Teacher Shane Schumerth Kills Head of Florida Christian School and Himself

Episcopal High School

Head of School Dale Regan

Teacher and Gunman Shane Schumerth

Jacksonville, Florida

Shane Schumerth, 28, arrived at Episcopal High School on Tuesday carrying only a guitar case. However, he wasn’t planning on pickin’ and grinning,’ Instead, he removed an AK-47 from the guitar case and shot the head of the school, 63-year-old Dale Regan, in her office before committing suicide. Until Tuesday morning, Schumerth was a Spanish teacher at the school. Regan had fired him earlier in the day.

Details are slowly emerging, as so many begin to explore Schumerth’s history in search of reasons “why.” Shane Schumerth previously taught history and Spanish at John E. Ford Elementary in Duval County Public Schools. He also coached Ford Elementary’s debate team in 2010 before resigning from the school system that June. He began working at Episcopal in August 2010.

Junior Robert Steeg had Schumerth as a teacher. He was actually headed to his class when the shooting happened.

"He was kind of quiet kind of we described him as awkward," explained Steeg. "But for the past few weeks he had been acting pretty weird. We thought it was because he knew he was getting fired."

Students say in recent weeks, Schumerth stopped teaching Spanish and instead, was sharing political messages with his classes.

"We took the class as a joke because we all had A pluses in that class. He didn't teach us any Spanish and when he did we didn't learn much," Steeg said.

No word yet on why Schumerth was fired, but some students say he had to be escorted off campus.

“Over the last several weeks, he seemed dark,” said Rob Cantrell, whose son was in Schumerth’s class. “He repeatedly talked about the Communist Manifesto and Marxism. Something wasn’t right.”
Friends say Schumert usually kept his distance from people, even among those he knew. Students say he was often observed eating by himself and didn’t fit in with the other teachers.

The chair of the Episcopal School’s trustees and the dean of St. John’s Cathedral have issued a statement expressing their sorrow and that they will “spend the rest of the week counseling and comforting our student body and faculty and staff.”