Lockdown

Someone at my old high school shot himself this morning — in the head, over a "piece of tail," my sources tell me*.

The latest reports say he's still alive, and in Jackson for treatment. I'm told his name is Brian Clayton, which doesn't ring a bell as the only Claytons I knew growing up were girls.

This is the second time in two weeks the school has been locked down due to gun violence. Last Wednesday, there was a love triangle shootout across the street at Ideal Florist, where Tamara's mom used to work (thank god she doesn't work there anymore).

Several kids who were in classrooms within view of the crime scene heard the first shot, and then looked out the windows in time to see the husband shoot his wife's arm off, then blow his own head off.

Then, of course, mere hours later, the fleet of buses coming from the middle school down the street passed by the crime scene. My oldest nephew got to see quite a gruesome scene from his green vinyl seat that afternoon.

Back when I was in high school, some kid — a basketball player, no less — brought a gun to school and, while nothing happened, it set into motion an entire clusterfuck of stupid ideas authored by the school board to eliminate students' abilities to bring guns to school. The plan mostly involved a dress code that included bans on frayed pant hems and shirts with any print unless it was a name brand (in other words, no Tweety Bird screen prints, but Tommy Hilfiger was fine). I remember giving a very wobbly, very parched speech to the school board about how horrible their plan was, and I remember them basically shrugging and moving on.

Looks like if their little dress code is still in place, it's not done much to discourage people from bringing weapons to school.

I hope that kid's okay, and that the rest of the kids are, too.

*My brother's friend, who's still in high school, called him when it happened and gave him the skinny. But I imagine it's heavily rumor-fied. So, grains of salt for everyone.