***Correction: Amy Bishop was 19 years old and an adult when she shot and killed her younger brother. She was never charged, so it would not have come up on a background check.
I doubt that a novelist could have come up with a plot with twists like the tragic shooting on the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Three faculty are dead, and the stories coming out about the “shooter” are completely shocking. Did anyone do a background check on this professor?
The victims were colleagues in the Biology department at the U. Dr. G.K. Podila, Dr. Maria Ragland Davis and Dr. Adriel Johnson died shortly after the afternoon shooting at the Shelby Center at the university.
Dr. Joseph Leahy and Stephanie Monticciolo and Dr. Luis Rogelio Cruz-Vera were also shot. News reports are stating that Dr. Amy Bishop Anderson had been refused tenure, so she opened fire.
On top of that, we found out that she shot and killed her brother in the 1980s in Braintree, Ma. It was ruled an accidental shooting. NOW, we find out that Amy Bishop and her husband Jim were suspects in a 1993 attempted mail bombing of a Harvard Medical School professor. Amy Bishop was a fellow in his lab.
So, obviously, this is a person who had history with violence, or at least, suspected history with violence. It had been reported that she was very angry about not receiving tenure, and that she had been at the shooting range recently. Here is the scariest thing: a shooting under the age of 18 would probably not come up during a background check, and if she was not charged in the possible mail bomb that would not come up either. A female, mother of four, teacher is not exactly the “typical” profile of a school shooter, or a workplace shooting. To me, that is what makes this so very frightening.
I grew up in the midwest and gun accidents, particularly during hunting season, were not uncommon. What was uncommon? Mass school or workplace shootings, I cannot remember ever hearing about such an incident growing up. So, what is fueling this behavior? We cannot say that school shootings are unlikely these days.
These are, sadly, scary days, aren’t they?
Well, I think I’d be a little horrified if those things had affected her being hired. If she was not convicted of anything, then those things shouldn’t be taken into account in a background check. If I were accused of murder and was innocent, and if I was then acquitted, I would be pretty pissed off if the false accusation kept me from getting a job. That would be a really unfortunate result of a flawed judicial system, and I’m not entirely sure that I agree that those things should be able to be found on record at all, if you’re acquitted. Now, in this case, she probably was guilty, but still.
And in the case of the profiling of the shooter- I find this to be incredibly interesting. In my Sociology of Gender class, we have studied a bit about the linkage of males with violence, how it comes as no surprise when teenage boys are the shooters, but that it would be regarded as shocking if, say, Columbine had been a couple of girls, and that their sex would have been a big part of the news. Now this teacher has broken the profile of “school shootings,” and I must say that I’m interested to see what the media, and responses to it, make of this.
All in all, however, this was something truly horrible, and yes, these are scary days.
I wonder if a background check would have brought up her issues with the Prof at Harvard…I mean, obviously they had problems, so I can’t imagine he would write a glowing recommendation.
As to gender, I taught a course called “Gender and Crime” at UTD and yes, most violent crimes of this nature are committed by men…I can’t think off the top of my head of a school or workplace shooting by a woman. A fascinating case, but I always hate it when the criminal gets so much attention and the victims are forgotten. I hope they do a piece on the lives of the victims.
Oh, and I want to correct something: the shooting in Braintree occurred when she was 19. BUT…she was not charged.