‘The Prom Was Postponed’

Posted on | April 26, 2014 | 28 Comments

MILFORD, Conn. — A 16-year-old student was stabbed to death in the hallway of a high school here on Friday morning, the day of the school’s junior prom.
The authorities arrested a 16-year-old male student and charged him as a juvenile with murder, and the police said they were looking into reports that a dispute about the prom might have prompted the attack.
The killing occurred around 7:15 a.m., just as the school day was about to begin. Students crammed the halls of Jonathan Law High School, some giddily anticipating donning gowns and tuxedos later that day.
A scream cut the air, and there was momentary confusion as students were hustled into classrooms and told to stay. In one of the halls beneath a stairwell, Maren Sanchez, a well-liked member of the drama club known for her singing voice, lay dying.
Chief Keith Mello of the Milford Police Department said that officials had not made any rulings on possible motives, but that investigators were looking into reports that the victim had declined an invitation to the prom from the suspect, whose name the authorities did not release because he is a minor. The prom was postponed.

We have a tendency as adults to look back at high school with amusement and forget how serious some things seemed at the time. Being unhappy at 16 is a very common experience, and it’s important for kids to be reminded, “This may seem like the end of the world, but it’s not. It’s just high school. You’ll survive this disappointment and probably not even remember it 10 years from now.”

Category: Crime

Comments

28 Responses to “‘The Prom Was Postponed’”

ariyadesai01
April 26th, 2014 @ 4:32 am

RT @smitty_one_each: TOM ‘The Prom Was Postponed’ http://t.co/eQRioR9SdS #TCOT
Evi L. Bloggerlady
April 26th, 2014 @ 5:13 am

“This may seem like the end of the world, but it’s not. It’s just high school. You’ll survive this disappointment and probably not even remember it 10 years from now.”

Unfortunately many lives were changed forever today. In ways that can’t be undone. What is frustrating and heartbreaking is how meaningless the provocation was, in hindsight, to the outcome. RIP.
Maren Sanchez RIP | Batshit Crazy News
April 26th, 2014 @ 5:23 am

[…] TOM: The Prom Was Postponed […]
sasimmons
April 26th, 2014 @ 9:39 am

Horrific and enraging. The media will attempt to make sense of this, but who can make sense of the psychotic mind?
RS
April 26th, 2014 @ 10:29 am

The question becomes, what sort of upbringing did this young man have which made possible the thought of physical violence in the face of such a disappointment?
maniakmedic
April 26th, 2014 @ 11:10 am

I’m going to guess it was an upbringing brimming over with permissiveness, parents wanting to be friends instead of parents, and in general never being told “no” in his life.

I concede I could be wrong. However, I’m confident that at least the never being told “no” part is spot on.
richard mcenroe
April 26th, 2014 @ 11:29 am

Yeah, that’s the important lesson to take from this.
richard mcenroe
April 26th, 2014 @ 11:57 am

I would have gone with, “HEY KIDS DON”T BE FUCKING MONSTERS.”
Dennis M.
April 26th, 2014 @ 12:34 pm

Thinking back, I can remember when kids from another school broke in to ours & attacked some freshmen students out of school rivalry; any nostalgia I feel for my high school years is for the people I knew – not the environment.
ThePaganTemple
April 26th, 2014 @ 1:37 pm

That was more of a mob mentality, with aspects of tribalism, committed by a group of young thugs. This was more of a personal situation . The one common denominator might well be upbringing, or lack thereof, and possibly (definitely in this latest case) an exaggerated sense of entitlement and self importance.
Anon Y. Mous
April 26th, 2014 @ 2:35 pm

Drudge links to The New York Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/connecticut-girl-killed-jilted-refused-prom-article-1.1768718

That publication names the alleged killer as Chris Plaskon. It’s unusual that they are naming him, since he is a minor. They reported that he wasn’t immediately charged and wasn’t officially named by authorities. But, the NYT piece that Stacy linked to said he was being charged as a juvenile.

I wonder if that decision to charge him as a minor will stick. Premeditated murder by a 16 yo in a school is something I would think would warrant him being charged as an adult.
JeffS
April 26th, 2014 @ 3:21 pm

This is indeed tragic, but no less than a woman being stabbed by a stalker, which happens all too often.

High school is a part of life, and how it turns out depends on the people there. Just like life. From my time in high school, circa 1975:

* A classmate died from an overdose of drugs

* A gang decided to burn the school down. They tried three times; the third time, they torched a nearby warehouse as a diversion, but that didn’t work because the police were watching the school closely, and spotted that arson anyway. The warehouse arson went unnoticed, and burned to the ground.

* A football player collapsed from a concussion during a game in front of the crowd. He died at the hospital.

