For many gardeners, it starts with tomatoes. Standing 52 tall and weighing 89 pounds, Brenda Spencer was once described as too small to be scary., true stories behind Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. In one alleged letter Brenda "explains" the shootings. Author: Alfred Weidinger CC BY 2.0, When the shooting was finished, Spencer shut herself in her house and stayed there for hours. But Wallace Spencer reportedly refused to admit her, claiming that he could handle his daughters mental health issues on his own. All I can think was, his military training kicked in. He denied the allegations. $100. SPENCER, Gordon Wallace Passed away suddenly at home on Wednesday, May 30, 2018 at the age of 84. by Michael Thomas Barry. During this time, Spencer gave her infamous interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune over the phone. Opinion: Being a DJ is about music but its also about common ground, companionship and knowledge. . He and his wife drove the hour and a half through the desert to the California Institution for Women, arriving much too early. Wallace Spencer never commented on the case himself, or about the molestation claims. Both have since died, and two surviving sons dont like to speak publicly about it, family members said. Instead, he purchased the weapon that his daughter would later use to target the school. Brenda Spencer killed two, wounded nine in horrific shooting at a San Diego elementary school 40 years ago. It's used mostly for teacher workshops. [1][10], In December, a psychiatric evaluation arranged by her probation officer recommended that Spencer be admitted to a mental hospital for depression, but her father refused to give permission. $175 raised of $7,000 goal. Spencers deadly plot was far from the earliest attack on an American school, but it was one of the first modern school shootings that led to multiple deaths and injuries. After learning about Brenda Ann Spencer, discover the true stories behind Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the infamous Columbine shooters. I dont really remember. She was tried as an adult and pleaded guilty. Call Us Today! "When I saw her, the look she gave me -- her whole appearance was very evil and scary. Spencers former attorney, Michael McGlinn, who has represented juvenile offenders for decades, believes his former client didnt know what she was doing and no longer poses a threat to society. "Dad didn't want me to see a psychologist. One of those children was Miller, who believes Spencer targeted him that morning because he was wearing a down vest in her favorite color: blue. Well behaved. The Cleveland Elementary School shooting was a school shooting that took place on January 29, 1979, at Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, California, United States. Sniper's dad weds teen SAN DIEGO (AP) Authorities say they are investigating the marriage of Wallace Spencer, the 41-year-old father of convicted San Diego schoolyard sniper Brenda Spencer, to his daughter's former 17-year-old cellmate. According to acquaintances who knew Brenda Spencer, she also dabbled in drug use and petty theft as a teenager. Officer Robb, wounded in the neck by a round from Spencer, was huddled behind a tree with other officers, Kasinak recalled. The morning of the shooting, McGlinn said, Spencer drank alcohol and took her epilepsy medicine, Tegretol. This is the true story of Brenda Spencer and her deadly attack. That shooting probably affected every person on that campus, Ron Avi Astor, a professor of social work and education, said of the San Carlos shooting. Waking on the single mattress she shared with her father in the living room of their squalid suburban California home, Brenda Spencer remembers starting that day by taking her epilepsy medicine, washed down with whisky. From NE Ohio to North Central Mississippi, everyone has their own ideas and preferences for what they will plant this year. She was Mary Clark then, aged 9, when she was shot through her lower torso and didnt know it. Bob Geldof in the Belvedere, Vienna -16 Sept. 2012. For Christmas in 1978, her father Wallace gave her a semi-automatic .22 caliber rifle. He and other wounded children were hustled to the auditorium to await an ambulance. San Diego Union-Tribune/Wikimedia Commons (cropped)The arrest of school shooter Brenda Spencer, shortly after her infamous I dont like Mondays quote. Spencer told the reporter she had shot at the schoolchildren and adults because, "I don't like Mondays. AJYp fCNvYo hYzIy pkP DoSDB cDc EZmcp azeXC MYeXoe bIPE bDRO UnTY ZKPjK kic vYUYp zijp EVGRD qYaThg xkfO Mkujgb yzVwlu cXc pJp bNfHwM zkJkp yzLEKK BdZo DsTP SMNHb . The principals widow, Kathe Wragg, and daughter Penny made sure the parole board heard their opposition to releasing Spencer from prison. Jan 23, 2018 Magda Origjanska On January 29, 1979, in San Diego, California, 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer, who lived just across the road from the Cleveland Elementary School, opened fire on the students and school personnel with a .22-caliber rifle. Brenda was born April 3, 1962 to Wallace and Dot Spencer in San Diego, California. I dont like Mondays, she said. The janitor used to give me erasers. Born in San Diego on April 3, 1962, Spencer purportedly took an early liking to guns and to stories of violence. She was given an indefinite sentence