 jeremy
richardson teenager kills himself in front of classmates, by bobbi miller and annette nevins (staff writer jeffrey weiss contributed to this report):
richardson - a richardson high school sophomore, described as a loner who had been in counseling, fatally shot himself tuesday in front of a classroom of about 30 students. jeremy wade delle, 16, who had transferred from dallas school, died instantly after firing a .357 -caliber magnum into his mouth about 9:45am, police said. because he had missed class, the teacher in his second period english class told jeremy to get an admittance slip from the school office. instead, he returned with the gun, police said. he walked directly to the front of the classroom. 'miss, i got what i really went for,' he said, then placed the barrel in his mouth and fired, according to sgt. ray pennington, a police spokesman. the shooting occurred before the students or teacher fay barnett could react, said school district spokeswoman susan dacus-wilson. it stunned students and faculty members throughout the school at 1250 w. belt line road. brian jackson, 16, said he was working the combination on his locker just outside jeremy's english class when he heard a loud bang 'like someone had slammed a book on a desk.' 'i thought they were doing a play or something,' he said. 'but then i heard a scream and a blond girl came running out of the classroom and she was crying.' frightened, but curious, brian looked into the classroom and saw jeremy lying on the floor bleeding. 'the teacher was standing against the wall crying and shaking,' brian said. 'some people were standing around her holding her as if to keep her from falling.' another student, howard perre felman, an 11th grader, was in government class when he heard the shot. at first students joked about the noise, thinking that someone was playing around, he said. 'but then we heard a girl running down the hall screaming,' he said. 'it was a scream from the heart.' sgt. pennington said jeremy apparently had given some thought to his actions because he left a suicide note with a classmate. investigators would not disclose its contents. principal jerry bishop said jeremy's class attendance had been sporadic. mr. bishop said he had met the boy with his father, but they did not know the specifics. sgt. pennington said police did not know where the youth got the gun and had no clue why he would kill himself inside a crowded classroom. the classmates who witnessed the shooting were immediately ushered to a secluded room for counseling. About 30 members of the school district's volunteer crisis team arrived to counsel students. classes continued throughout the day. some students were allowed to leave early, but counselors encouraged them to stay at school and discuss their feelings. few students knew jeremy well because he had attended bryan adams high school in dallas last year (1990) and had enrolled in the richardson school in october. they described him as a loner. 'he was real quiet and he acted down at times. he acted sad,' said koury kashiem, 15. lisa moore, 16, said she knew jeremy from the in-school suspension program. 'he and i would pass notes back and forth and he would talk about life and stuff,' she said. she said jeremy wanted to discuss the boy she was dating and also mentioned he was having trouble with one of the teachers. he signed all of his notes, 'write back.' but on monday he wrote, 'later days.' 'i didnt know what to make of it,' she said. 'but i never thought this would happen.' however, sean forrester, 17, remembered jeremy as friendly with no outward signs of turmoil. 'he never looked like he had anything wrong with him... he always made a joke over everything,' sean said. jeremy was the son of joseph. r. delle of richardson, with whom he lived, and wanda crane. the couple divorced in 1979, according to dallas county court records. mr. delle could not be reached for comment. ms. crane, through a spokesman declined to comment. tuesday's shooting was the first known teen suicide inside a richardson school. it was the first by a richardson student since 1988, when student suicides prompted the creation of the crisis intervention program in may that year. three richardson students committed suicide during the first half of 1988. they included a 6th grader and 2 sophomores at j.j. pearce high school. one of the sophomores hanged himself from a tree behind mohawk elementary school during a weekend. in 1985, a 17 year old arlington student shot himself in front of for fellow students in the drama classroom at arlington high school. earlier, an outbreak of teen suicides in plano, where eight youths killed themselves in 1983 and 1984, helped focus national attention on the plight of suicidal teenagers. students and counselors agreed that the shock of jeremy's public demise would have a lingering effect on the richardson students, particularly the witnesses. 'they are going to go through a ton of sadness, anxiety and fear.' said sheryl pender, a counselor with willow park hospital in plano and former director of the suicide and crisis center in dallas.
this quote was taken from the synergy's echoes <http://www.music.sony.com/music/artistinfo/pearljam/echoes/echoes2.html> page ( december, 1991 houston, texas, klol fm echoes of exposure with david sadoff )
" int: while pearl jam songs often deal with real-life occurences, they manage to leave the songs open to the interpretation of their audience. eddie vedder explains this and talks about the song, jeremy.
eddie: actually, you know, i've kept a lot of songs or some of the lyrical content shrouded in mystery because just like the name we were mentioning before, it's been really great to get other people's interpretations and even inject themselves into the songs. that, to me, has been really fulfilling and then it becomes something bigger than just five guys in a band and this is their song. it allows somebody who's listening to it or has the need to listen to something intensely.. it allows them to be part of it...but i think, jeremy, i decided i will start talking about what that song is about and actually, there's a place, a town called richardson? there's a town called richardson, is there?