* Another classmate was gang raped in an incident that was, to be blunt, racially motivated.

And so on. We had many tragedies, but there were triumphs and happiness as well.

What is disturbing about this incident is that it highlights the trend towards insane behavior at all levels in our society.

And people wonder why I carry a concealed weapon.
Adjoran
April 26th, 2014 @ 5:55 pm

My guess is the guy is going to turn out to have severe mental problems.

The girl had a boyfriend. In what alternate universe is she going to go to prom with some other guy? Yet he was evidently surprised and upset enough by the refusal to go berserk on her, not just knocking her down a flight of steps, but going down to stab her to death.

This isn’t a case of teenaged hormones and unrequited love, there’s more to it.
sasimmons
April 26th, 2014 @ 7:12 pm

It doesn’t seem to me he was surprised, but rather expected the refusal. He brought a knife to respond to it. It all seems too premeditated and vicious. One would reasonably expect that asking a young lady to prom the night of the event would result in her declining the invitation. Her poor, grieving family. My heart just breaks for them.
Dana
April 26th, 2014 @ 8:42 pm

To belabor the obvious, it really is the end of the world for a couple of people, the victim, very obviously, but the boy who stabbed her, because she turned him down for a prom date. Years and years in prison, if not the rest of his miserable life.
Dana
April 26th, 2014 @ 8:43 pm

You went to a large, urban high school, didn’t you?
Dana
April 26th, 2014 @ 8:44 pm

Were I going to guess, I’d say that you erred by using the plural of parent.
Käthe
April 26th, 2014 @ 8:55 pm

I hesitate to speculate because OTOH what if his parents were perfectly decent and authoritative but he just ended up being a psycho? But OTOH what you say rings true to what I have observed in some of the young men at the school here. Don’t forget, too, nothing is little sonny boy’s fault, if he “acts out” he probably just has a disorder and needs extra coddling.
JeffS
April 26th, 2014 @ 9:16 pm

No, I did not. My graduating class was around 200.

The school was in a community of less than 15,000, surrounded by a mixture of farmland and factories. The closest high school was 20 miles away.

Balancing that, the community is on a highway, not very far from the Canadian border. So there were a fair number of unsavory influences to choose from.

But …. it was just high school.
JeffS
April 26th, 2014 @ 9:17 pm

He’s a minor. So I wouldn’t be too sure of the prison time. Possible, but not certain.
Daniel O'Brien
April 26th, 2014 @ 9:51 pm

Ditto. Sounds like my HS days. Many of the same tragedies. Small town. Similar graduating class size. I was in Class of ’73.
DaveO
April 27th, 2014 @ 12:39 pm

16, and charged as a juvenile for murder. So by the time the 16-year old goes to trial, convicted and sentenced, he’ll no longer be eligible for juvie, so he’s released to murder another female for what, too-salty fries? Try him, and if convicted, take him out back and hang him. We put down rabid and broken animals, and at 16 and charged with murder, this punk is rabid.
Bob Belvedere
April 27th, 2014 @ 4:57 pm

The question becomes, what sort of upbringing did this young man have….

Why a ‘normal’ American up-bringing in the year 2014 A.D..
Bob Belvedere
April 27th, 2014 @ 4:59 pm

He should be. I’m sorry, but he knew Right from Wrong, unless he is mentally retarded.
Bob Belvedere
April 27th, 2014 @ 5:04 pm

I went to a high school in a blue collar city next door to a big city.

This fact sums-up my feelings about the experience:

-likeable drug overdose guy, home from rehab, takes a shotgun and blows his brains out, gets a full page in the HS Yearbook [quoting the lyrics to Stairway To Heaven; and

-gal who spent several years fighting cancer, working on her schoolwork during treatments, graduates with honors and with her glass [successful in not being held-back], gets one small mention in the damn Yearbook.
Jeanette Victoria
April 27th, 2014 @ 6:09 pm

I was going to predicted he would turn out to be another “walking wounded” who should have been a mental hospital but it seems Daily Mail has done some digging

Friends say Plaskon was ‘a cutter’ and ‘tried to kill himself last year’ ‘He was depressed and on heavy meds’
http://goo.gl/kAG2iK

I’m so NOT surprised
Käthe
April 27th, 2014 @ 8:16 pm

It really seems to me like the meds help some of these obviously VERY troubled guys externalize their depressive thoughts *just* enough to turn it into indiscriminate homicidal rage. Without meds they would probably lay in bed and cry more, but the activating effect of the SSRIs is just enough to get them the get up and go to run around killing people. Whee.
texlovera
April 28th, 2014 @ 11:11 am

“It doesn’t seem to me he was surprised, but rather expected the refusal.
He brought a knife to respond to it. It all seems too premeditated and
vicious.”

Exactly my thoughts.