Is it really possible after this horrible tragedy for him to be a "normal functional adult"? I hope I never walk into his dental office, medical office or business office one day decades from now. Once I realized who he was I would have to get up and run out. I guess he could function off in a factory some where as long as no one upset him. Imagine him showing up at your front door one day asking to come in and check your plumbing. I suspect he has cooked his own goose so to speak. He will be in jail for many decades to come.While jail is partially punishment, it also serves the public good just by keeping those that are anti-social away from the rest of us

Lisa, I agree that he needs help. However, he won't ever be a normal functional adult.

I agree with you Lisa. And I for one will never underestimate the power of my Lord. This boy can become a normal functioning adult. Nothing is impossible with the power of the Lord.

nine counts? I guess this was the number of other kids in the cafeteria at the time. Remember ha brought over twenty bullets with him, so he hadn't finished shooting yet. How about twenty-one counts, one for each bullet?

I agree!. All of God's children are worth praying for! I think we should also commend our Baltimore County States Attorney, Scott Shellenberger, for a quick and appropriate charge in this case. Too often we are left dangling for weeks or months wondering what the charge will be or if one will ever come. I hope he gets a undelayed trial as well. Good job Baltimore County!

Good insights Mr. Jim Jones! But I.m still not drinking your kool-aid

I have always discouraged my children from watching professional sports due to the serious lack of role models and how many of them are charged with the abuse of illegal medications, abuse and other serious crimes. I encourage my kids to seek out the unique among the ordinary and find mentors on their own like teachers and other people who inspire them. However, this kid didn't have a chance with the obvious trash who was "raising" him. Guns and drugs in both homes he had to live in and the arrest records of those in charge of shaping his future? No excuse for what he did, but he certainly wasn't raised properly.

The boy did not get the gun from his stepfather. He took the gun from his father's house without the father's knowledge. The stepfather, while admittedly in the wrong for possessing guns with a felony conviction on his record, had them locked up. His gun possession was not the "proximate cause" of this shooting. It's a very sad situation all the way around and I feel badly for this child's family. They are suffering, too.

This is somebody's child you are talking about. Just a boy who grew up with no guidance and I bet no love. A boy let loose like a lion out of his cage. A boy who was taunted and teased. Locking him up and throwing away the key is not what he needs. What he needs is love, hope, guidance, and a chance for someone to show him the right path...not hate and a jail cell.

He was the predator, not the one being bullied. He was in and out of alternative schools since first grade.

I agree with you Sharon. This boy is just a child who was brought up with no guidance. And on top of that he was being bullied. There are many young boys in our society today just like this child. He doesn't need hate...he needs love and help.

AMEN!

Okay...so who helps the students learn those skills? Parents working to make ends meet, nope. Step families...nope they learned divorce. Hmm staff like guidance counselors, nope, ...they have greatly reduced the staff esp for 2200 students. Kids learn them from media or other friends?, yeah that's where they ARE learning them. Video games, movies, you tube facebook posts... the system is broken.

Parents have always been working to make ends meet. I believe it is there duty to teach those skills. And it is the individual's responsibility to hone those skills. We as a society are coddling too much and not instilling values. Keep blaming bullying and you will keep getting kids shooting up schools. Because its not there fault they did it, its because they were bullied. Give me a break.

Gil...I have to agree. I am a stickler for responsibility. In todays world everyone points at everything except themselves in the mirror. Responsibility is lost now a days.

It's everyone fault actually. Society as a whole.

Why do you feel he needs prison?

Psst, he almost killed somebody, in case you didn't read about it.

@FIFA So you think prison is going to help this kid? Seriously!

It's not about help its about being held responsible for actions that caused unbelievable harm to others and a disruption to an entire community. It's also about causing others to think twice before doing something like this - its called justice. DaughterOfAKing - how would you handle the situation - require him to attend church every morning for an hour?

Why did He let it happen?

@FIFA God gives all of mankind free will to make choices. In this case, this boy needs help. I believe it was now or later. If later, then it could have been something even worse. Now this kid can get some help.

I hope you thank God very day it wasn't your kid that got shot - I'm thinking you might be reacting differently.

