Anti-bullying video dropped after Sparks shooting
SPARKS — The Washoe County School District has discontinued the use of an anti-bullying video that was shown to students at Sparks Middle School, including the 12-year-old gunman who went on a fatal schoolyard shooting rampage in the weeks after he watched it.
The 23-minute, documentary-style video entitled “Teen Truth” dramatizes a student taking a gun on a school bus to scare aggressors. It also features real security footage from the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School.
Sparks seventh-grader Jose Reyes had images of the Columbine killers on his cellphone the day he fatally shot a teacher, wounded two classmates and committed suicide on Oct. 21.
The Reno Gazette-Journal reported that the school district has stopped using the video as part of an anti-bullying program that has been in place districtwide since 2006.