Ten years ago today a 6-year-old boy brought a gun to Buell Elementary School in Mt Morris Township and killed his first grade classmate Kayla Rolland. After almost a decade of silence, tonight her father has a message for parents and school leaders.
"It doesn't seem like ten years," says Ricky Rolland, Kayla’s father. Ten years ago he turned on the television and saw a breaking news report that caught his attention. It said a shooting had occurred at Buell Elementary.
Moments later his mother called, "You better get to the hospital she said. I broke every speed law in Flint to get there."
Later, after he held his dead daughter’s cold hand, after he buried her, after being shoved into the national spotlight by tragedy, Rolland says he learned disturbing details. He learned that this could have been prevented.
The school shooter that killed Ricky Rolland's little girl Kayla was a 6-year-old boy. Neighbors say they reported drug dealing and crime where the boy lived on Juliah Avenue in Mount Morris Township. Before social workers and police finished their investigation the first grader took a gun from a shoebox in his 19-year-old uncle’s home.
"He was able to cock it, pull the trigger on it," said Rolland. "A six-year-old kid."
Rolland says there were more chances to save Kayla’s life.
"He told somebody when he got to school he had a gun in his pocket - they didn't search him or anything."
Police say the child shot Kayla at point-blank range when his teacher stepped out of the classroom.
Genesee County's Prosecutor at the time, Art Busch, says the tragedy shocked the nation to attention and ultimately made other children safer.
"There’s more involvement of law enforcement at the first rumor of a gun. There are laws that remove students who tend to violence," says Busch. "There’s better coordination between law enforcement and schools, and I think there is a greater awareness in our country that children and guns don't mix."
Ricky Rolland isn’t convinced. As he cleans Kayla’s headstone he thinks about how she would be 16 this year. He says he fears people have forgotten.
"I love her. I miss her. I want to spend time with her."
Rolland sued the school district after Kayla’s death, but the case never made it to trial. He says if he had won schools would have been forced to work harder to protect students from violent classmates and they would have more metal detectors.
Rolland visits his daughter’s grave to spend time with and talk to Kayla. It is something he wishes he had done more of when she was alive. He says he wasn't as involved as he should have been. He wants all parents to remember Kayla and cherish their own children.
” If you got kids see 'em... cause you never know," he says shaking his head. "You never know."
As we mark the 10 year anniversary of Kayla’s death, the man who investigated the case has a warning. Retired Mount Morris Township Police Chief Eric King says state budget cuts are threatening programs implemented to prevent such a tragedy from happening again. We’ll take a look at the threat Tuesday on NBC25 News at 6pm.