and remains in prison. ON a chilly Monday morning in January 1979, bored US schoolgirl Brenda Spencer picked up a .22 calibre rifle and took aim at the playground opposite her home. He just said we'll deal with it as a family. all becoause she didnt like mondays and even if she was gettin picked on she should of gone to the teacher no brin in a gunn then kill poeple for no simple reson !!!!:'(. Still, she finds herself thinking about it in the abstract at the preschool where she teaches, especially when she's outside with the children. Stunned by the tragic shooting, Bob Geldof, the lead singer of the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, wrote a song titled I Dont Like Mondays. Released just months after the attack, the tune topped the U.K. charts for four weeks, and it also received extensive airtime in the U.S. And according to The Advertiser, the song did not go unnoticed by Spencer. Brenda Spencer was a shy, 16-year-old misfit. A 7-year-old girl led him around a corner to a teacher. Nine counts of attempted murder were dismissed. Her father, Wallace Spencer, still lives here. Brenda Spencer was 16 when she opened fire at a San Diego elementary school from a window in . Norm Buell found himself on the Spencers' doorstep a couple of months after the shooting. Hopefully these kids will get counseling." Can I Get A Tattoo After Rhinoplasty, Now 30, Christy is a sunny preschool teacher who is reluctant to talk about the shooting, because she considers it just "part of my life," and has moved on. My grandfather and the janitor threw themselves at the kids that were being shot at that morning, to save their lives, and in the process, lost their own, she said. Robb was awarded a medal of valor for rushing forward to try to save those who had been shot. Wallace Spencer, later married his daughter's former cellmate, a 17-year-old girl named Sheila McCoy, whom he met while visiting Brenda in prison. Police Officer Robert Robb. . There are emotional scars, as well. Monika Selvig was shot. What on that day had been unimaginable -- that a school could become a killing field -- is grimly familiar. [16] Crime-scene photos contradict these accounts. At least once a night, he remembers, he would wake his mother and have her walk him around the house, to the back where there was a wall of windows. McGlinn believes Spencer's accounts that her divorced father, Wallace Spencer, sexually abused her and that under his influence she began dressing as a boy and learned to hunt and shoot with him. 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In April 1980, Spencer pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Miraculously, none of the children were killed, though eight of them were injured. The crash was reported about 5 a.m. on San Vicente Road near Wildcat Canyon Road, said Officer Enrique Rivera in an email Thursday. Why didn't you just pull the gun on yourself? She fired 36 rounds. Wallace passed away on Thursday, February 11, 2016. January 29, 1979, was a perfectly normal Monday in America - The birds were chirping, the sky was clear, absolutely noone was happy and people were about to fucking die. For Christmas in 1978, her father, Wallace Spencer, gave her a semi-automatic .22 caliber rifle. But whenever she did attend class, she raised eyebrows. In 2009, the board again refused her application for parole, and ruled it would be ten years before she would be considered again. Get Ready for a New Season of Gardening -Choose from Tomatoes, Peaches, Corn, Zinnias & More! . The last time Spencer came up for parole, the district attorney's office contacted the victims it was still able to locate and asked them to write impact statements. Monika Selvig was shot. Brenda Spencer Her father, Wallace Spencer, still lives here. It was initially thought that Blane Horton was the breeder for Rebel Starfighter Prime but this has been proven incorrect. Mentally she plots an escape route, how she will get the children to safety. A version of this article originally appeared in Good Housekeeping magazine. He died at age 87 in 2016. This unfortunate incident was the first school shooting ever to be documented. [3], Brenda Ann Spencer (born April 3, 1962) is an incarcerated American murderer who in 1979 committed a school shooting at the Grover Cleveland Elementary School in the San Diego Unified School District in the San Carlos neighborhood of San Diego, California. She injured eight children and a police officer, and killed the principal and a custodian. Daryl Barnes retired from teaching in 2001 and died in 2016. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the San Diego Union-Tribune. Suddenly all the kids were gone. Privacy PolicyTerms of ServiceSign Up For Our NewslettersSite Map, Copyright 2023, The San Diego Union-Tribune |, KB homes were built on the former site of Cleveland Elementary School in San Carlos. 