On January 19, Jhavon McIntyre, an eighteen-year-old student at Seminole High School, was shot three times just before noon by his sixteen-year-old classmate Da’raveius Smith. McIntyre’s body was found by a resource officer near the Tomahawk building on campus, towards the back. He was suffering wounds in both legs and his wrist. He was sent to the hospital in a stable condition and had to have wrist surgery performed. 

Many are speculating the cause of the shooting was a dispute between McIntyre and Smith over a girl. Smith, however, stated in his police report that McIntyre would taunt him as classes changed about a dead relative of his. 

Smith was found and apprehended at around noon that same day on campus after the police got a tip that he had run towards a nearby apartment complex. Along with him, nine-millimeter shell casings were found in the bushes near the school’s tennis court. Smith will be facing many charges, one being attempted first-degree murder. His next hearing will be on February 14 and the family of McIntyre reported they will be at every court hearing to ensure their son gets the justice they believe he deserves.

Many Seminole High School parents are upset by what they feel is lack of information that was given to them by police and their school, including a concerned parent Deshawn Smith who said, “We got more information from students from the inside than from officers on the outside.”

Jaden Herrin said on January 20 through a personal interview, “The shooting was very personal and totally isolated.” Fortunately, Herrin was not at school since they left before the shooting had happened.

Olivia Burke, a high schooler stated that she was in the sixth period when the shooting happened and that they were told to sit in the corner of the classroom and be as quiet as they could be. She also recalls many people texting as the code red was called. She said, “A bunch of people started texting, ‘There’s a shooting,’ and people were saying different things so we weren’t sure what’s going on.” Burke also stated that shootings have become more normalized, saying it isn’t fair. She called it “Just America,” 

Statista, showed on a chart ranging from 1970 to 2020, that from 2006 to 2021 the number of shootings went up by 198 shootings. This brings 2021 to having 250 shootings, ranging from kindergarten to twelfth grade.

A New York Times article, “Mass shootings in public spaces had become less frequent during the pandemic,” wrote that, “Until [The Massage Parlor Shootings], when eight people were killed in Atlanta-area spas, it had been a year since there had been a large-scale shooting in a public place.” The NY Times said large-scale, so less publicized shootings had happened between the span of March 2020 and March 19, 2021, when the Massage Parlor Shootings took place. However, because of children going back to school and life trying to resume as “normal,”  it has peaked.

This incident also brings to light the lack of security Seminole and many other schools have. Lack of security can include things like their lack of cameras or lack of mental health checks. While there was media coverage on this incident, there wasn’t enough. Which is almost exactly like what happened at the Oviedo High School Homecoming shooting. The principal did not give any insight as to what truly happened.