A quarter century later, Michael Carneal is 39 with a parole hearing next week that comes at a very different time in American life — after Sandy Hook, after Uvalde.
When 14-year-old Michael Carneal opened fire on his fellow students during a before-school prayer meeting in 1997, school shootings were not yet a part of the national consciousness. The carnage that left three students dead and five more injured at Heath High School, near Paducah, Kentucky, ended when Carneal put down his weapon and the principal walked him to the school office — a scene that seems unimaginable today.
“Twenty-five years seemed like so long, so far away,” Missy Jenkins Smith recalls thinking at the time of the sentencing. Jenkins Smith was 15 when she was shot by Carneal, someone she considered a friend. The bullet left her paralyzed, and she uses a wheelchair to get around. Over the years, she has counted down the time until Carneal would be eligible for parole.
“Today all of them would have been locked up,” he said. “But the majority went on to do good things.” But that doesn’t mean she thinks Carneal should be set free. For one thing, she worries that he is not equipped to handle life outside of prison and could still harm others. She also doesn’t think it would be right for him to walk free when the people he injured are still suffering.
Astor said that when it comes to the worst crimes, like many people, he struggles with the question of what age children should be held strictly accountable for their actions. As a class exercise, he has his students consider the appropriate punishment for a perpetrator at different ages.
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25 years after Kentucky school shooting, a chance at paroleIn December 1997, Michael Carneal opened fire on his fellow students during a morning prayer meeting at a Kentucky high school, killing three and wounding five more
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25 years after Kentucky school shooting, a chance at paroleWhen 14-year-old Michael Carneal opened fire on his fellow students during a before-school prayer meeting in 1997, school shootings were not yet a part of the national consciousness. The carnage that left three students dead and five more injured at Heath High School, near Paducah, Kentucky, ended when Carneal put down his weapon and the principal walked him to the school office — a scene that seems unimaginable today.
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As one of the country's first school shooters seeks parole, victim says forgive but don't forgetThe Heath High School shooting in western Kentucky was one of the first school massacres in the United States. The gunman is one of the only perpetrators to be considered for parole.
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D.C. sniper denied parole 20 years after shootingsA series of Supreme Court rulings and a change in Virginia law gave Lee Boyd Malvo the opportunity to seek parole after serving nearly two decades.
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Warrensville Heights police investigate shooting death of 3-year-old boy across from elementary schoolWarrensville Heights police are investigating after a 3-year-old boy was shot and killed right across the street from Warrensville Heights Elementary School.
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