This is a child. He needs help not prison. While I believe in personally accountability and consequences for ones actions, I do not believe that prison is going to help this child. "People like this guy"...you don't even know this kid. You have drawn generalized accusations based on one event. You have no clue what he is or is not capable of doing. The only thing that this incident proves is the fact that this young boy is misguided, angry, and unloved. What he needs is forgiveness and love. Healing starts with the heart and soul, not prison.

From your comment, we can assume you are an atheist. I believw God made us and gave us free will. It is up to us to care for each other. God didn't let this happen, we did. We pray for God's help in preventing it from happening again. It is up to us to bring justice and peace into this world!. We are not puppets of God, we are creations of God

Dean - one of the ways we can help make sure this doesn't happen again is to lock this kid up and throw away the key. We should publicize every time he is pounded by other criminals and how miserable he is and how he is paying dearly for his actions. Hopefully, other nut jobs on the fence would see this and think twice knowing the hell they would be subjected to if they act on their twisted impulses.

What does that mean - "works out" ??

I may be not be "free from sin" but I sure as heck never blew a hole the size of a dinner plate through an innocent, special needs child on his first day of school. I may have been bullied, but I never brought a disassembled shotgun to school with over 20 rounds of ammunition, hid it, assembled it in secret and went into a cafeteria, gun blazing and tried to kill someone. I had parents who took an interest in my life and helped me through difficult times and were there for me when I needed them. I do the same for my children now when they experience a rough time in or out of school. So, I will continue to say that this child was a troubled, poorly raised child who tried to murder someone and he needs to be imprisoned. No one would be saying this if he were 18 or 22. If you are sophisticated enough to premeditate a crime of this magnitude, then you are sophisticated to exist in the prison system designed to keep you away from decent people.

An entire bible of proverbs, life lessons and parables and the only line you can come up with is "an eye for an eye" seriously?????

Tell you what, since you know the bible so well, look and see how many time the words forgiveness are used vrs eye for an eye..... I am not excusing what this young man did. He is a young man in need of serious help obviously and a young man who will rightfully have to pay a steep price for his actions. To lock a 15y.o boy up for life who comes from a home that is obviously dysfunctional and a home that clearly did little to nothing in terms of addressing his underlying mental health issues is boderline criminal in itself. Is the goal to exact our pound of flesh here or to server justice. Its sad the way so called Christians act today.

Brandon you sound like the one who needs help. Brad is 100% correct - are you sure you aren't the one that needs to take a cold shower? What the hell does watching porn have to do with justice?

This site fundamental problem with our current education system. We have no place for kids who need continuous counseling, small group settings and a modified school day. The goal of alternative programs is to return kids to the "normal" schools ASAP. Many kids do really well in the alternative setting and then are thrown back into the the same situations that created problems for them. Everybody loses - the kids in the comprehensive school are continually disrupted while the disruptive kids don't get what they need. We need permanent alternative placements. As for the "teams" that make the placement decisions, that's a whole,other bag of problems that needs to be sorted out. The time is NOW Dr. Dance to fix this situation. There are lots of Gladdedns out there who are ticking away!!

It even more disturbing that people fail to understand that this is a case with more than one victim. Your absolutely right. There were multiple opportunities to intervene in this case and prevent a young man from going down a road that would ruin his life. Have you forgotten HE IS FIFTEEN YEARS OLD. He may have had access to help, he may have had access to assistance as you put it, the reality is that NOBODY FORCED A OBVIOUSLY DISTURBED young man to take it. Are we really going to sit here and act as if the kid had all his marbles and was capable of taking the help voluntarily he needed? He is a minor, his parents could have had him committed, could have done an awful lot to help him, instead they chose to engage in documented drug activities and who knows what else.

This kids facebook and what was on it, not only the day of the shooting but in the weeks and months leading up to it was pretty clear evidence that this was a tragedy waiting to happen. Far as the counselors, social workers and school laisons, I have a child who had issues at one point and while they pointed us to the resources we needed, they certainly provide no therapy or medication. If we had not FORCED OUR CHILD to be treated then who knows what kind of issue he could have had. Since treatment he went on to be on the honor roll in high school and currently now in college. Maybe if someone in Bobby Gladdens life gave a damn about him, things would have been different.

