37. "Auxiliary Documents 16a-b"
The following documents were provided by the administrative staff of Redden Academy College Preparatory School, a nonsectarian K-12 private school located in Cherry Stream, Delaware. These documents were stored in a designated spot for records of incidents that involved law enforcement. The staff member we spoke to mentioned that the records could likely be disposed of by now since no charges were ever pressed and the statute of limitations has passed, and although they were hesitant to share this two-part document with us, they eventually concluded that if we asked for something that they didn't even realize they had and no longer even needed, they might as well let us have it. Therefore they sent us the original documents rather than simply a copy.
Note that we also reached out to the Cherry Stream Police Department for any police reports about this incident, but because no charges were filed, their police report was disposed of circa 2010.
Document 16a
Document 16a is a report on a formatted report sheet, handwritten in all-capital block letters. The note spills over onto several copies of the incident report sheet stapled together, but for simplicity we have disregarded the blank formatting on subsequent pages.
REDDEN ACADEMY
INCIDENT REPORT SHEET
DATE OF INCIDENT: 04 - 20 - 192000
(mm)(dd) (yy)
TIME OF INCIDENT: ~10:30 a.m. .
NAME OF STUDENT: EDDWARD LUPO .
GRADE: 3RD .
TEACHER (IF APPLICABLE): KUMASHIMA/BACON .
LOCATION OF INCIDENT: K-4 GYMNASIUM .
OTHER INVOLVED: MICHAEL REDDEN .
OTHER INVOLVED: MICHAEL ROMANO .
OTHER INVOLVED: MANY OTHERS .
OTHER INVOLVED: .
PARENTS CONTACTED? YES / NO IF YES, WHO? ALL .
INJURY/IES? YES / NO IF YES, WHO? MANY .
PARAMEDICS/HOSPITALIZATION NEEDED? YES / NO IF YES, WHO? MANY .
POLICE CALLED? YES / NO WEAPONS INVOLVED? YES / NO (KIND OF)
DESCRIPTION OF INCIDENT: GRETCHEN KUMASHIMA'S CLASS (3D) WAS IN THEIR TWICE-WEEKLY P.E. CLASS WITH JIM BACON IN THE ELEMENTARY GYM. THE CLASS WAS PLAYING DODGEBALL AS THEY HAD THE PREVIOUS FEW CLASSES AND WAS DIVIDED BY GENDER AND SIZE AS PER USUAL. BEFORE THE GAME BEGAN, EDDWARD LUPO ASKED TO GO USE THE BATHROOM, WHICH MR. BACON ALLOWED. EDDWARD INSTEAD WENT TO HIS LOCKER AND CAME BACK WEARING MAKESHIFT ARMOR (BICYCLE HELMET, SWIMMING GOGGLES, UMPIRE'S VEST, PADDED WINTER COAT, ETC.) AND HOLDING A HOMEMADE "DODGEBALL CANNON" WHICH HE FILLED WITH BALLS AND SHOT AT ALL THE OTHER BOYS IN HIS GROUP. WHEN ALL OF THE BOYS HIS SIZE WERE HIT HE STARTED SHOOTING INDISCRIMINATELY AT LARGER BOYS, SMALLER BOYS, AND GIRLS OF ALL SIZES. MR. BACON WAS ALSO HIT SEVERAL TIMES. THE CANNON SHOT WITH ENOUGH FORCE THAT BALLS WERE RICOCHETING OFF THE WALLS SEVERAL TIMES AND STILL HITTING PEOPLE WITH MAJOR FORCE. EDDWARD WAS UNINJURED DUE TO THE PROTECTION HE WAS WEARING BUT ALL OTHERS IN THE GYMNASIUM SUSTAINED AT LEAST SOME INJURIES. THE WORST INJURIES WERE AMONG THE BOYS IN THE MEDIUM SIZED BOY GROUP AS WELL AS MICHAEL ROMANO (MOUSE) WHO SEEMED TO BE THE ONLY BOY IN THE SMALL SIZED GROUP WHO EDDWARD SPECIFICALLY TARGETED. HEARING SCREAMING, A NEARBY TEACHER (ELLEN WOODS) RAN INTO THE GYM AND