The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
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The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
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Five-year-old Michigan resident, Kayla Rolland, was killed by a first-grade classmate in February of 2000 in an incident that made international headlines. Rolland, born in 1994, was the third child of a factory worker, Veronica McQueen. The classmate who had brought the gun to school that day was also one of three children, but Tamarla Owens took public transportation to and from her two jobs, which kept her from home for ten hours a day. The boy's father was in the county jail at the time on a charge of fleeing from police. When Owens was evicted from her home in February of 2000, she was forced to ask her younger brother to take her children in for a time. At his uncle's home, the six-year-old found a semiautomatic pistol in a shoebox full of coins. He had had prior trouble at Buell Elementary School, having stabbed a classmate with a pencil and having brought a cigarette lighter to school. When he took the gun to school, he reportedly showed it to friends, and his older brother claimed to have told a teacher about the gun; school officials denied this. As the first-graders were changing classrooms on the morning of February 29, the boy pulled the gun from his pants and said, "I don't like you,Kayla." The bullet pierced Rolland's heart and lungs, and she died later that morning. The boy evaded murder charges because of his age, but Owens was charged with neglect and lost custody of her children.