You think because we live in a "free" country that this boy had the right to enter a school with a shotgun and ammunition to kill at least twenty people? Absurd!

He apparently snuck his gun into a bathroom stall where he loaded it and went to do his deed. People who saw Gladden seemed to sense something was wrong or that he wasn't himself, but no one expected what was about to happen. If Gladden is charged as an adult, he can kiss his butt goodbye and he'll be worse once he gets out of prison, watch. That is, unless he does not get a life sentence or gets out early for some reason.

Mike I think you need to check your source, you got a few things wrong. If the person you talked to was in the cafeteria or right outside remember they went through emotional trauma and might not be remembering things correctly, also depending on where you were depended on what you saw. I'm not going to say anything specific about what I was told because that will all come out at his trial. The bottom line is Bobby was wrong to bring a shotgun, amunition, and alcohol into a school, he later loaded it but was only able to get one shot off, after seriously injuring a student. The second shot was not at a person. He did an adult crime and should pay for his crime as an adult. I hope there is something on the books they can charge his parents & stepfather with since they didn't take care of Bobby and do their job as a parent. The school system tried to help him on each level of education but they can only do so much, the school system is not his parents.

Well, I did want to know the facts which is why I talked to my neighbor for about 15 minutes trying to piece together what happened by someone who was there and had inside information. I'm certainly glad no one was killed, all I'm saying is his family history sheds a lot of light on what contributed to this situation. I was bullied in school too, but I don't have a violent streak in me. When someone like this happens so close to home, I was just really interested in some first hand knowledge and was shocked at the history of his father and mother in a way, but then again, it's the cycle of abuse. You learn from your parents more than anyone else in the world as a child. I'm sure good will come out of it, as a matter of fact, it had come out that this down syndrome kid's favorite color was red, so everyone in that school and schools across the country wore red after finding that out in support for him. That is heartwarming.

Everyone has their problems, everyone, but what determines the kind of person you are is how you manage those feelings and deal with those problems. Gladden obviously was not taught well and did not have good examples to base his behavior on at home from parents.

As far as I know, August 20th was the first day of school. Surely, lockers would have been assigned by then. I trust my neighbor's view of what happened. She's a smart girl and had many details to share with me.

http://www.businessinsider.com/robert-gladdens-lawyer-says-he-was-bullied-2012-8

One link from his lawyer showing Gladden was the one being bullied and intended to use the gun to scare the bullies away. Just FYI, the second shot was fired while Gladden was being restrained and was shot straight up in the air, hitting no one.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/national_world&id=8790656

According to my neighbor, many people were aware that Gladden was being bullied, this was common knowledge amongst students there. It still gives Gladden no right to do what he did, but kids can be viscious. Gladden's family history also plays a huge role into what happened. All the guns that were found at his home, which is no surprise considering the crimes his father committed and his mother being insane. As another poster said, the school just doesn't want the responsibility. They don't want to be accountable for such a tragedy, they'd rather just blame it all on Gladden. Bullies can be ruthless and heartless and when you have a child prone to violence, grew up around violence and instability, this is the kind of reaction you get. I don't believe for one second Gladden just decided "Hey, I'm gonna shoot some people at school today!" Ridiculous, IMO.

Mike, your source and info is wrong.

The first day for school for ALL of Baltimore County was August 27, the day this happened. Who care if lockers were assigned yet or not? This kid MADE A DECISION to bring a gun to school, a clear violation of school policies.

You claim he intended to use it to scare the bullies away. If this is the case, why bring 20 rounds of ammunition? And why bring it in disassembled?

When he assembled the shotgun, why load it if you don't intend to use it?

Further, you want to make his father's crimes the reason for the son's crimes. People are the product of their environments to some extent, but have the FREE WILL to choose their own path and do not have to follow in their parents footsteps. He chose to commit all of his crimes, now he has to live with the consequences.