TACKLED EDDWARD, STOPPING HIM. POLICE AND PARAMEDICS WERE CALLED IMMEDIATELY AND THE WORST WAS SUSPECTED BECAUSE OF THE DATE OF THIS HAPPENED (ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY, SEE INCIDENT DATE). EDDWARD WAS RESTRAINED UNTIL THE POLICE ARRIVED. MRS. WOODS ATTESTS THAT AS SOON AS HE WAS STOPPED, EDDWARD BEGAN CRYING AND REPEATING "WHAT HAVE I DONE?". MRS. WOODS ALSO HAD TO STOP OTHER CHILDREN FROM ATTACKING HIM WHILE HE WAS IN HER GRASP. EDDWARD WAS HANDCUFFED IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE POLICE ARRIVED BUT BECAUSE HE WAS A CHILD AND SEEMED VERY AFRAID, THEY TOOK HIM TO MY (PRINCIPAL LISA SHAVER'S) OFFICE AND QUESTIONED HIM. MEANWHILE ALL THE CHILDREN WHO DID NOT REQUIRE HOSPITALIZATION WERE KEPT IN THE GYM AND THE REST OF THE SCHOOL WAS PLACED ON LOCKDOWN. EDDWARD IMMEDIATELY CONFESSED THAT HE HAD BUILT A "DODGEBALL CANNON" TO "GET BACK AT" THE OTHER KIDS. THIS COMMENT PROMPTED THE POLICE TO ASK IF HE HAD A MOTIVE. EDDWARD SAID THAT THE OTHER CHILDREN HAD BEEN SPECIFICALLY AIMING AT HIM EVERY TIME THEY PLAYED DODGEBALL IN GYM, INCLUDING CHILDREN NOT IN HIS SIZE/SEX GROUP (SMALLER BOYS, BIGGER BOYS, AND GIRLS). EDDWARD SAID THAT HE BELIEVED THAT THE CULTIVATED EFFORT FOR EVERYBODY TO ATTACK HIM HAD BEEN ORCHESTRATED BY TWO SPECIFIC STUDENTS, MICHAEL REDDEN (A FOX IN HIS SIZE GROUP) AND MICHAEL ROMANO (A MOUSE IN THE SMALL BOYS' GROUP). EDDWARD SAID THAT HE HAD INITIALLY JUST WANTED TO GET BACK AT THEM BUT EVENTUALLY COULDN'T STAND EVERYBODY ELSE FOLLOWING THEIR LEAD TO ATTACK HIM SPECIFICALLY. THE POLICE ASKED ME (SHAVER) WHETHER I WAS AWARE OF THE CONCERTED EFFORT FOR EVERYONE TO BULLY HIM AND I SAID NO. ONE COP THEN STAYED WITH ME AND EDDWARD WHILE THE OTHER WENT TO DISCUSS THIS WITH THE REMAINING STUDENTS AND MR. BACON. THIS OFFICER ASKED THE STUDENTS (REDDEN AND ROMANO WERE AMONG THE MOST INJURED AND HAD BEEN TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL) WHETHER IT WAS TRUE THAT THEY WERE WORKING TOGETHER TO TARGET EDDWARD. THE CHILDREN INITIALLY ALL SAID NO. HOWEVER CSPD SENT ANOTHER OFFICER TO THE HOUSE OF BRANDON HAMMERSCHMIDT WHO HAD MISSED SCHOOL THAT DAY FOR A DENTIST APPOINTMENT AND HAD NO KNOWLEDGE OF THE INCIDENT. BRANDON WAS ASKED IF THERE WAS A RING CONSPIRING AGAINST EDDWARD AND HE ADMITTED THAT THERE WAS AND EVERYONE WAS IN ON IT, LED BY REDDEN AND ROMANO. BRANDON ALSO LISTED SEVERAL OTHER CHILDREN WHO WERE ESPECIALLY ACTIVE IN THE PLAN TO BULLY EDDWARD. THE OFFICER AT THE HAMMERSCHMIDT HOUSE CALLED THE OFFICER IN THE GYM WITH THESE NAMES AND THAT OFFICER QUESTIONED THESE CHILDREN SPECIFICALLY, TELLING THEM THAT THEY COULD BE ARRESTED IF IT WAS FOUND THEY WERE LYING ABOUT BULLYING EDDWARD. MOST STUDENTS THEN CONFESSED, AND THOSE WHO DID NOT WERE IMPLICATED BY OTHERS. EVERY STUDENT IN MRS. KUMASHIMA'S CLASS EITHER ADMITTED TO BEING INVOLVED IN A CONSPIRACY AGAINST EDDWARD OR WAS NAMED AS A CO-CONSPIRATOR BY ANOTHER STUDENT. MR. BACON WAS ALSO QUESTIONED FOR HIS ROLE IN ALLOWING THIS TO HAPPEN. HE ADMITTED THAT HE HAD BEEN NOTICING THAT EDDWARD SEEMED TO FREQUENTLY BE TARGETED IN DODGEBALL AND THAT