Regarding the ROCORI shootings...

Jason McLaughlin was sentenced yesterday to life in prison for first degree intentional homicide in the death of Seth Bartell, and to 12 years for manslaughter in the death of Aaron Rollins.

A day that included emotional statements from the family members of Aaron Rollins and Seth Bartell, who were shot Sept. 24, 2003, inside Rocori High School, ended with consecutive prison sentences for John Jason McLaughlin, 17.

McLaughlin must serve at least 36 years in prison before he can be considered for release. His earliest chance for release will come when he is 53.

McLaughlin, 17, said nothing during the hearing in which Judge Michael Kirk sentenced him to life in prison for the first-degree murder of Bartell and 12 years for the second-degree murder of Rollins.

After serving the minimum 30 years on the life sentence, McLaughlin must earn parole before he can begin serving the 12-year, second-degree murder sentence.

McLaughlin would have to serve at least eight years of the second-degree murder sentence before he can be considered for early release. He gets credit for the almost two years he's been in custody since the shootings.

McLaughlin was also sentenced to serve a year and a day in prison for possession of a weapon on school property. That sentence will be served concurrent to the life sentence.

He will be taken to the Minnesota Correctional Facility-St. Cloud, where he will be processed and evaluated to determine what his programming will be.

It's unclear whether he will serve his sentence in Minnesota or another state.

I think this is telling of the appropriateness of the sentence meted out to McLaughlin:

Although McLaughlin was silent at his sentencing, he told a probation agent during a pre-sentence interview that he'd shoot Bartell again if he had the chance to do it over again. When asked what he would do differently this time, McLaughlin told the agent that he would have gotten closer to Bartell and shot him in the shoulder.

McLaughlin blamed the shootings "on other people," according to a pre-sentence investigation from which prosecutor Bill Klumpp read. McLaughlin acknowledged Rollins' death "shouldn't have happened," Klumpp told Kirk. He told the probation agent the shooting was serious because it happened in a school, but that if it had happened "on the street, nobody would care," Klumpp said, reading from the pre-sentence report.

"The real bully here is Jason McLaughlin," Klumpp told Kirk.

I was at ROCORI High School on the day of the shootings, and, along with students, colleagues, community members, and people from throughout the country we dealt with the pain. I know the pain that the community felt, and that I felt. I couldn't even begin to imagine the anguish that the Rollins and Bartell families suffered. At the same time, the people in the Cold Spring, Rockville and Richmond communities, as well as those with close ties to those communities and to ROCORI High School were forever scarred. I am glad that Jason McLaughlin was tried as an adult. Justice would not have been served, IMO, if he was tried as a juvenile and let go after his 18th or 21st birthday. The families deserved more than that. The communities deserved more than that. Aaron and Seth deserved more than that. Jason's sentence of at least 36 years, though far from erasing the scarring, at least lends those affected the comfort that the community will be safe from him for that time. I wish I could say the same about the alleged conspirator of the shootings at Red Lake. After the snuffing out of the lives of no less than nine people, it was declared that he will be tried as a juvenile. The heinous killings, already leaving a catastrophic scar on the Red Lake community, will only leave that community further injured by the mere prospect of the possibility of Jourdain being left back in society in only a few short years. Even though Jourdain himself did not pull the trigger, conspiracy in commiting such a crime is no small matter. His alleged foreknowledge and complacency in preventing the massacre is an issue that should have been dealt with in a manner commensurate with the seriousness of the crime.

Regarding the ROCORI shootings,

The sentence should show others that people who commit school shootings will face lengthy prison sentences, Klumpp said.

It is unfortunate that the message from Red Lake is quite different.


On another note, there has been a lot of talk regarding the notion that the crime that Jason McLaughlin perpetrated was somehow mitigated by the fact (still unproven) that he (Jason) was bullied.

I AM SO FRIGGEN tired of bullying as an excuse to murder!!!! I was taunted mercilessly in the grade school and high school where I grew up. Not one time did I EVER think of bringing a gun to school and shooting people. By trying to excuse away McLaughlin's behavior by saying, "Well, he was bullied" you give free reign to every school kid who thinks (s)he isn't being given a fair shake to go and blow people away. This is a problem much larger than mere bullying. This is a societal problem where life itself has become disposable, and the taking of it in one form or another has become more and more socially acceptable. Bullying had nothing to do whatsoever with McLaughlin's actions. McLaughlin's reaction to his being bullied (if that was indeed the case) is what is important here and what should be held up to scrutiny.