A Student’s Response to the Latest School Shooting
By Isabella Zollner
America was, once again, horrified this Monday when a shooter opened fire at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee. The shooter, Hale, was armed with two assault style rifles and one pistol. Hale killed 3 students and 3 adults before being fatally shot by Nashville Police. The surviving students were then bussed to a safe location. In the aftermath of the shooting Nashville Police made a statement that they believed Hale was transgender. This caused right wing extremists, notably U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, to exploit this tragedy in order to help their recent legislative attack against the trans community. In the few days since this tragedy occurred, these extremists have succeeded in spreading rumors which vilify the transgender community.
What We Know About Hale
In a press conference late Monday afternoon, Nashville Police stated that Hale was a transgender male. At that time, they gave no further information about Hale’s gender identity or the reasoning they had to believe Hale was transgender. Rumors began to spread almost immediately and with very little information to go on these rumors grew wildly. On Tuesday afternoon Nashville police responded to these rumors by explaining that although Hale was assigned female at birth Hale used he/him pronouns on social media. The name that Hale used on this social media profile, Aiden, was also painted on one of Hale’s rifles. Police also stated that Hale was under a doctor’s care for an undisclosed emotional disorder.
Gender Affirming Care Does Not Make People Violent
Despite knowing nothing about Hale’s gender affirming care, or if Hale was even receiving any, right wing extremists have already blamed this shooting on hormonal treatments. Marjorie Taylor Greene infamously tweeted, “How much hormones like testosterone and medications for mental illness was the transgender Nashville school shooter taking? Everyone can stop blaming guns now.” She and others have since been restricted on twitter for furthering myths about “trans-terrorism”.
Many of these myths spawn from the belief that hormonal treatments cause people to be violent. Hormonal treatments are complex and incredibly personal treatments that I do not have the time to thoroughly explain here. But the short- and irrefutable- truth is that hormonal treatments do not make transgender people violent or mentally ill. In fact the opposite is true. A multitude of studies have proven that transgender people who were given access to gender affirming hormonal treatments had positive resulting mental health. You can read more into these studies here.
We Do Not Know Hale’s Motive
There have been recent rumors that Hale’s shooting was a form of revenge for having to attend the Christian school. Although investigators have stated that Hale resented being forced to attend the Christian school, they have not made any public speculations about Hale’s motive at this point. It has been clear made to the public, however, that Hale was not targeting any particular person during this shooting. Investigators have also said that a manifesto was found in Hale’s home, but they have not released this manifesto.
In 2023 alone 74 people have been killed or injured by gun violence in American schools. Most components of these tragedies vary greatly, but there has been one commonality between them, guns in the hands of people who shouldn’t have had access to them. Common sense gun regulations are long overdue in America as we have been reminded of once again.
During the aftermath of this tragedy harmful rumors and myths about the transgender community will continue to spread. These dangerous stories about the actions of one sick and twisted individual should not be used to draw conclusions about the transgender community at large. For fair and non-partisan updates about this tragedy I recommend the Associated Press’s coverage.
In these complex and evolving situations, it is important to know the facts. Unfortunately, this recent tragedy has led to a new campaign of disinformation demonizing an entire community. Students deserve better.
About the Author:
After being subjected to homophobic harassment in the classroom, Isabella decided to try and use her writing to encourage others to stand up for each other and themselves. Isabella is a high school student in Lafayette, IN.