HE FREQUENTLY HAD TO TELL LARGER BOYS, SMALLER BOYS, AND GIRLS OF ALL SIZES TO STOP HITTING EDDWARD WHEN HE WASN'T EVEN IN THEIR DODGEBALL GROUP. MR. BACON CONFESSED THAT HE RECOGNIZED THAT THIS WAS LIKELY BULLYING BEHAVIOR DUE TO EDDWARD'S SEVERE TROUBLE FITTING IN WITH THE OTHER STUDENTS BUT HE DID NOT FEEL HE COULD DO ANYTHING TO STOP IT, MENTIONING THAT HE HAD TOLD MRS. KUMASHIMA THAT IF EVERYONE DISLIKED EDDWARD THEN IT WOULD BE EASIER TO TEACH EDDWARD TO BE MORE LIKEABLE AND TO STAND UP FOR HIMSELF THAN TO TEACH ALL THE OTHER KIDS TO STOP BULLYING HIM (MRS. KUMASHIMA CONFIRMED THIS). POLICE DETERMINED THAT THIS WAS NOT A PREMEDITATED ATTEMPT AT A SCHOOL MASSACRE BUT A CASE OF A VICTIM OF UNCHECKED BULLYING TRYING TO DEFEND HIMSELF, CITING THE FACT THAT THE "DODGEBALL CANNON" WAS NOT DESIGNED WITH LETHAL FORCE IN MIND AND ALL INJURIES SUSTAINED WERE FAR FROM LIFE-THREATENING, AND ALSO BECAUSE EDDWARD CLEARLY SHOWED COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF REMORSE IMMEDIATELY AFTER HIS ACTIONS. POLICE REFUSED TO PURSUE THIS AS A CRIMINAL CASE. PARENTS OF THE INJURED DEMANDED TO BE ALLOWED TO PRESS CHARGES AGAINST EDDWARD, BUT THE POLICE TOLD THEM THAT IF THEY DID THEN THEIR OWN CHILDREN COULD BE CHARGED WITH REPEATED ASSAULT AS WELL AS HAD BEEN CORROBORATED BY OTHER STUDENTS AS WELL AS STAFF. POLICE MENTIONED TO ME (SHAVER) THAT THEY "DON'T WANT CHERRY STREAM TO BECOME ANOTHER LITTLETON." FOR THEIR NEGLIGENCE, GRETCHEN KUMASHIMA HAS BEEN PLACED ON PROBATION AND JAMES BACON HAS BEEN SUSPENDED WITHOUT PAY. AMONG THE BULLYING STUDENTS, SEVERAL HAVE BEEN PUT ON PROBATION, SEVERAL HAVE BEEN GIVEN DETENTION, SEVERAL HAVE BEEN SUSPENDED, AND MICHAEL ROMANO AND MICHAEL REDDEN HAVE BEEN EXPELLED. THE REDDEN FAMILY, AS THE SCHOOL'S FOUNDING FAMILY, INITIALLY PROTESTED THE DECISION TO LABEL MICHAEL AS CULPABLE AND THREATENED TO SUE THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION AS WELL AS THE CSPD, BUT RETRACTED WHEN PRESENTED WITH OVERWHELMING EVIDENCE OF MICHAEL'S PREMEDITATED TORMENT OF EDDWARD LUPO AND AGREED TO HAVE HIM TAKEN OUT OF THE SCHOOL. SEVERAL OTHER FAMILIES HAVE ALSO BEEN VERY ANGRY WITH THESE DECISIONS SO TO AVOID ANY CHANCE OF A LAWSUIT, EDDWARD LUPO HAS ALSO BEEN EXPELLED, WHICH POLICE AND STAFF AGREE IS BEST FOR HIS OWN SAFETY. HE HAS BEEN FORMALLY MARKED AS HAVING PASSED THE 3RD GRADE AND WILL SPEND THE REST OF THE SCHOOL YEAR ATTENDING THERAPY. HE WILL START 4TH GRADE AT HIS LOCAL PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IN PEACH CREEK IN THE FALL. CS CHIEF OF POLICE ROBERT JEFFCOAT HAS SPOKEN TO OUR STAFF AND FAMILIES OF OUR STUDENTS EXPLAINING THAT AS A LAW ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITY HE HAS TAKEN THE TIME TO PERSONALLY STUDY THE COLUMBINE MASSACRE LAST APRIL, AND THAT HE HAS FOUND THAT CONTRARY TO THE POPULAR NARRATIVE THAT THE PERPETRATORS WERE BULLYING VICTIMS WHO SNAPPED, THEY WERE ACTUALLY WELL-DOCUMENTED TO HAVE REGULARLY ENGAGED IN ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND COULD BE CATEGORIZED AS BULLIES THEMSELVES. CHIEF JEFFCOAT HAS MADE CLEAR TO OUR COMMUNITY THAT