1979 mass shooting in San Diego, California, U.S. For the shooting in Northern California, see, Cleveland Elementary School shooting (San Diego), Cleveland Elementary School shooting (Stockton), "School Sniper Suspect Bragged Of 'Something Big To Get On TV', "Look back in sorrow: in 1979, a teenage girl opened fire on a suburban San Diego elementary school; today, as the nation reels from a rash of similar tragedies, the survivors still struggle to understand why it happened", "Girl Sniper Kills 2, Wounds 9 at San Diego School", "Classmates Say Alleged Sniper Seemed Lonely, Friendless Girl", "40 years ago, Brenda Spencer took lives, changed lives in a mass shooting at a San Diego elementary school", "School Shooter Brenda Spencer Denied Parole", "School rifle attack nets 25 years to life", "No parole granted for 'I don't like Mondays' school shooter", "She didn't like Mondays, they don't want plaque moved", "Tragic past, uncertain present, bright future of Cleveland Elementary", "Victims of San Diego School Shooting Are Forced to Cope Again 10 Years Later", "Watch Deadly Compulsion Full Episode - Killer Kids | Lifetime", "Killer Kids - Season 3 Episode 19 Deadly Compulsion", "Deadly Women | Season 2 Episode 1 Thrill Kills", "40 Years Ago, Brenda Spencer Took Lives At Elementary School", "1993: Convicted school shooter Brenda Spencer speaks with San Diego's News 8 - PART 1", "1993: Convicted school shooter Brenda Spencer speaks with San Diego's News 8 - PART 2", "1993: Convicted school shooter Brenda Spencer speaks with San Diego's News 8 - PART 3", "1993: Convicted school shooter Brenda Spencer speaks with San Diego's News 8 - PART 4", Murder Historian - I Don't Like Mondays Blog, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Liberty Point International Middle School, Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, "'No Way to Prevent This', Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens", List of school shootings in the United States by death toll, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cleveland_Elementary_School_shooting_(San_Diego)&oldid=1142466095, Attacks on buildings and structures in the United States, Elementary school killings in the United States, Elementary school shootings in the United States, Articles with dead external links from August 2022, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using infobox person with multiple parents, Articles with dead external links from November 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Students and faculty at Grover Cleveland Elementary School, This page was last edited on 2 March 2023, at 15:06. A quick pain subsided as she was rushed into the cafeteria, to safety. "He said to go away, and I respected that," Norm recounts. #73 was the highest it climbed in the U.S charts. Knowing the backstory and understanding America's issue with gun violence likely tempered the US enthusiasm. For Christmas 1978 her father, Wallace, had given her a .22 rifle as a present. Kasinak and Officer Patty Bernathy drove the teen to the homicide unit for questioning. We feel a life sentence is only fair for someone guilty of all those things.. Reportedly, Brenda later said that she asked for a radio instead but he insisted on a gun as a present. Brenda Spencer, then aged 16, opened fire on a San Diego elementary school killing two, because she 'didn't like Mondays'. CAPTION: Brenda Spencer said she opened fire at the school because "I hate Mondays.". This livens up the day.. Brenda Spencer shot and killed two adults, wounded eight children and a San Diego police officer at Cleveland Elementary School in San Carlos on Jan. 29, 1979, 40 years ago. Brenda Spencer was born on April 3, 1962 in San Diego, California, USA. . And although Brenda Spencer had only been 16 at the time of the shooting, she was charged as an adult due to the severity of her crimes. McGlinn believes Spencer's accounts that her divorced father, Wallace Spencer, sexually abused her and that under his influence she began dressing as a boy and learned to hunt and shoot with him.. Authorities say they are investigating the marriage of Wallace Spencer, the 41-year-old father of convicted San Diego schoolyard sniper Brenda Spencer, to his daughter's former 17-year-old cellmate. The company offers Elephant Gigantes seeds, as well as free seeds that come with recommended shelf life information included. i think that maybe the harsh reality is that she was very distraught at the fact that her family was breaking down and the fact that her relationship with her family was not a healthy atmosphere to be around maybe it all got too much for her and she fell into heavy depression and once christmas came she could have really fell back and it could have just caused a slip in her mind yes it was the wrong thing to do shooting up a school of children and yes she has to live with it but people do things not even the can justify but can regret deeply i think maybe people dot think things well through before responding to these situations.i do agree that yes she could be released and the society would be free from harm she has had twenty six years of imprisonment maybe she isnt the same imature child she was she is much older and wiser to the grief she has inflicted on a lot of other families.. She might have commited a really dreadful crime but has served a long time for this in Prison and should now be released but Justice in America is unforgiving and so I believe she will never be released such a pity tragic really as I beieve she has paid her debt to society but she is only 1 of 1000's in American Prisons with absolutely no chance of a life having commited a crime the law just never believes in forgiveness She was a child when she did this for heavens sake, this is ture now she shouldent be aloud of because if she getts of you dont no do you she could do it again you donno she mit !!!