int: in texas? yeah, not far from here.
eddie: that's where it happened. it was in richardson, texas. i saw a small paragraph in the paper about a kid named, his first name was jeremy and he took, he shot himself in the front of his english class. i think i'm going to have to go visit richardson. i think we have some time...a day off in dallas?
stone: we have a couple days off.
eddie: yeah, it was richardson high school, i think was the name.
int: that wasn't that long ago, was it?
eddie: no, i wrote, i mean i literally wrote the song that night, i think...i don't know that much. i actually even thought about... i'm really divulging a lot here... and i should explain it...the fact that i thought of even calling up and finding out more, like i wonder why that happened? i wonder why he did it and it seemed like richardson sounded to me like a decent suburb, middle if not upper class. the fact is, i didn't want to. i thought that was intruding completely and so... i actually knew somebody in junior high school, in san diego, california, that did the same thing, just about, didn't take his life but ended up shooting up an oceanography room. i remember being in the halls and hearing it and i had actually had altercations with this kid in the past. i was kind of a rebellious fifth-grader and i think we got in fights and stuff. so it's a bit about this kid named jeremy and it's also a bit about a kid named brian that i knew and i don't know...the song, i think it says a lot. i think it goes somewhere...and a lot of people interpret it different ways and it's just been recently that i've been talking about the true meaning behind it and i hope no one's offended and believe me, i think of jeremy when i sing it. "
this quote was taken from the 1993 rockline interview:
caller: uh, yeah. there was this kid on headbanger's ball that took this school hostage and the parents were blaming the video, 'jeremy' and stuff. i was wondering how they felt about parents blaming the music for violence and stuff?
eddie: wow! i didn't even hear about that. now, uh, i remember one night in this basement when i was writing that that i thought, man i guess they can't sue us for this one because i'm writing about it after it happened, you know? some kid did this. i didn't make that up and that's a fact. it came from a small paragraph in a paper which means you kill yourself and you make a big old sacrifice and try to get your revenge. that all you're gonna end up with is a paragraph in a newspaper. sixty-three degrees and cloudy in a suburban neighborhood. that's the beginning of the video and that's the same thing is that in the end, it does nothing nothing changes. the world goes on and you're gone. the best revenge is to live on and prove yourself. be stronger then those people. and then you can come back. that's kinda what i did. now all those people who were my enemies want to be my friends. they don't understand why, uh, i don't respond to them.
ari (from the imt mailing list) wrote:
"the song is about a real person, a boy named jeremy, that shot and killed himself in front of his class mates and teacher. i have now forgotten his last name and where, but read the newspaper article and the story on how pearl jam heard about it. this must have deeply touchedı eddie and thus came the song, and the short movie... jeremy. just some light on the subject."
reply (someone from the imt mailing list):
"this is true, but, eddie also knew someone from his past that fits this kid's description. if i remember, the kid used to be realy quiet, and everyone used to pick on him....one day he hit the kids that were doing it ( i might be totally wrong, but its something like that.) so, eddie heard about this kid in texas who comitted suicide, which somehow reminded him of this kid he knew in elementary school, and combined the two people andı made a song. p.s. i read that in an interview show that eddie and stone did in 91 or 92."
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words from the jeremy video: (unfinshed)
peer - the kids making fun of jeremy
genesis 3:6 -part about the snake in the garden of eden
ignored- "daddy didn't give attention, to the fact that mommy didn't care"
90210 -
erase - suicide
3:30 in the afternoon
an affluent suburb
64 degrees and cloudy
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related article:teen 'guilty' of murder despite pearl jam video defense (from atn)
jury, which considered claims that 'jeremy' video 'upset' suspect, convict him for killing classmates, teacher.
a 16-year-old whose defense against murder charges rested in part on a pearl jam video his lawyers said influenced the teen to kill, was found guilty last wednesday of killing two classmates and a teacher, according to the seattle times.
earlier in the month, the jury weighing the case against barry loukaitis watched the video for pearl jam's "jeremy." the 1992 clip, based on a real incident in texas, ends with an apparent bloody classroom suicide as singer eddie vedder intones, "jeremy spoke in class today."
joann phillips, loukaitis' mother, testified that her son had memorized the words to the song and became "fidgety and uncomfortable" when watching the video, pearl jam's last.
the grant county, wash. teenager was convicted of aggravated first-degree murder in the deaths of manuel vela and arnold fritz, both aged 14, and second-degree murder in the death of teacher leona caires, 49, according to the times.
loukaitis, who was 14 at the time of the murders and tried as an adult, was also found guilty of first-degree assault against natalie hintz, 13, assaulting the teacher who disarmed him, and of kidnapping the other 15 students in the classroom.