THE INCIDENT IN COLORADO IS NOTHING AT ALL LIKE WHAT HAPPENED HERE, BECAUSE EDDWARD HAD BEEN TANGIBLY SINGLED OUT AND HUMILIATED NUMEROUS TIMES BY OTHER STUDENTS WHILE THOSE PERPETRATORS HAD NOT BEEN. THE CHIEF OF POLICE STATED THAT HIS DECISIONS WERE INSPIRED BY HIS OWN EXPERIENCES BEING BULLIED AS A CHILD WHICH LED HIM TO A CAREER IN LAW ENFORCEMENT. BECAUSE ALL INVOLVED WERE MINORS AND NO CRIMINAL CHARGES WERE FILED, THE NAMES OF THE RELEVANT STUDENTS HAVE NOT BEEN RELEASED TO THE MEDIA, CHIEF JEFFCOAT MADE CLEAR IN HIS ASSEMBLY SPEECH THAT IF ANYBODY SPOKE OUTSIDE OF OUR SCHOOL'S COMMUNITY OF EDDWARD LUPO DOING ANYTHING EVEN REMOTELY SIMILAR TO A SCHOOL SHOOTING, HE WILL PERSONALLY WORK WITH THE LUPO FAMILY TO HELP THEM PRESS COUNTER-CHARGES OF DEFAMATION.
Document 16b
Document 16b is a handwritten letter on standard lined paper, which was paperclipped to the incident report above. Our contact did not work for Redden Academy at the time of the incident but says she's heard from veteran colleagues that the boy was hoping to read this letter aloud to the students and staff, but was firmly denied the opportunity. Our contact read the letter for the first time herself before sending it to us, and she theorizes that in addition to how it would have seemed wildly inappropriate to have him deliver his message in-person, it likely didn't help that it reads as not completely apologetic, essentially condemning the student body and staff for his actions and directly naming and blaming a descendant of the school's founder. Of course, one cannot expect this to be the most well-written letter, as it was merely written by a nine-and-a-half-year-old, albeit one with precocious intellect; our contact agrees that it was very well-written technically speaking, but perhaps a bit self-serving and tone-deaf.
Dear students and faculty of the Redden Academy, as well as the Cherry Stream Police Department and the families of all involved in what I've done,
I am dreadfully aware that to ask for your forgiveness may seem more of an act meant to make me feel better than to bring you peace, though as fearful as I am of your rejection of my remorse, I wish to clarify that I am finding it no easier to forgive myself.
Truly, I do not know what came over me. The person I was that day in the elementary gymnasium is not who I am, or at least who I do not want to believe myself to be. Perhaps it was one too many hits to the head that begat a line of unstable thoughts in my mind, but never before had I had any thought or desire to hurt so many people, nor will I ever again, because I surely will never forget a mistake such as this.
I believe I may know what caused such a reprehensible desire to brew inside of me. I believe I can trace it to Misters Michael Redden and Michael Romano, two boys who seemed to rule the third grade, one surely because he knew he was Redden royalty, and the other his right-shoulder sidekick. Those two had managed to psychologically torment me into believing that I was evil. Their line of reasoning was deplorable, but it all seemed to make sense by the rules it had set for itself.
