Dimitrios Pagourtzis, the teenager who walked into Santa Fe High School in Texas and gunned down eight students and two teachers last Friday had apparently been rejected by one of his victims — a fact that fueled his murder spree.
Sadie Rodriguez, the mother of 16-year-old Shana Fisher told the Los Angeles Times that her daughter had rejected Pagourtzis’ aggressive advances for four months before the girl “finally stood up to him and embarrassed him in class.” In a private Facebook message to the Times, Fisher wrote, “a week later he opens fire on everyone he didn’t like,” adding, “Shana being the first one.”
According to multiple news and victim accounts, Pagourtzis repeatedly taunted students during the attack, focusing mostly on the first period art class where Fisher was.
Many on Twitter took serious issue with the way the Los Angeles Times posited the story.
People felt as though the headline, specifically, put the burden of blame on the victim rather than the attacker.
The issue at hand here is our nation’s prevalent culture of toxic masculinity and male entitlement. A teenage girl stuck up for herself after months of harassment, and there are still those who explain away her killer’s behavior by labeling him a spurned lover.
The majority of women are killed by male partners with guns. Misogyny is terrorism, and it’s time we start treating it as such.