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Aaron Stark
Aaron Stark (born 1979)[1][2] is an American mental health advocate[3] who is best known for planning but not following through with a mass shooting in 1996.[1][3] Early lifeStark spent most of his childhood in Denver, Colorado.[2] According to Stark, he had grown up in a horrifically dysfunctional family: his biological father, a Vietnam War veteran,[2] was abusive and violent towards him, his brother, and his mother,[2] while his stepfather and mother struggled with substance abuse.[4][5][6] According to Stark, he had seen his mother being beaten and raped during his childhood.[7] Due to his family being constantly on the run from law enforcement,[6] Stark never attended the same school for more than six months, and he went to 40 different schools.[3][8] According to himself, he was obese, awkward, dirty (because his home lacked running water),[9] and bullied at school.[2][3][10] He began cutting himself at the age of 14 or 15.[6] After being kicked out of his house at the age of 15 or 16 and becoming homeless, and resorting to sleeping in his friend's shed,[3] he sought mental help.[6][8][11] Social services allegedly brought his abusive mother to the meeting, who accused him of fabricating his mental health issues.[3] Reportedly, his mother had told him after the meeting that she would buy him sharper razor blades if he planned to slit his wrists to commit suicide.[6][9] According to Stark, after he had sought mental help a second time, his psychologist told him that nothing could be done and refused him inpatient care.[3][5][7] He dropped out of high school at age 17.[2] Planned shooting and dissuasionIn 1996, while homeless, Stark began planning to attack either North High School or the food court of a nearby mall and to then commit suicide afterwards.[2][6] Stark had planned to trade cannabis to obtain a gun from his family's drug dealer.[3][6] According to him, his primary motive was to make his parents feel shame for creating him, and not out of a specific hatred of anyone in the school or mall.[2][11] Stark was days away from committing the mass murder when he changed his mind.[4][6] His friend, Mike Stacey,[2] who was unaware of Stark's plans,[4] had invited Stark in for a shower and some food,[1] after Stark had visited him with the intent of saying goodbye.[3] He ended up staying for five days at Stacey's house.[2] Stark credits this incident, and his inability to obtain weapons, with stopping him from committing the mass shooting.[2][7][12][13][14] Months after the incident, Stark was on the verge of suicide again, but was dissuaded after his friend Amber Schneider[2] invited him to a movie and baked him a blueberry-peach pie for his birthday.[5][12][15][16] Advocacy
Stark went public about his former plans to commit a mass shooting via an open letter to 9News in Denver in 2018, one day after the Parkland shooting.[12][17] A TEDx conference speech Stark made has gone viral,[9] with over 15 million views on YouTube as of March 2024.[6] Jonny Santana, a filmmaker, was moved by the Stark's speech and gathered 150 volunteers from San Diego to film a movie about Stark as a youth.[1] The movie, Just Another Tuesday, premiered in November 2019.[18] Personal lifeStark lives in Denver, Colorado,[2] is married,[1] has four children,[2] and maintains friendships with both Schneider and Stacey.[2][3] References
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