For you see, they not only mocked me for being friendless, but they mocked me for being hated by everybody at Redden, and as they put it, even the strangest of creatures could find a friend somewhere as long as they were good, but someone who is hated by everyone surely must have done something to deserve it. To this, I always protested that this was not true, for a good person surrounded by evil people would be universally hated by the evil, and to this they further claimed I was evil for sooner writing off the entirety of the Redden Academy as evil without so much as considering that perhaps I was the problem, that perhaps I had brought all this negativity upon myself, that perhaps I deserved to be hated. Their final argument against me was the one that I found the most personally troubling: the argument that if I were truly good and they were truly evil, then I would be courageous enough to fight back against them, not because a good person is one without fear but because a good person is one who forces themselves past their fear when it is the right and just thing to do. Because I refused to take justice into my own hands and raise my hand to them, they took this to mean that I knew deep down that I was the evil one, and the fact that I would bemoan how I was ostracized by those I thought to be evil while doing nothing to change my lot in life simply made me all the more evil. I, of course, knew that I would have loved to have done something, anything, to have changed my lot in life at this school, but I simply could not think of how. I may get stellar marks in the classroom, but situations like these where I feel helpless and cannot even begin to think of a way to help myself make me feel as though I am not the genius I'd like to imagine I am.
But after being assaulted yet again in Tuesday gym class, I felt compelled to follow their wicked wisdom: if a good person swallows their fears and fights back against the evil, no matter the odds, then I would fight back against them. And in creating my contraption, I would weaponize the one thing I had that they did not: intellect.
Yet it was in a bitter twist of irony that I did not realize that I had been brainwashed, poisoned by their twisted philosophy, until it was too late. When I was stopped in the middle of committing that heinous act of retaliation, I then realized I had been tricked: in allowing my frustrations to get to me and playing along with what they claimed were the hallmarks of being a good person, I became an evil person.
To all those who followed Mr. Redden's and Mr. Romano's lead in an effort to belittle me, please let me say: I do not blame you. You were all tricked by them just as much as I was, and we should be glad together that they have been punished for turning this school into their playpen where they could watch us engage in artificial conflicts that they themselves had fabricated, like roosters in a cockfight. I do confess that Mr. Redden and Mr. Romano were both far more intelligent than me in one particular field: the power of persuasion. Indeed I say, let this be a lesson to all of us, a warning: let us not allow ourselves to be easily led astray by charismatic leaders who do not have our best interests at heart. In fact, I would go as far as to say let us not too easily trust those with too much charisma at all: while some foxlike charm may be nice too have and may put the audience at ease, if someone strikes you as being so silver-tongued that they never struggle in interpersonal situations, perhaps we'd best not trust them to be able to relate to the vast majority of us who do sometimes struggle with such things, those of us for whom manipulating people with such charm is not second-nature.
Therefore, to such students, in my eyes you have nothing to apologize for, as you were their victims as well, and I was so weak in mental fortitude that I allowed myself to be their biggest victim of all.
To the administration of Redden Academy, I thank you for having the courage to have those two removed from your student body, especially Mr. Redden, as I surely trust that it was neither an easy decision nor an easy process to expel the great-great-grandson of this school's founder. But in standing for justice, you have made this school not only a much safer place, but a nobler one.
Similarly, to the men and women of the Cherry Stream Police Department and especially Chief Robert Jeffcoat, I wish to thank you for standing by me. You could have easily locked me up and thrown away the key for this, but you took the time to understand that this was not a black-and-white dilemma, and that instead it was a very messy situation where two socially-savvy bullies puppeted an entire student body to harass and torment a poor boy until he did something he would soon come to regret. I understand that your department has been receiving much backlash for defending me, and the only way I could ever repay you is by being the best person I can be.
But fear not, students and staff of Redden Academy, for I have already made progress toward this end. While it breaks my heart to have to leave this fine institution of learning, I will enter Peach Creek Elementary School with a renewed sense of moral strength.
Hear me, classmates and teachers, for this is the day that I have promised myself that I will never again allow myself to believe mad ideas about morality just because it's spoken by someone with a magnetic charm about them, and I will never fall for the romanticized myth of taking justice into my own hands like a vigilante. This is the day that I have promised myself that I will forever stand for law and order, opposing chaos and anarchy whenever I see it, and never allowing myself to deviate from the straight and narrow no matter what temptations may arise. And this is the day that I have promised myself that I will not allow myself to be so easily convinced that I am not a good person, and I most certainly will not be told I'm not a good person by someone who has no interest in being a good person themselves.
Thank you and good luck.
Eddward Marion Lupo
May 1, 2000
