Georgia School Shooting September 4, 2024, Father on trial, should the mother also be on trial

 The trials in school shootings are always about Monday Morning Quarterbacking.

This trial is no different, except that the father is on trial with criminal charges for supplying the gun to his very troubled child.  Troubled child or not, this father gave a gun to his minor child who then used it to commit murder.

You can probably tell where my prejudice lies. It is not with the shooter, the father and after the mother's testimony, it is definitely not with her. The mother medicated the shooter with zoloft which was her prescription per testimony.

A clear case of dysfunctional parenting led to the school shooting.  Is that anything new? I think not.

Watch the coverage of at least the mother's testimony.  Lots of law tube shows are following it, for example Court TV.  

There is additional testimony that is interesting also. It is the principal's testimony from a previous school.

Monday morning quarter backing will not bring the lives back of the staff and children killed. But maybe a sensible person will listen and try to do better for our kids in other schools.

School shootings are common, not rare. The trials of parents are rare but should be more common in situations like this.

If you give access to a a gun to a child, troubled or not, make sure you understand the consequences to you if it is used for murder, because you deserve to be put on trial. 

I am tired of every gun owner being punished when people like the shooter's family act so irresponsibly.

The child killer could have used a knife, but he used a gun given to him by the father. There are laws that are meant to prevent this shooting. If the kid had been an underage driver, not legally able to drive, who drove a car into the school, wouldn't you expect the same type of responsibility? I would.

Part of Mother's testimony. It is still live today, February 23, 2026. Find the whole video as it becomes available:

https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=mother+testifies+in+school+shooting+trial&mid=8F11BB8B2123564AAEDB8F11BB8B2123564AAEDB&churl=&mcid=98ABC04AC973

Listen to what the mother did to her mother. It was criminal. The grandmother's tedtimony is telling. 

Principal of previous school:

https://youtu.be/8G5rp7lQWcY?si=8kGZhhosw1Vy_MTJ

School shootings are preventable. When they are not, trials like this one should happen.

School counselor at high school where shooting happened. She at least listened to the grandmother.

https://www.youtube.com/live/Uqq75JWupUA?si=-FbOszqYFsTrgRmP

The kids trial hasn't started yet. His lawyers will probably use this trial to get the shooter a lower sentence. 

They could put the shooter and his parents in the same cell forever. Maybe then parenting could become a priority for them.

Marian R. Carlino

February 23, 2026.

Dear Reader and Media Frenzy

 

January 5, 2026 updated edited for blog publication on February 8, 2026

Dear Reader,

In 2023 after listening to the publisher on a podcast, I decided to take a leap of faith and write my story, in book form. I had been writing blogs and editorials for many years. My editorials and posts hit home or at least hit nerves. My publisher believed my story was worth telling.

On April 20, 2024, my book was released. It is a combination of narrative, sworn taped testimony, and observations. The date of April 20 is significant. It had been 26 years since April 20, 1998, when the motivation to speak and write had been documented in legal testimony in a closed-door hearing.

My story is still timely and significant. Backed up by sworn taped testimony, it is my story of trying to get help for a troubled child, and the retaliation that followed.

I do not write as a victim, I write as a voice who spoke up before any serious, irrevocable violence could happen in my class and school. I write as a voice, who continued to address the issues that happen in our nation’s schools, even when my own administration tried to silence my voice. I write as a voice that overcame the fear of retaliation when others just wanted to bury their heads in paychecks. I write as a voice of reason with practical advice.

I write with a faith-based foundation, but my particular faith is for me. No one should take my faith beliefs as an insult to theirs but rather see it as a way I worked through the difficult times.

I write to encourage others to speak up. The Columbine High School mass shooting happened on April 20, 1999, one year to the day after I was called incompetent for seeking help for a young child. I write with confidence and competency.

I write, present tense, because as long as I am able to speak, I will be a voice against the violence.

I am asking you to read my book and to share it with others.

Sincerely,

Marian R. Carlino

Update:  I am including this on my blog. I sent this note to various podcasters, lawyers and people with whom I have watched or interacted.  

