to NBC 5 DFW, a survey done by Boys and Girls Clubs of America in 2023 has shown that bullying is on the rise, “40% of youth say they were bullied on school property in the past year, 14% higher than in 2019. Around 18% of youth have experienced cyberbullying – of those, 55% didn’t tell an adult”.
The pandemic is being blamed for the rise in bullying, which aligns with the current statistics. Ever since the pandemic, school shootings have started to surge according to the Miami Herald. “There have been 144 school shootings in 2024 as of Dec. 18, according to the data” they state. The Miami Herald continues “Between 2021 and 2024, there have been over 100 shootings annually in the U.S. schools, the data shows. Between 2014 and 2020, there were fewer than 50 each year”.
Gun laws in the U.S are also a major factor, with many expressing how easy it is to get a gun. For the most part, to get a gun in the United States, all you need to be is 18 and pass a criminal background check. While there are more steps and it can vary state by state, it can be dumbed down to those two steps. But according to AAP News, most assailants steal firearms from relatives “About 42% of adolescent school shooters obtained the firearm from relatives, mostly through theft. About 30% procured a firearm from the street or an illegal market, and 22% did so from friends,”.
While many suggest different ways to deal with the issue, like mental health screenings at schools or stricter gun control laws, one of the biggest factors is bullying and how it’s dealt with by teachers and staff. “I’ve been bullied at school a lot” an anonymous student exclaims, “I would have photos secretly taken of me and spread around, or like, be asked out as a joke a lot. I used to be physically bullied too. No one really did anything other than tell them to stop”.
This is sadly the reality of many students. All around the country, students share similar stories of staff ignoring the signs of bullying and mental health struggles. “I remember telling the counselors at school about how I started hearing things and imagining things, like full on schizophrenia type seeing things, I was just asked why and then nothing ever came of it” continues the student.
One thing is clear, and it’s that school shootings need to finally be properly dealt with. The statistics show no sign of slowing down, so we should be treating it like the crisis it is.