Trans Covenant School Shooter Made Pros-And-Cons List Before Massacre

The public has been waiting for years to see the contents of Audrey Hale’s journals and manifesto ever since she shot and killed three students and three staff members at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 27, 2023. Her writings were kept under wraps for years by the Biden administration and local law enforcement as court battles dragged on, with media outlets seeking their release.

Many suspected the FBI, operating under Joe Biden, was slow-walking disclosure out of concern that the contents would undermine the preferred narrative at the time—that “white supremacy” was the most significant domestic terror threat facing the country, as well as the possible negative implications for the transgender community.

The FBI released hundreds of pages from Audrey Hale’s journal this week, and they show Hale, a 28-year-old woman who identified as male, methodically weighed attacks on two Nashville schools she previously attended before settling on the Christian elementary school. Covenant School was her school from kindergarten through fourth grade, while she attended fifth through eighth grade at I.T. Creswell Middle School.

What emerges from the pages is something uncomfortable for those invested in certain narratives about mass shootings: racial and religious animus played decisive roles in target selection.

HOLY CRAP. The Trump FBI just released bombshell docs hidden by the Biden admin proving the TRANSGENDER Covenant Christian school shooter Audrey Hale *specifically* targeted WHITE PEOPLE.

Transgender and anti-white violence is REAL.

They didn’t want this getting out.

The… pic.twitter.com/wDyf2SMJVl

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) December 30, 2025

The journal entries, some dating back to 2021, reveal that Hale initially identified Creswell as the “1st choice” for her planned massacre.

Then her calculus shifted. 

Regarding Creswell, Hale wrote down several disadvantages that ultimately ruled out the school. The student body at Creswell was “[predominantly] black school (black people I love),” Hale noted.

This phrase appeared twice in the disadvantages section for the school.

Hale explained in her writing that attacking the school would leave the “Black community in despair [and] suffering (I don’t want to cause that) = don’t want to harm them = dread.” Another concern surfaced repeatedly: “Black friends [and] black community will hate me.” Hale also worried about inspiring others, writing that killing black students would be “likely to influence rasist [sic] white shooters in future.”

For Hale, the Covenant School had all the advantages. Being a “predominantly white school” counted as a positive because “white people I hate!” Hale wrote. The school’s religious character sealed the decision. “Christian school (hate religion),” Hale noted, underlining the phrase about hating religion for emphasis. 

Familiarity with the campus layout was also a factor, though by that point the decision had already been made. Hale had found a target that satisfied both racial and religious hatred.

Hale’s parents later told authorities their daughter developed an affinity for black culture while playing basketball on a predominantly black team at Creswell. Her mother explained in a recorded police interview that Hale “felt accepted” by her teammates. 

“I think, somehow, maybe in her mind — you know, she felt because of being in this school, and on this athletic team, and these girls, you know, liked her and were on the team … she felt accepted.” 

The writings make clear that Hale evaluated two schools using criteria that included race and religion. One school was spared because Hale loved black people and feared backlash from the black community. The other was selected because Hale hated white people and Christianity. These weren’t random thoughts. They were made as part of a deliberative process. 

The FBI’s release this week confirms what some suspected and what others hoped to avoid discussing: identity-based hatred can cut in multiple directions, even among those who belong to protected classes themselves.