Today, someone posted on a Telegram channel about the extreme media coverage of a missing, and now possibly presumed dead, mother of an internationally famous news correspondent. The story is sad but brings international attention and coverage because of the daughter. The missing woman was not famous in her own right. The person on Telegram asked why the millions of stories of non-famous people are not covered at such depths.  I responded that it is a disconnect and looking at inner responsibility. Even in our own neighborhoods and families, some stories are passed off as not important. I gave a few examples.

Well to God, all people are important. He actually knows it all. He knows the story of the unknown person.

I took comfort in that knowledge in 1998 since my story, although then drawing the attention of a local reporter, seemed not to matter to people outside of my classroom. Best friends, colleagues and family members took no notice of my story or tried to ignore it. But I knew my story was important then and still is now.

My book has not made the NY Times Best seller list. Is it because of my style of writing? I am reading a book by Dorothy Day. She had connections, but her style of writing is really not any different than mine, although she wrote from a socialist point of view and I do not. She also like protests a lot more than I do!

My story may be hard for some to read. It involves personal responsibility in our own families, school and neighborhoods. If we stay local, our efforts could have national impact. Jesus did not travel the world on the seven seas!

I encourage you to read my book. In a violent world, as we see daily, one will see that stories are important, you may not miss the piece of the puzzle next time a preventable event has its eyes set on your community.

The people in the small community north of Tucson, Arizona have been interviewed this week. They say they have never seen anything like this before.  Surprisingly, I have not heard anyone say, "We never thought it could happen here."

Violence impacts us all, maybe that is why the missing person in Tucson, Arizona reminds us that none of us are immune. What else can we learn by the current media frenzy in the small community?

Marian R. Carlino

February 8, 2026

FACE it... violence is a continuum.

The news is usually full of information on violence. Violence sells.  Have you been to a movie lately? All that Hollywood talk about non-violence is just fake news. I am not interested in the movies that glorify violence, but I am interested in some of these news stories because they open up conversations that most people do not want to have, well unless you want to lose friends. I have been there and done that.

Did anyone watch any of the Uvalde school shooting trial featuring a police officer?  The jury did figure out that he could not be pinned with the 29 counts of abandonment and negligence. The testimony showed that the whole school community failed although only one other person, also a police officer, is also going to trial. Maybe that will fail also. There is no statute of limitations on murder but in Uvalde the murderer died at the scene. Do you know that some believe, like Sandy Hook, that Uvalde was not real? Their theories lead to more sinister plots, if it was all staged. 

I digress from my original intent of this post.  I am posting about the protestors out on the street who have crossed lines. Their behaviors have led to deadly consequences. Their protests are anything but peaceful so they are met with responses that have been deadly.

I know what the FACE Act is. I had to know when participating in prayer vigils or Pro-life activities. For several years I faced harassment as an advocate for prolife. People considered our presence as an intrusion. Standing on public sidewalks in prayer is protected speech but there are actual lines that cannot be crossed. Most respect those lines. The ones who do not respect the lines, have had legal consequences. Some who actually respected the lines, have also faced consequences. It is a risk one takes when advocating in public. Lines are called Buffer Zones in front of abortion clinics.

The protests about ICE have broken lines, literally. Most recent headlines are about the line between a door and a sanctuary. I for one would like to see the proverbial book thrown at the "independent journalist" and the group that he was recording before, during and after the entrance into the church in Minneapolis. I attend a church and want the protection our Constitution guarantees. I wonder how the children who faced the wrath of a hater at the school Mass in Minneapolis are doing. Afterall, churches and schools are supposed to be safe places at all times, right? The protestors were violent; they just did not use deadly violence. 

Does anyone remember when there was a massacre in a Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh? How about the church burnings in the South or when the young adult entered a house of faith and killed nine people in S.C years ago? Anyone?   There are links below to remind anyone who has forgotten.

I am not a legal expert, and I don't play one on TV, so I am posting links to two interviews with Harmeet Dhillon, a legal expert. Catherine Herridge, on Straight to the Point a joint effort with the LA Times, interviewed Harmeet Dhillon in her first episode in early November 2025 and then again in early February 2026. 

