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Brenda Ann Spencer: The Girl Who Didn’t Like Mondays


On the morning of January 29, 1979, the school day at Grover Cleveland Elementary in San Diego, California, had barely begun when shots rang out. Children waiting outside the gates found themselves under fire from a house across the street. Within moments, Principal Burton Wragg and custodian Mike Suchar lay dead. Eight children and a responding police officer were wounded. The person behind the rifle was not a man in military gear or a hardened criminal, but a 16-year-old girl named Brenda Ann Spencer.


Brenda, a red-haired teenager standing just 5’2”, lived in a rundown house with her father directly opposite the school. When a reporter, calling random numbers in the neighbourhood, managed to reach her during the standoff, she answered infamously: “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.” That line would go down in history, later immortalised in the Boomtown Rats’ hit song, but it was merely a glimpse into a deeply troubled life.

Brenda Spencer had a reputation for being a “problem child” who struggled with numerous health issues.
Brenda Spencer had a reputation for being a “problem child” who struggled with numerous health issues.

Brenda Ann Spencer: A Childhood in Shadows

Born on April 3, 1962, to Dorothy and Wallace Spencer, Brenda was the youngest of three children. Her parents’ marriage disintegrated in 1972 after her mother discovered Wallace’s repeated infidelities. Following the divorce, Brenda lived with her father in what could generously be called a state of neglect. They shared a single mattress on the floor, surrounded by empty bottles from his drinking binges. The house was a wreck, and so, too, was Brenda’s sense of security.



By the time she reached her teens, teachers noticed her disengagement from school. A teacher at Patrick Henry High School recalled frequently checking if she was even awake in class. There were moments where she showed promise—she won a first-prize photography competition run by the Humane Society—but these were overshadowed by disturbing behaviours. She spoke openly of wanting to shoot a police officer. She called them “pigs” and celebrated news of their deaths. Her classmates considered her “crazy” and actively avoided her.



In early 1978, a school program for troubled students warned her parents that she was suicidal. By summer, she had been arrested for shooting out windows at Cleveland Elementary with a BB gun. In December, her probation officer arranged a psychiatric evaluation that concluded she needed hospitalisation for depression. Her father refused.

Instead, that Christmas, he bought her a Ruger 10/22 semi-automatic rifle with a telescopic sight and 500 rounds of ammunition.

The arrest of school shooter Brenda Spencer, shortly after her infamous “I don’t like Mondays” quote.
The arrest of school shooter Brenda Spencer, shortly after her infamous “I don’t like Mondays” quote.

Monday Morning

When asked why her father gave her a gun instead of a radio, as she had asked, Brenda later remarked: “He bought the rifle so I would kill myself.” Instead, on a quiet Monday morning, she turned it on the children and staff of the school across the street.



She fired 36 shots, targeting children waiting outside. Her first victim was nine-year-old Cam Miller, simply because he was wearing her favourite colour—blue. When Principal Wragg and teacher Daryl Barnes rushed to help the wounded children, she shot Wragg dead. Custodian Mike Suchar died trying to shield a student. Police officer Robert Robb was hit in the neck as he arrived on the scene.


What prevented further bloodshed was a quick-thinking police team that parked a garbage truck in front of the school, obstructing her line of sight. The siege lasted for hours. During that time, she made her chilling statement to the press about disliking Mondays. Eventually, she surrendered, reportedly lured out with the promise of a Burger King meal.

Standing 5’2″ tall and weighing 89 pounds, Brenda Spencer was once described as “too small to be scary.”
Standing 5’2″ tall and weighing 89 pounds, Brenda Spencer was once described as “too small to be scary.”

The Consequences

Brenda was charged as an adult. She pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and assault with a deadly weapon, leading to a sentence of 25 years to life. While in prison, she was diagnosed with epilepsy and received medication for depression. She spent her time repairing electronic equipment at the California Institution for Women in Chino.



Over the years, she changed her account of the shooting. In 1993, she claimed she had hoped to be shot by police. By 2001, she made allegations of abuse against her father, stating he beat and sexually abused her. He denied the claims, and the parole board dismissed them as unreliable. A San Diego deputy district attorney later cited her self-harm and erratic behaviour as evidence of her instability. She carved the words “unforgiven” and “alone” into her skin when her prison girlfriend was released.


Denied parole multiple times, the earliest she could be considered again is 2025.

In 1993, Brenda Spencer told CBS 8 San Diego that she didn’t remember saying, “I don’t like Mondays.”
In 1993, Brenda Spencer told CBS 8 San Diego that she didn’t remember saying, “I don’t like Mondays.”

Spencer’s deadly plot was far from the earliest attack on an American school, but it was one of the first modern school shootings that led to multiple deaths and injuries. And some believe that she helped inspire future school shootings in later years, such as the Columbine High School massacre, the Virginia Tech shooting, and the Parkland mass murder.

“She hurt so many people and had so much to do with starting a deadly trend in America,” said Richard Sachs, a San Diego County deputy district attorney, in an interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune.

And despite her efforts to downplay her own crime, Spencer herself has admitted that her actions may have indeed led to other similar attacks. In fact, in 2001, she told the parole board, “With every school shooting, I feel I’m partially responsible. What if they got the idea from what I did?”




Brenda Spencer’s actions marked the first high-profile elementary school shooting in the United States. Deputy District Attorney Richard Sachs remarked that she “had so much to do with starting a deadly trend in America.” Decades later, in 2001, Spencer herself admitted: “With every school shooting, I feel I’m partially responsible. What if they got the idea from what I did?”

In the years following the tragedy, Cleveland Elementary closed in 1983 due to declining enrollment. The school building was eventually demolished in 2018 to make way for housing, though a plaque remains in honour of the victims.

Almost exactly a decade later, in 1989, another Grover Cleveland Elementary—this time in Stockton, California—was the site of another deadly school shooting. Survivor Christy Buell, one of Spencer’s original victims, expressed horror upon hearing of the new attack.



“I Don’t Like Mondays”

Bob Geldof, lead singer of the Boomtown Rats, read about the shooting while in Georgia. Struck by Brenda’s haunting statement, he turned it into a song. Released in July 1979, “I Don’t Like Mondays” became a massive hit in the UK and Ireland, though it faced backlash in San Diego. Spencer later allegedly wrote to Geldof, saying she was “glad she’d done it” because he had “made her famous.” Geldof, troubled by the notion, dismissed the claim. Spencer denies ever writing to him.


The Woman Behind the Gun

Now in her sixties, Brenda Spencer remains imprisoned. Whether her claims of abuse and neglect hold truth or not, the fact remains that a neglected, troubled teenager with a rifle and 500 rounds of ammunition irrevocably changed history on that Monday morning in 1979. The shooting forced schools, parents, and law enforcement to rethink security, but it also marked the beginning of a dark and recurring cycle of school violence in the United States.

The girl who didn’t like Mondays left behind a legacy of sorrow, fear, and unanswered questions—ones that still haunt those who lived through it.

 

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