The gun came from inside the school.

Not smuggled. Not stolen. Handed over in the dayroom by a visitor the superintendent waved through himself, sold to a nineteen-year-old the state had been raising since he was two.

By Saturday night, staff knew the boy had it. They knew who he wanted to kill. They watched, and they waited.

Rhode Island’s first recorded school shooting was not a failure of the system.

It was the system, working.

Based on original research from the Ladd School Historical Society and Archives.

Music: Endless Nightmare by Oliver Garcia, licensed via Motion Array.