There will ALWAYS be exceptions to the rules, but that is how child psychology works. That's it, right there. Things done to you as a child profoundly affect who you become as an adult. You saying "well, he had free will!" is like telling a drug addict "you have free will, so stop using heroin if you want to stop!" Just as silly because addiction is a DISEASE of the brain just like child abuse causes changes in brain chemistry and development that take YEARS and YEARS of therapy to reverse. Was Gladden in therapy? Were his parents?

Would you also tell someone with cancer that he has "free will", so he should just stop having cancer? You just don't understand what you're talking about when it comes to this. Sorry, but this is quite an emotional topic for me for many reasons. I don't mean to snap or be an a-hole towards you and if I have or are, I apologize.

One might wonder from which institute of higher learning you earned your degree in child psychology. And is it a B.A. or B.S.? Perhaps a graduate degree?

If you think that that garbage you are spewing is "basic psychology" it is clearly you who know nothing. I have a degree in Criminology, a strong background in psychology and sociology, and years of education in the operation of the criminal justice system. Free will is the basis for the classical school of criminal behavior and is essential for understanding why people behave the way that they do.

Anyone who believes that just because you were "brought up that way" means that you have to behave that way is clueless as to the motivation that drives people to act in any way, in any situation. People can rise above the way that they are raised by making a choice. By the same token, people like you use this as an excuse for why people are not responsible for their own actions. The argument of "nature vs. nurture" is not an excuse in the eyes of the law.

Next time, try an educated argument, not one laced with abbreviated profanity and incorrect assumptions.

I have been in therapy for abuse that happened to me for most of my life, I've been around people and known people who were abused, I have had exposure to thousands of hours of hearing about young kids, their problems and the predictability of the abuse they sustained that causes people to think and behave the way they do. All I have learned, I have learned from personal experience, psychologists, psychiatrists and being around people who were abused as well as my own abuse which was 24/7 until I was 11 years old and continued in other ways until I was 27 years old. I am HARDLY clueless, however, I am an example that you don't HAVE behave a certain way because of how you were raised, but MOST people do. I've seen it my whole LIFE.

Your accolades are commendable and there is certainly truth in what you say in some respects, but if violence and abuse is all you know growing up, the evidence is all around that it CAUSES many of these kids to grow up into abusing adults. Are you now saying the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychology is wrong too?

http://aacap.org/page.ww?name=When+Children+Have+Children&section=Facts+for+Families

People who are addicts don't have "free will" because they have a disease that DRIVES them to NEED substances to function in everyday life. A child who grows up in an abusive home, any kind of abuse, I don't care what your accolades are, if you're going to say that this abuse does not program a child's brain in an abnormal way, such as in Robert's case, then you are the one spouting nonsense. Some people are able to overcome their abuse and break that cycle as I have chosen to do, but this is not the case for the majority of people. The prison system is a huge example as 84%, that's EIGHTY-FOUR PERCENT were abused as children, yet you're going to sit here and say that it's "free will" and there's no correlation at all? That's nonsense, pure nonsense. This is epidemic in our society. There's plenty of evidence and statistics to show that these abused kids who are abused, sexually for example, and then grow up and sexually abuse their kids and you're saying that's nothing more than free will? No, that's that effect of abnormal brain development as a result of the abuse THEY sustained and did not receive treatment for it. Whatever, I know I come off as a "know it all" considering your accolades, but I have seen, felt, experienced, heard and talked to so many psychiatric professionals about these things over the course of my life that all tells me you're just wrong about that part of your argument.

Well, then there seems to be mixed messages as to what was going on at school at this time. Knowing the information about his parents, I'm sure that's where he learned to treat people this way. What people don't understand is kids don't just do these things for no reason. Kids who are abused at home take out their anger on others. I agree completely that it is NO excuse, but it IS a reason. You grow up with criminal and psychologically crazy parents, these are the kinds of kids you get out of it. I don't understand why people don't connect child abuse to incidents like this or people who go through life abusing other people, beating their wives and children and other related things. The connection is REAL. My neighbor and a group of her friends said they had seen people bullying Gladden, but maybe he was the one who started it.

