Talk:1997 Pearl High School shooting

Nonfree image

Maybe we should upload a nonfree of Woodham at the time of the incident. Even though he is still alive, his physical appearance has changed.

http://www.mdoc.state.ms.us/InmateDetails.asp?PassedId=R4682 is his MDOC photo of what he looks like now. It shows that he looks different than when he committed the act.

WhisperToMe (talk) 23:15, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

"PEARL 'MASTERMIND'OFF TO CAMP PROSECUTOR SAYS, 'YOU GET THE CONVICITON YOU CAN GET'." Sun Herald. February 12, 2000. A1 Local Front - This describes Grant Boyette's sentencing. WhisperToMe (talk) 07:39, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Article needs to be monitored.

Articles referencing CCW or CWP use are being vandalized. All versions prior to 8 DEC 2012 cite Vice Principal's use of .45 caliber handgun to stop the shooter. Versions 18 DEC 2012 vary rampantly. As stated, vandalism. — Preceding unsigned comment added by JAK29349 (talk • contribs) 05:39, 18 December 2012 (UTC)

Monitoring and Vandalism

Hi JAK, hoping you're still monitoring the article. I'm the non-user that removed the part of the article referencing the pursuit of the shooter and everything that came from what is at this moment under citation 2. When I first came to the page tonight the citation linked to the alternet article which made no mention of the event. It seemed this part of the article had been added as of Dec 18th, since a new paragraph was created for it at that time. As the article stands right now the citations are still out of line with each other and an older version should probably be restored. Pay attention to any other changes I made regarding vandalism, some links are just straight to text files hosted on private servers. I saw an article that seemed suspicious and tried to make corrections, apparently only adding to the chaos. Thanks for staying on it, there are many people trying to research this event right now, sorry if I caused confusion.

74.130.161.27 (talk) 09:48, 18 December 2012 (UTC)

The use of a firearm by Joel Myrick was a part of the article when it was first written on March 14, 2009. At that time it was supported by a citation: ( "Mississippi v. Luke Woodham". Court TV Online ) That content remained unchanged until 04:49, 18 December 2012, when 173.25.84.76 removed mention of Myrick's gun and replaced it with the claim that Myrick rammed his car into Woodham's vehicle to stop the incident. There is no citation for the change, and absolutely no attempt made to support that "rammed" version of events. It appears to be anti-gun vandalism in the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings. The original information and its cite have been repeatedly replaced, by myself and others, and the vandals continue to remove it. 207.54.163.146 (talk) 14:38, 18 December 2012 (UTC)

The CNN article from 1997 supports the car ramming version of events, and does not including the quote about "life has wronged me" (which is listed as being from the CNN article. If there are transcripts of court proceedings that support the Myrick's gun, please post them. The only article from 1997 that supports the gun story seems to be a people magazine article Removing language of how Myrick stopped him until a second source proves the car ramming, or details of the gun. Ideally, not something writen this year, but rather something archived from 1997 (or more recent but about these events or the trial, not about shooting that happened afterwards) 173.11.193.137 (talk) 17:39, 18 December 2012 (UTC)

Hmmm, there definitely appears to be quite a bit of controversy, especially regarding sources. I've reached out to the one user who's deleting that one phrase despite having six different sources to no avail.

I wish I could find that text on the Associated Press' website, but I admit I'm not sure that's how it works. Casull 02:32, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

Referenced articles that were written on or edited on or after the 17th December 2012 make reference to the assistant principal having a gun. The other articles (Those that have not been written or edited since the 1990s) do not mention him using a gun at all. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shkibr (talk • contribs) 07:14, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

Your statement is not supported by the facts, The People Magazine Article from the People Magazine print edition Vol 48 No 18, November 3 1997 titled "The Avenger" which is also archived on the People Magazine site specifically makes note that Joel Myrick used a .45 caliber firearm to detain the suspect (now convicted felon). If you want to pull the print edition of People Magazine from November 3, 1997 and find some discrepancy, would be interested to see a scanned image that corroborates your statement. Otherwise, please do not deface or vandalize the article without significant verifiable proof that we can all validate. The facts are what they are and we are not here to rewrite history but merely to document it correctly without bias regardless of the politics.Justanonymous (talk) 17:31, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

Question for people more aware of gun issues than I am: is it appropriate to include Justin Sledge's later conviction on gun charges unrelated to this incident, or is that something that is likely to be an attempt to tie unrelated legal issues together? If so, the later charge and conviction should probably be removed from the article. Whateley23 (talk) 19:25, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

External links modified

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Someone Seems To Have A Grudge

I just cleaned up a lot of material that was directed at a secondary figure in this incident, one against whom all charges related to the incident were dropped (he was convicted several years later of unrelated gun charges, served his time, and probably moved on from there). There was a hectoring, repeated use of his full name where normal usage would prescribe a shorter form (usually last name only), repeated implications that the charges were not dropped (they were), an attempt at low-key doxxing by including advertisements for his current activities, and so on. People with a grudge probably shouldn't be editing Wikipedia, which strives for a more neutral tone. Whateley23 (talk) 19:18, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

2023 and yes, there is still a problem with a definite grudge and people pushing this stuff. There is general agreement on the talk page this material is inappropriate, and people keep pushing it in violation of WP:BLP. It might need to be taken to the administrators. Ribbet32 (talk) 04:39, 4 April 2023 (UTC)

Removing last line of "Aftermath"

Currently, the last line reads:

Today, Dr. James Justin Sledge is a prominent member of the academic religious community and runs the Youtube Channel ESOTERICA.[23]

The citation is directly to Sledge's personal website.

There have been a lot of edits, including by a couple IP editors in particular, that heavily push both the specifics of Sledge's involvement as well as his current activities, and extensive quotations both by and about him. To me there is a strong whiff of self-promotion, or at a minimum an unhealthy (and unhelpful to Wikipedia) fixation. Here are some examples, but if you just look at the article's edit history you can quite easily pick out the instances in which this is done. You can do it even more easily if you simply look at the edit history of 68.188.68.66. [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]

Even if someone could provide reliable sources demonstrating that Sledge is in fact a "prominent member of the academic religious community," I'm skeptical that it belongs in the article, especially given the context of someone [him?] repeatedly pushing his name into the article. I'm open to the possibility that I'm wrong but if that's the case I look forward to the reasoned explanation. Theturbolemming (talk) 14:24, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

2023 and yes, there is still a problem with a definite grudge and people pushing this stuff. There is general agreement on the talk page this material is inappropriate, and people keep pushing it in violation of WP:BLP. It might need to be taken to the administrators. Ribbet32 (talk) 04:39, 4 April 2023 (UTC)

Also, the article claims (with a source) that Sledge pinned the threatening note to the school door. Sledge's site says the note was pinned to a memorial for the shooting victims, not the school door, and that he did not post it and does not know who did. I do not know how Wikipedia handles it when sources that seem to be generally reliable state seemingly inaccurate information. It seems like a good idea to be cautious here, because Sledge is definitely a living person. 2601:601:1B80:820:19EF:A881:4781:BEDC (talk) 15:25, 31 October 2023 (UTC)