Student brings gun on school field trip, shoots self in front of classmates

KSL via CNN Newsource ^ | Dan Rascon

[logi_cal869]

There is much more to this story.

Guaranteed.

NOBODY writes like that without a prompt/reason.

[GenXPolymath]

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/grammar/singular-they/

“Both “themselves” and “themself” are acceptable as reflexive singular pronouns; however, “themselves” is currently the more common usage”

APA is the accepted English for scientific papers and what we grade for at university at least in the American side of the pond.

The author specificity says they don’t normally report on suicides. This is to avoid the glorification / notoriety effect that could encourage copy cats. You can tell they specifically are being vague with information towards that end. I wouldn’t read too much into the “themselves” thing. Being a minor there won’t be more info released unless the family releases it.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

The student shot themselves???

WTF is this S???

[central_va]

They

[central_va]

I guess we’ll need the SCOTUS to determine “their” sex.

[central_va]

I guess we’ll need the SCOTUS to determine “their” sex.

[MayflowerMadam]

Welcome to the American public school system.

Being taught this level of grammar was sixth grade content when I was in school.

[MayflowerMadam]

Except that here, it’s not so much the word, “themself / themselves” (although it’s marginally bad). It’s the “s” at the end. It makes it a plural when the subject is singular. There’s no agreement.

[mewzilla]

Check out the author.

Nuff said.

[Sirius Lee]

“where THEY died”

Legion, yes.

[Tired of Taxes]

I hate what's happening to our language today. I held onto an AP Stylebook from 1992, and there's no singular they in there.

The AP's new singular they rule only causes confusion today, since a person can now identify as "nonbinary" and refer to himself as "they/them." Using a singular they for anyone else only creates confusion.

[Tired of Taxes]

The AP is the problem. At the link shared by GenXPolymath, themselves is now used as a singular pronoun.

Still, a good writer could write the story with no pronouns at all.

[Tired of Taxes]

This journalist managed to write the story without pronouns:

https://gephardtdaily.com/local/utah-co-sheriff-orem-junior-high-student-dies-from-self-inflicted-gunshot-while-on-class-trip/

(The police would not release any identifying information about the student).

[Tired of Taxes]

This student was a boy. The police would not release any information about the student, and for some stupid reason, today’s journalists use “they/them” as a singular pronoun when a person’s gender is unknown.

But this boy is referred to as a boy with male pronouns in his obituary and the comments below it (see post #155). Facebook posts refer to him as a boy, and other reports refer to him as a boy.

For all we know, the suicide might have been accidental.