On Monday, a man walked into a suburban Detroit office building and shot three people. The disgruntled former employee killed one of his targets. The media revealed that he has bi-polar disorder. The situation is a tragic case of innocent victims and people out of control.

The tragedy literally struck close to home — according to the href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/10/us/10revenge.html" target="_blank"> New York Times, the shooting occurred minutes from my house in suburban Detroit. But it didn’t really hit home until I received an e-mail from my mother. The shooter was a former teacher at my middle school.

I remember Mr. LaCalamita, even though I never had him as a teacher. He performed my middle school interview and taught the whole 6th grade class sex-ed.

In an e-mail sent out to the whole school, the school’s president, Father Leon Olszamowski, conveyed a deep sense of surprise and sorrow.

“Anthony LaCalamita was, as the media say, a very well-educated young man. He had studied for the priesthood, left the seminary, and was recently married when he came to us. He helped to establish our campus ministry program here . . . and taught religion and accounting classes. He also coached . . . football during his tenure at the school.”

A high school friend immediately started a facebook group, where people reminisced about Mr. LaCalamita and posted condolences for the victims.

Although I never had a strong connection with Mr. LaCalamita, it scares me to think of someone who once taught me sex-ed going on a murder rampage. It’s a small word, but I never thought I could have a connection with a murderer.

But I do have a connection. And I’m not sure how to react. The 6 degrees of separation are bound to feel a bit smaller every now and then. But now, at the intersection of the normal and the unthinkable, I can only stand, astounded.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 12th, 2007 at 10:22 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.