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well." Within a few minutes, the police came—"five of them to nations, hostility, irrational ideas, paranoid reactions, antisocial be exact, pumping at least ten bullets into her head and torso". behavior, hysteria, and suicidal thoughts." An explosive cocktail Tarantolo remarks that a friend of Julie said that Julie "...had of symptoms. plans to make the honor roll and go to college. He [the friend] The Jonesboro, Arkansas, school shooting took place on March had also observed her taking all those pills.". What pills? 24, 1998. Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, appar- Tarantolo called the Baltimore medical examiner and spoke with ently faked a fire alarm at Westside Middle School. Then when Dr Martin Bullock who was on a fellowship at that office. Dr everyone came outside, the boys fired from the nearby woods, Bullock said: "She had been taking Prozac for four years." killing four students and a teacher and wounding 11 other people. The November 23, 1996, Washington Post reported the Julie Charged as juveniles, the boys were convicted of capital murder Meade death-by-shooting. The paper mentioned nothing about and battery. They can be held in jail until they are 21 years old. Prozac. This was left to a more penetrating newspaper, the local Dr Alan Lipman of Georgetown University, who was one of the PG County Journal from the experts interviewed on network tele- Maryland county in which the shoot- vision after the Littleton shootings, ing took place. remarked that at least one of the boys Why did the Post never mention "The following side effects are who committed murder in Jonesboro Prozac or interview any of a growing . had been "treated", before the inci- number of psychiatrists who have listed for Prozac: dent, for violent behaviour. Treated realised the danger of giving these how? With Prozac, with Zoloft, with drugs to children (and adults)? Is it apathy, hallucinations, hostility, a combination of antidepressants? because major media outlets enjoy irrational ideas, paranoid The action of these drugs—altering considerable advertising revenue sup the supply of the brain neurotrans- port from pharmaceutical drug com- reactions, antisocial behavior, mitter, serotonin—is touted by some panies? Is it because these compa- hysteria, and suicidal thoughts.” people as a potential cure for vio- nies have been running successful PR lence. The only problem is, there is campaigns to keep their drugs' names no acknowledged proof within the quiet when suicides and murders are broad psychiatric profession that reported? serotonin is a causative factor in vio- Another small paper, the Vigo Examiner (Terra Haute, Indiana), lence. That is an unproven theory. looked into the May 21, 1998, murders in Springfield, Oregon. The shooter, Kip Kinkel, was a 15-year-old freshman who had |= MORE EPISODES OF US SCHOOL VIOLENCE been on Prozac. First he killed his parents, then he walked into * May 1, 1992: Eric Houston, 20, killed four people and his school cafeteria and gunned down his fellow students. He wounded 10 at his former high school in Olivehurst, California. killed two and wounded twenty-two. He is currently awaiting Houston was sentenced to death. trial. ¢ January 18, 1993: In Grayhurst, Kentucky, Scott Pennington, Vigo Examiner reporter Maureen Sielaff covered this story, 17, entered Deanna McDavid's English class at East Carter High showing straightforward independence where many big-time School and shot her in the head. He also shot Marvin Hicks, the reporters just don't. Sielaff researched the book, Prozac and school janitor, in the stomach. Pennington was sentenced to life, Other Psychiatric Drugs, by Lewis A. Opler, MD. She writes: without the possibility of parole for 25 years. "The following side effects are listed for Prozac: apathy, halluci- * October 30, 1995: Edward Earl Spellman, 18, shot and "The following side effects are listed for Prozac: apathy, hallucinations, hostility, irrational ideas, paranoid reactions, antisocial behavior, hysteria, and suicidal thoughts." MORE EPISODES OF US SCHOOL VIOLENCE * May 1, 1992: Eric Houston, 20, killed four people and wounded 10 at his former high school in Olivehurst, California. Houston was sentenced to death. ¢ January 18, 1993: In Grayhurst, Kentucky, Scott Pennington, 17, entered Deanna McDavid's English class at East Carter High School and shot her in the head. He also shot Marvin Hicks, the school janitor, in the stomach. Pennington was sentenced to life, without the possibility of parole for 25 years. * October 30, 1995: Edward Earl Spellman, 18, shot and wounded four students outside their high school in Richmond, Virginia. + February 2, 1996: In an algebra class at Frontier Junior High School in Mose Lake, Washington, Barry Loukaitas, 14, killed his HO, teacher and two teenage boys with an Se?” <3 assault rifle, and wounded a girl. Loukaitas ~ was sentenced to two mandatory life terms. aT * February 29, 1996: In St Louis, ASS Missouri, Mark Boyd, 30, fired into a = school bus when its doors opened, killing a _ pregnant 15-year-old girl and wounding the > . it} ~ driver. @& —\ ¢ July 26, 1996: Yohao Albert, a high- ‘Y school junior, shot and wounded two class- mates in a stairwell at his Los Angeles od school. ee ¢ February 19, 1997: In Bethel, Alaska, a Evan Ramsey, 16, shot and killed his high school principal, Ron Edwards, and one of his classmates, Josh Palacious, and wound- Son ed two other students. Ramsey was sen- tenced to two 99-year terms. Authorities later accused two students of knowing that qo es © Se ce) ) allt, ~ —s SEDs AE) SS Sr SS : ae CT, meee )~h VA te op oY ae a 3 “et ——— _— Son 28 - NEXUS AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 1999