Learning Nothing 101

A fter unstrapping the handguns from his legs, Asa came out of a bathroom and fellow student Michael Peek punched him in the face. In retaliation, Asa shot Peek in the side, wounding him. From there, Coon walked the hallways, shooting randomly as chaos broke out and students rushed out of the building. When it was over, four people were wounded and Asa Coon had taken his life with a single shot to the head.

Four days earlier, a 20 year old sheriff's deputy walked into a Crandon, Wisconsin house where his ex-girlfriend was attending a pizza party. Armed with an AR-15, he fired off 30 rounds, killing six before being killed by police. Yet that mass murder was a blip on the screen compared to the Success Tech shooting. For some reason, America loves high school massacres. Hot on the heels of the Cleveland Police Department arriving on scene, the networks were there, digging for details, looping video shots and hoping to be the first to bring its viewers the latest scrap of information, true or not. Then, as predictable as the sunrise, an old familiar foe was the focal point of this shooting.

Asa Coon was suspended for fighting outside school grounds on the Monday prior to the shooting. That fight was about Marilyn Manson. Coon was anti-God and worshipped Manson. The other student, evidently, did not agree. Yes, he had the trenchcoat. Yes, he painted his fingernails black. He was chubby, he was angry and he did not play well with others. And he was wearing a Marilyn Manson concert shirt the day of the shooting. It was not hard for me to picture Manson sitting in a blood red velvet chair and shaking his head in disbelief.