A school shooter who went viral on TikTok for talking publicly about his actions is facing backlash from many who believe he should not be on the platform at all.
In 2020, Jon Romano was released from prison after serving 17 years out of a 20-year prison sentence for bringing a shotgun to Columbia High School in upstate New York back in 2004. Romano, who was 16 years old at the time, shot a teacher in the leg after the assistant principal attempted to wrestle the gun away from him.
Nobody was killed in the incident and Romano pleaded guilty to attempted murder and reckless endangerment, the New York Times reported at the time. It also added that prior to the incident, Romano had left a note at his home that included references to the 1999 Columbine school shooting in which 15 people died, including the perpetrators.
Romano also told police then that he had “fantasies for about the last year of going in Columbia and shooting up the place”, per the Times.
Now, more than 20 years later, Romano has 255,000 followers and more than 7m likes on his TikTok account @jonseekingpeace. In his bio, Romano writes: “After being a part of the problem, it’s time to be a part of the solution.”
In one video that has amassed more than 5,800 likes, Romano said that although the teacher was not seriously injured, “I know that mentally, him and countless others were traumatized and still suffer to this day almost 20 years later because of me.”
“So now I do my best to talk to people, to answer questions and hopefully make change so that other communities, other people don’t go through what my victims did … I believe that mental health, although not to blame for my actions because there’s so many people who suffer and never hurt anybody else, but mental health is a big thing that doesn’t get talked about in schools,” he added.
He went on to say that he thinks “there’s power in vulnerability, power in opening yourself up, and learning to do that can change lives”.
Many have since condemned Romano’s use of TikTok, with user @blackqueerliberation – whom Romano followed – saying: “It’s incredibly disingenuous of you to build a platform off of the trauma that you’ve caused others and you do so under the guise of spreading awareness about mental health.”
“But to me, after watching many of your videos, it seems like you are mainly interested in protecting the mental health of people like you – white young boys,” they said.
They went on to cite a video where Romano described an attack he survived in 2022 in which the perpetrator, who was Black, attacked him with a sword at a homeless shelter while “calling me the white devil”. In the video, Romano said: “People can be racist against a white person.”
Following the incident, Romano had to have both arms and a leg reattached, according to a prosecutor.
“After claiming mental health issues led you to become a school shooter that traumatized many, you then framed a narrative about a Black man being anti-white and targeting you when that man also suffered from mental health issues which you conceded,” @blackqueerliberation said in response to Romano’s videos.
“You are an alt-right pipeline,” they added.
User @alyssaphobium echoed similar sentiments, saying on TikTok: “If you shoot up a school, here are three things you shouldn’t be allowed to do. One, be on the internet. Two, monetize the storytelling of your crimes and three, claim to be the victim of a hate crime when someone very accurately calls you the white devil.”
“Your redemption arc after shooting up a school should be moving in silence, not boasting about how you became a better person. It seems very much though that you are searching for the attention that you were searching for back when you shot up that school and it’s a shame that people are giving it to you,” @alyssaphobium added.
User @julesbonss criticized Romano’s reentry into society and pointed to the threat of radicalization among young boys who watch videos like his.
“One of the people who was an active participant in doing something like that at one point or another in their lives is now online, showing those same radicalized young boys that there might be a light at the end of the tunnel for you,” said @julesbonss.
“You might be able to go so far in the world as to garner 255,000 people to follow you … You … could gain a following that is made up of people that are trying to somehow give you some level of support,” the user added.
Many users, including @youcancallmekait, have found Romano’s videos highly distressing.
In a video responding to Romano’s popularity, @youcancallmekait, who described herself as an early childhood educator who switched from teaching at public schools to private schools due to the threat of gun violence, was shaking and at one point teared up as she condemned Romano, whom she discovered was following her account.
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“Have you ever looked into the eyes of 27 five-year-olds and told them that they would be OK when you’re pretty sure that they wouldn’t be? Have you ever thought about using your body as a human shield to protect babies?” she said.
“That’s the reality of living in the United States and you, sir, are one of the OG [original] school shooters. The only reason you are walking around as a free man is because no one died and thank god no one died … There are people who are never going to feel safe again because of you,” she continued.
She went on to urge Romano to speak privately to psychologists and counselors instead of operating his platform on TikTok.
Romano has defended his platform despite the backlash, telling Insider that he weighed whether speaking publicly would help or hurt people more and said: “I do believe I am helping.”
Speaking to the Guardian, Jillian Peterson, a forensic psychologist and co-president of The Violence Project who has spoken to multiple mass shooting perpetrators, said that although it is important to understand what pathways to violence look like, she does not believe that a “past school shooter on TikTok is the correct way to go about that”.
“Perpetrators are the people who help us understand how to make this not happen again and that’s really helpful, but done in the correct way, done in an anonymous way,” she said.
In Peterson’s work, she abides by the no-notoriety protocol that includes limiting and at times omitting the perpetrators’ names.
“In terms of how you tell that story, it can be very triggering to victims … It has to be very victim-led … and done very carefully … You are giving us your story to be helpful, not to get any sort of self-recognition,” she said, adding, “I think you have to take yourself out of it. It can’t be about you. It has to be about the victim.”
She addressed radicalization concerns by saying: “Perpetrators study other perpetrators … they see themselves in previous perpetrators so we have to be super careful when we’re telling these stories not to be sort of radicalizing anybody else unintentionally.”
Melissa Brymer, the director of terrorism and disaster programs at the UCLA-Duke University national center for child traumatic stress, echoed similar sentiments.
“That he’s doing this on behalf of victims is a more difficult thing, because just because he’s ready doesn’t mean the families are ready. Also, to have families be accepting, you don’t do that in a public forum. You actually find places and ask their permission, maybe ask for some of that dialogue,” Brymer told the Guardian, adding: “TikTok doesn’t allow a dialogue.”
“If I hurt you, I need to go to you. For me to just say something online, it takes away your voice and your voice was already taken away that day when that harm was created. How he’s doing it is keeping the victims voiceless,” she said.
In one of his latest TikTok videos, Romano announced that he has turned off comments on his page, saying that people including some former classmates who were present at the shooting and now support his content are being harassed.
“No, we’re not going to do that,” Romano said.