Regardless, if Gladden had sane parents, this never happens and these parents should have never been allowed to have kids in the first place.

...and yes, one shot was fired at the kids and the second shot went off while he was being restrained which went up through the ceiling. It is sad when anything like this happens, but for someone with such a history as Gladden, if what you say is true, the parents should be punished as well because THEY are the ones who raised him. I would bet he was bullied and abused at home and he took it out on everyone else at school. This is how it works, people. Think about that next time you strike your child with a fist, a belt or any kind of emotional or sexual abuse. Think about that innocent child you are ruining.

Says Mr. Fisher: "Regardless, if Gladden had sane parents, this never happens and these parents should have never been allowed to have kids in the first place."

Never been allowed to have kids!?!?!?!?! We need permission now to have kids?! What an amazing statement.

Parents who are INCAPABLE of raising kids, parents who are too young to have kids, parents who are career criminals and have severe untreated psychological issues? You're damn right they shouldn't be allowed to have kids because you know what you get? You get Robert Gladden's, that's what you get.

What you people don't understand is that bad parenting produces bad kids and in turn, bad adults. Abusive adults who emulate what their parents did to them and they take it out on everyone else. You want a society where unfit parents are free to raise kids who turn out to be criminals, that's your choice. I choose to NOT live in a society like that. Child abuse is RAMPANT and a huge problem in this country that no one wants to acknowledge, address, or even think about. You want to live in the dark, go right ahead, I have seen more than enough in my life and learned enough about psychology and human behavior just from living life to know this is the truth. It's not the movies, it's not the TV, it's not the music, it's not other kids, it's YOU! As a parent, you SUCK and so does your KID! Why is this not an issue? The answer is because people are completely ignorant to psychology, child abuse and the effect it has on children when they become adults. I've lived it, I've seen it with my own eyes, I've listened to professionals talk about this many times, THOSE are the facts. Child abuse is a SEVERELY traumatic experience that can take DECADES to reverse in talk therapy, sometimes with the help of medication. Just knowing the condition of Gladden's parents tell the whole story.

Yeah, because police are always told the truth by kids and career criminals. It wasn't just one student, it was many students who witnessed it. Gladden was CERTAINLY bullied and abused at home, probably on a daily basis if he was always having problems with these kinds of things. Those are the facts. No one ever lies to the police, you're right.

In all honesty, the truth is probably in the middle somewhere, but his home life is the source of Gladden's mental issues. I don't think there can be any doubt at all about that and THAT is the not only the part people care the least about, but also the most important aspect of this entire situation.

I find it curious that he brought 21 extra shells for a double barreled shotgun. What was he planning to do? Use them all? You know how long it takes to reload a two-shot shotgun? Who in the world would give him the time to even reload once. He was only able to get a single shot off towards anyone before people were on him, but he had 21 extra shells? For what? That, to me, is more of a "scare tactic" like.. "look what I have." That is the part that puzzles me. With the arsenal of guns he had at his disposal, why choose a shotgun if he planned on seriously taking massive amounts of lives? Even a pistol would have done more damage or a semi-automatic weapon, but a shot gun with 21 extra shells? That part doesn't add up to me because there's no way he would have even had the chance to even reload that gun a single time.

Have you ever used a shotgun, Mr. Fisher? I am not sure exactly what weapon the shooter was using, but I can reload a double barrel 410 SxS shotgun in 3-5 seconds. Now I will admit that that is a long time, certainly long enough for someone to react and stop me, but if I am standing far enough away I could likely reload a number of times before someone stopped me.

Fair enough, but apparently, he was right in the middle of the cafeteria, was he not? He only shot one time when he could have easily shot twice, at least twice. Having 21 extra shells? Of course, he did shoot twice, but the second time, he had people restraining him and the shot went straight up into the air.

Gladden had issues, obviously, but if he really wanted to severely injure multiple people, why use a shotgun as opposed to a handgun or semi-auto gun? I don't know, all I know is we can all thank Gladden's parents for raising such a mentally disturbed child. Hopefully, the wounded child survives.

Yes, his stepfather may be a less than upstanding citizen, but at least he kept his weapons out of the reach of Robert.