BATH TOWNSHIP SCHOOL BOMBING
One particular school who faced the same outcomes if not worst, was, in fact, a school in Bath Township, Michigan. The bombing occurred in 1927 making it the "deadliest school massacre in U.S. history" The Bath Consolidated School was originally set in a "rural village of 300 people," known as Bath Township. Only 314 students from farmer families attended the school, and on May 18 "it was the last day of classes for that year."
When 8:45 comes around, however, the 3-story school building was bombed by Andrew Kehoe. That action could be heard from a mile away according to the residents. "There was a pile of children about five or six under the roof and some of them had arms sticking out, some had legs, and some just their heads sticking out. They were unrecognizable because they were covered with dust, plaster, and blood.” The perpetrator, Kehoe who was a treasurer for a school board, however, didn't just bomb a school because of the taxes for the school. He "killed his neighbor’s dog, beat one of his horses to death" as well as his wife.
When this incident occurred newspapers and publicity rushed to make sense of the reasoning behind the bombing. They called Kehoe insane, demented, a madman. Although there was little understanding of mental illness at that point, the media still tried to find reasons for the bombing. “He was notified last June that the mortgage on his farm would be foreclosed, and that may have been the circumstance that started the clockwork of anarchy and madness in his brain,” claimed the New York Times.
ReplyDeleteIt's so interesting that these violent things have been happening for so long. I had no idea about this until this class and I don't know why that is. I guess it's probably just because news didn't use to spread as quickly or as far as it does today, so it wasn't something that many people new about until they read about it in text books.
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