Listen carefully to the interviews. Whose voice will you heed, an "independent journalist" who enters a church with protestors or a legal expert who was once a journalist?

If voices are not a concern in terms of the continuum of violence, listen to the report in the link about the few days' old news briefing by a Sheriff regarding a planned massacre at a church near Tampa, Florida? A 14-year-old has been arrested. In addition to other charges, would this kid be charged with the FACE Act violation if his plans were not found out before the evil plan was discovered by internet sleuths? Throw the book at him too, he may be a victim himself, but evil is evil. Churches in this 14-year-old neighborhood are now being monitored for safety reasons.

Violence is a continuum. When do you want it to stop, inside or outside the protected space. FACE it. Bill Clinton signed the FACE Act into law in 1994. The FACE Act is not about political lines, or is it?

You decide. The most recent protestors will hopefully face an educated jury of their peers and not politically motivated or fearful jurers.

Harmeet Dhillon links:  

https://youtu.be/58KrZF1b0bQ?si=yGgiYYaQG-7WH_vn

https://youtu.be/HXqCuxcjsYM?si=8f4a21CYeArBm8jJ

Link for Sheriff interview:

https://www.youtube.com/live/wIYLWGAB88s?si=01QB5uh5IQ2vuC33

Church Massacre

https://youtu.be/uMzZtMd9V50?si=OmzCywC22gOTpVfW

Pittsburgh Synagogue Massacre

https://youtu.be/L_47AE3-FtE?si=ZT2WFOKH9lbES-7c

Marian R. Carlino

February 6, 2026

Uvalde and Locked Doors: When do we lock doors, before or after the tragedy?

It seems as though the first reports about the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas and locked doors held some weight in the events of May 2, 2022, and now the trial. The unlocked doors and disregarding protocol or training is a big part of the questioning of witnesses in the current trial of the former policeman.  

I am critical of responses from law enforcement. But in real time many years ago, I was critical of unlocked and wide-open doors at the schools in my community.  School staff just couldn't get the concept that wide open doors can invite trouble. They had paid no attention to the information that had come out of the Columbine High School massacre.

I think the people from my former community are just lucky that a someone did not enter, especially the perpetrator who was chased across the roof at one of the schools, during the school day. I digress.

This brief note is to get people to read about or listen to the testimony coming out of the trial. If only we can learn from the mistakes of the past.

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPLWIl-pkIg

Lock the doors before a lock down is necessary.

Marian R. Carlino

January 2, 2026

When is a murder considered school violence? The Kohlberger's victim families think his murders are related to school violence

I pay attention to violence on school campuses because of my history as a teacher who was shut down for speaking up to prevent escalating violent disruptions in my classroom. I usually do not read about every murder trial other than some mainstream media coverage or some discussions by Monday morning quarterbacking experts or YouTube commentators.

For several years now, I have been watching some of the podcasts or videos of the lawyer who posted the link below. He is a Canadian lawyer. I found him during the early part of the pandemic. I find him credible and not an alarmist nor a showman.

This lawyer has done a review, a little over an hour long, of the civil lawsuit that has been filed against Washington State University. by the family of Kohlberger's victims. He was an employee of that University although the murders were of students at the University of Idaho. The 126-page civil lawsuit is reviewed in its entirety with commentary.

The killings fall into the school violence category, not only because they occurred to students but because the murderer, an employee of a university, was an employee of the University that is being sued.

The allegations against the University of Washington have not been heard in court. I hope the lawsuit goes to trial and is not dismissed, settled or signed off with confidentiality statements.

Per this information, the murderer had documented offenses even in high school. As you listen to the details listed in the lawsuit and the commentary, you may wonder why nothing was really done before the murders. You will learn that reports were submitted.

If you ask after listening to the review, could these murders been prevented, you may find your answer to be, "of course".

As the lawyer does state, in hindsight, one would wonder why more was not done. Per the lawsuit, the conversation was had about Kohlberger at the University of Washington. Threat assessments are an important part of college campuses. The Clery Act and FERPA allow colleges and universities to act before murders are committed.