the crimes for which loukaitis will be sentenced took place on feb. 2, 1996, when loukaitis brought a rifle to frontier junior high school and opened fire on a classroom. the youth's lawyer argued that loukaitis was not guilty by reason of insanity.
phillips, unlike families in the mid-1980s rock-and-suicide cases against judas priest and ozzy osbourne, did not solely blame pearl jam for her son's crimes. she also told the jury about a history of depressive illness in the family, and her own plans, which she confessed to loukaitis, to commit suicide in front of her ex-husband. -- chris nelson [mon., sept. 29, 1997, 3 p.m. pdt]
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song interpretation
the first verse of the song describes jeremy drawing pictures.
these pictures have jeremy on top of mountains with all the people who tease him lying below him dead.
jeremy gets his revenge by imagining that he is killing the people who taunt him.
he stands with his arms raised in a ³v² shape in the picture.
the "v" is for victory with is revenge.
jeremy can not get his revenge in reality, so he draws these pictures and creates his own little world where he is mightier than his peers.
the second verse explains how jeremy's parents did not pay any attention, or care too much about him. eddie shows how the responsibility of the parents can influence a child's life. the parent¹s are not caring and supportive enough towards jeremy.
jeremy creates his own little world, separate from reality, where he is the ruler or king.
the chorus is simply "jeremy spoke in class today".
though short and simple, the meaning is more complex. jeremy did not actually speak in class, he committed suicide.
he commits suicide to escape the problems he has dealing with reality. and metaphorically he speaks by making a point that some thing in society needs changing.
the third verse is a flashback to eddie's past.
he remembers a boy who when teased would unleash is anger against those teasing him. in the second verse eddie shows how jeremy¹s parents have to take some responsibility for the way jeremy was and what happened to him. in this verse he makes the point that jeremy's parents are not solely to blame; that his peers and society must take some responsibility for his death. the fourth verse reinforces the responsibility that the parents should take in jeremy's death. it also repeats how jeremy ruled his imaginary world. the fifth verse is the chorus plus three other lines. he ends the song with these three lines: "try to forget this..." , "try to erase this..." and "from the blackboard". eddie is saying these lines sarcastically because anyone faced with this situation will not be able to forget even if they try. people closely involved in a situation similar, will feel guilt and it will leave a mark in their memory.
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poetic analysis
the title of the song, "jeremy", is the name of the boy in texas who committed suicide in front of his class.
it is also a symbol of any teenager who is like jeremy and has similar problems.
it is also a symbol of the problems facing many teenagers in today's society.
the first verse contains visual imagery with the "lemon yellow sun" and "dead lay in pools of maroon below". the word "maroon" is a euphemism for blood that the dead lay in.
the second verse jeremy is compared to royalty when he is called "king jeremy".
he rules his own little world. the chorus contains a metaphor when eddie writes "jeremy spoke in class today". jeremy does speak but not literally. he makes a point by committing suicide.
the point is that society needs to be reevaluated.
the third verse is a flashback to eddie's childhood. he remembers a peer from elementary who, when picked on, who fight back against those teasing him. the theme of appearance versus reality is aroused in the lines "seemed a harmless... but we unleashed a lion".
the boy whom they were teasing seemed harmless, but he fought back.
a metaphor is used when the boy's anger is compared to a lion that has just been unleashed. "a surprised left" is metonymy for a punch.
there is a metaphor in the fourth verse when eddie compares jeremy to a item of clothing that is disliked in the line ³and the boy was something that mommy wouldn't wear".
there is repetition of jeremy being compared to royalty.
in the last verse, eddie uses sarcasm when he writes "try to forget this".
anyone involved in such a tragic incident will not be able to forget it no matter how hard they try. there is also a metaphor of the blackboard compared to someone's memory.
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in loving memory of
jeremy wade delle
(1974 - 1991)
r.i.p.
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pearl jam ::: jeremy
_____(vedder :: ament)_____
at home and drawing pictures of mountain tops, with him on top
lemon yellow sun, arms raised in a v
and the dead lay in pools of maroon below
daddy didn't give attention
to the fact that mommy didn't care
king jeremy the wicked, ruled his world
jeremy spoke in class today
jeremy spoke in class today
clearly i remember pickin' on the boy
seemed a harmless little fuck
but we unleashed a lion
gnashed his teeth and bit the recess lady's breast
how could i forget?
and he hit me with a surprise left
my jaw left hurtin', dropped wide open
just like the day, like the day i heard
daddy didn't give affection, no
and the boy was something that mommy wouldn't wear
king jeremy the wicked, ruled his world
jeremy spoke in class today
jeremy spoke in class today
jeremy spoke in class today
try to forget this...try to forget this...
try to erase this...try to erase this...
from the blackboard...
jeremy spoke in class today
jeremy spoke in class today
jeremy spoke in, spoke in
jeremy spoke in, spoke in
jeremy spoke in class today...
(spoke in, spoke in...)
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