A gun safety advocate whose son was killed by a classmate takes on a project that re-enacts the trauma of the shooting.
By JILL ANN PERRINO
Published December 4, 2005
LARGO - Unsupervised children. A loaded gun. And in one terrible, reckless moment a young life ended.
Soon people will be able to see just how horrible that moment was and how quickly it turned tragic, thanks to the child's mother, gun-safety advocate Jeanne Caroline, whose newest project is a gun safety film.
The film, which is in production, will depict what happened on Sept. 5, 2003, when her son, Seanne, 12, was accidentally shot to death by a classmate. It also will re-enact the trauma of Caroline's being told her son had died - with friends playing the role of Caroline and her loved ones - and will include some words on gun safety from local law enforcement professionals.
Caroline, 45, hopes the short film, which will be completed early next year, will deliver a powerful message.
"It only takes a second to kill a child," she said.
While she can't undo what happened to Seanne (pronounced Shawn-ee, a nickname for her son, Sean Caroline II), she now works to help prevent other families from suffering the same fate. In addition to the film, she writes to legislators, comforts families who have lost young ones to gun accidents, talks to groups of kids and has started a foundation in her son's name.
Gun safety is "the least talked about and most misunderstood child safety concern," Caroline said.
Unlike teaching kids to wear seat belts, beware of sexual predators and stay away from drugs, most parents don't consider that their child would have the opportunity to come in contact with a gun or that they would play with a gun if they found one, she said.
Her husband, Sean Caroline, 43, agrees.
"I never ever considered this as an option for losing a child," he said. "I never thought I had to worry about guns."
For parents who say "It could never happen to me," Largo Police Chief Lester Aradi, who is featured in the film, says it can.
"Parents often think that if they lecture their children about gun safety, they've done their job," he said. "We grossly underestimate the curiosity of children."
Caroline too believes that telling children to stay away from guns is not enough. When she speaks to groups, she plays the 911 tape made by the boy who shot her son.
"I didn't mean to. I'm so sorry," the distraught boy told dispatchers. That boy, Louis Mevec, then 14, was charged with manslaughter. He was sent to a boy's village for several months. He has since moved out of state.
The boy's father, also named Louis Mevec, was convicted of culpable negligence and sentenced to nearly three years in prison. The senior Mevec left a loaded handgun under his couch, where his son found it.
The son later brought Seanne, a Largo Middle School seventh-grader, and some other boys to the home. He pulled out and unloaded the gun, but didn't realize one round remained in the gun. Then he pointed the gun at Seanne and pulled the trigger, killing him instantly.
Playing that 911 tape is much more effective than her lectures alone, Caroline said.
She hopes the movie will not only reach more people, but that it will also have a lasting effect and save lives by showing kids that playing with guns is dangerous and teaching gun owners to keep guns locked and away from children.
Caroline would like to see her film shown in classrooms throughout Tampa Bay as well as to parents and gun owners. There are also plans to see about running the film on local government-access cable television channels run by local cities and Pinellas County.
Freelance journalist Eamonn Kneeshaw, who works for various local news organizations, including the Times, is filming and editing the project.
Aradi praised the project for its ability to spread the message of gun safety and for its potential to save the lives of children.
"The bottom line is that owners need to lock up their guns," he said. "We need to keep guns out of the hands of children."
