On December 14, 1992, exactly 20 years before the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, a student went on a sudden rampage at Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Massachusetts. The gunfire killed a beloved student, Galen Gibson, and professor, Ñacuñán Sáez, and wounded four others.
PBS Need to Know sat down with survivors of the Simon’s Rock shooting, as well as family members of the victims, to learn how a trauma of this magnitude continues to reverberate even two decades later.
Plus, watch this week’s essay: As a 13-year-old boy, a single bullet in the back from an unsuspecting stranger left Jerry McGill a quadriplegic with no chance for recovery. This random act of violence may have dashed the 44-year-old’s childhood dreams of becoming an athlete or entertainer but it never stole his optimistic outlook on life.
More on the Simon’s Rock tragedy
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Gone BoyRead an excerpt from Gregory Gibson’s Gone Boy: A Father’s Search for the Truth in His Son’s Murder. |
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Remembering the nightFaculty who were working at the school during the 1992 shooting take us back to that night. |
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Creating art from tragedyThe 1992 school shooting at Simon’s Rock College inspires poetry and piano. |