Why didn't the University of Washington Act? You will learn in this video that the fear of civil lawsuits played a part.  Does that fear ring a bell for you?  It sure does ring a bell for me. My school district in 1998 retaliated against me for fear of lawsuits. 

Like violence, lawsuits are hidden until chaos erupts. Virginia Tech faced multiple lawsuits after the killing there in 2007. The Clery Act and FERPA were updated after the murders at Virginia Tech. 

The University of Washington may or may not have seen this lawsuit coming, but it has arrived. They may even find large fines because of The Clery Act and FERPA regulations.

Runkle of the Bailey does a good review. He does not get technical or use legalese. He has a slant but mainly reads the 126 pages with limited opinion commentary.

If prevention is worth a pound of cure, the University of Washington will most likely pay out lots of pounds whether we hear about it or not. There are 364 bullet points in the lawsuit.

Those who only follow school shootings are missing many of the violence on college campuses.

This lawsuit took me by surprise; it may take you by surprise also. 

I continued to speak up because history repeats itself. Silence allowed this perpetrator to get away with murder even though he will live the rest of his life in prison.

Families of Kohberger's Victims Sue Washington State University - Court Document Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eS0i-F0VHs&t=590s 

Marian Carlino

January 18, 2026

Uvalde Revisited January 2026

 About two weeks ago, the trial for the police officer from the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas started. Parents have testified. Teachers have testified. Law enforcement has been called in. The history of the officer's training is under discussion as I type this. Columbine High School has been referenced several times today.

The Columbine High School massacre, April 20, 1999, was a water shed event that occurred at least eight months after the Guide to Safe Schools was published in 1998. The principal in the Columbine tragedy was treated like a hero, much to my chagrin. 

Like chalk scratching on the blackboard, these trials bring back memories of my experience in March and April 1998, (a full year before Columbine became a killing field) with Uvalde being over two decades later on May 24, 2022. My story is about prevention.

The characters are different in every trial, but the scenes are the same. Failure to recognize signs, failure to respond, failure to follow safety rules. Like every school shooting, documentaries and lots of news articles have been written. Someone ends up on trial. Since many of the shooters take their own lives or are killed at the scene, trials for the actual person who does the shooting are not always possible. The trial of the shooter from the Parkland, Florida high school massacre (February 14, 2018) was interesting to say the least. The witnesses were not much different from the witnesses in this current trial of the police officer.

From the day of the tragedy on May 24, 2022, unlocked doors and uncontrolled access to the building has been in the discussion. This trial is highlighting the doors, training, standard operating procedures for school safety, drills and the response of the officers. The defendant in this trial, Adrian Gonzales, is facing 29 counts of child abandonment or endangerment in relation to how he responded to the events.

The testimony on January 12, 2026, by the fourth-grade teacher, shot in the attack, addressed questions about doors and protocol. He was asked about his actions that day before, during and after the gunman entered the school.  This teacher also had to identify the students' pictures from his class who were killed and or injured. The camera never showed his face but did focus on his scarred arm. He was asked if he still taught. His last day of teaching was on May 24, 2022.

Expert testimony evidently is being treated differently from school district personnel testimony because the current witness, a law enforcement officer, called to the school, can have his face shown?  Another officer, in full uniform, is testifying on video also has his face shown.

No matter how this trial ends, nothing on May 24, 2022, can be undone. Controversy will continue to swirl. The victims are still dead.

Some of the comments in the YouTube chats thought it was terrible that the teacher and parents have to relive the day. I disagree. As hard as it is, trials do bring out facts if people are telling the truth, questions go unanswered without trials.

Is this man the only person who should stand trial for the tragedy? The jury is still out.

Pay attention. Even though school districts train for such scenarios, they hope it never happens and sadly, many will say, we never thought it could happen here. These trials remind us it can and does.

Court TV Day 5 has the testimony of the fourth-grade teacher.

LIVE: TX v. Adrian Gonzales - Day 5 | Uvalde School Massacre Trial

Today, January 13, 2026, is Day 6 of the trial.

What lessons can be learned?

Marian R. Carlino

January 13, 2026