The deadly shooting rampage at the San Jose National High School in Tacloban has not yet receded from memory, and now the nation is again grappling with another tragedy.
As classes started yesterday morning at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University high school, a ninth grader entered a classroom carrying two guns and started shooting. The teenage boy then changed weapons, moved to another classroom and again opened fire.
Students were seen ducking for cover or running away. One boy fell to the ground.
The victim, a tenth grader, was found on the fourth floor of the school. The gunman was later found dead on the fifth floor. He had live-streamed his rampage before taking his own life.
Two others were wounded while several students suffered injuries in the rush to leave the school premises.
Reports said the gunman used two Glock firearms. The 9mm pistol was reportedly issued by the Bureau of Customs to the boy’s father, who also owned the second gun.
The father, Lt. Lars Jalani, was relieved by Customs Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno yesterday as district commander of the BOC’s Enforcement and Security Services at the Zamboanga port.
Nepomuceno said the relief was meant to ensure an impartial investigation on whether Jalani’s service firearm had been used in the shooting, and “to determine exactly if there was gross negligence regarding how his high school-aged child came to possess the weapon.”
Nepomuceno said they could not reach Jalani as of yesterday afternoon.
In the case of the shooting in Tacloban, wherein two boys aged 14 and 15 killed three schoolmates and wounded 20 others, the 9mm pistol used by the 14-year-old belongs to his aunt, police Staff Sgt. Arla Paciencia.
The policewoman has been sacked and faces summary dismissal proceedings. She claimed her nephew had forcibly entered her locked home and taken the gun.
You’d think that after that carnage in Tacloban, public officials who own guns would be more careful about their firearms. And yet here we are again, with several families grappling with devastating news, and another school terrified by armed violence in their midst.
The government, working with education stakeholders in the private sector, cybercrime and mental health experts, need to present a more decisive response to school violence.
Schools must be restored as safe spaces that nurture learning.