On Monday morning, 1 December 1997, the town of Paducah, Kentucky (pop. 27,000) was stunned by a school shooting on the west side of town. That morning, as members of Heath High School's Agape Club were winding down their daily prayers, 14 year old Michael Carneal, fired a .22 semi-automatic pistol into the group. By day's end, three students -- Nicole Hadley, Jessica James, and Kayce Steger - were dead. Five students, Missy Jenkins, Shelly Scheberg, Kelly Hard, Craig Keene, and Hollan Holm were seriously injured.

Another shot heard around the world in the saga of school violence. Just months earlier in Pearl, Mississippi, Luke Woodham murdered his mother and went on a shooting rampage at his high school. Including the Heath High School shooting, 40 school site deaths had occurred during the 1997-1998 school year. In the scheme of school violence, 10% of violent actions were the result of shootings. While the percentage is small, its impact is greater than the whole.

The Paducah community came to the spiritual and physical aid of Heath High School and the Heath community. In this essay I want to tell about my my exploration of how home was affected by the tragedy. My story has four parts: (1) a description of how I researched the shooting and its aftermath; (2) an account of Michael Carneal's actions; (3) how Paducah worked to recreate home through the funeral for the three girls; and (4) some thoughts on how schools can work to deal with the fact that school violence knows no strangers.

1.

Fieldwork in Paducah was emotionally and logistically difficult. Emotionally, I was deeply affected by the shooting. Although these kinds of events cannot be comprehended, I wanted to learn about this incident from as many angles as possible. I wanted to know about the students, the community, and the shooter. To that end, I spent three sometimes frustrating weeks in Paducah.

I studied news clippings on the shootings, archived at the Paducah Sun and on the Internet. I researched the shooting case files at the McCracken County Courthouse. I talked with friends in Paducah, and interviewed people who were directly involved with the shooting.

My logistical problems were with interviewing. The people I wanted to interview - family members, students, and community members - were at the time enmeshed in law suits filed by the families of the three slain girls. People were unable to speak freely about their experiences

I was, however, able to interview three people who were central to the shootings. Bill Bond, Principal of Heath High School was in his office when the shots rang in the school lobby. Rev. Jim Gearhart was one of the chaplains at the hospital where victims were treated. Rev. Don Young coordinated a joint funeral for Kayce, Jessica, and Nicole. As a result of talking with these three men, I was able to get a basic sense of concepts of home during and after the incident.

The story to follow illustrates what I call "home breaking." It is a ripping through of the fabric which people held safe and secure, precious and sacred. This particular incident of home breaking tore people out of their perceived secure lives, tossed them into limbo on a bridge between danger and safety, and forced them to use, in part the funeral and school memorials to achieve reintegration back into their lives. While their attempts at closure were not in vain, they were incomplete for the parents of the slain also filed lawsuits that in effect define the perceived responsibilities of individuals and institutions in the development and maintenance of home.

2.

Memorial garden in back of Heath High School

Heath High School (pop. 600) is located in the Heath Community, in West Paducah. Driving along Highway 62 from Paducah to Heath one sees corn and tobacco fields on one side of the road and single and two story homes on the other. Heath is small. The high school is a central point for all kinds of community activities from school sports to town forums.

Churches of all denominations punctuate the landscape. They are markers that signify the community's strong belief in New Testament wisdom. The largest of these churches is Heartland Bible Baptist Worship Center. It holds 1800 people in its sanctuary. This is where the three slain girls were memorialized.

In May of 1997 Michael Carneal professed his faith in Christ in the Lutheran church where his father, John, is an elder. After the shooting, the community doubted Michael's faith. His pastor, Paul Donner, responded: "You don't have to be an atheist for the devil to be active. This [Michael] was a Christian. Why he did what he did boggles the mind." (Charisma Mag.)

Michael Carneal was not considered a trouble maker. A small, quiet, and sensitive boy, he yearned for acceptance and recognition. His outward appearance betrayed an inner-self that was fraught with fears and fascinated by violence.

Michael was afraid. He felt that he was being watched at home by forces other than his family. They could see him in the bathroom when he took a shower. To counter these forces Michael would cover the bathroom vent with a towel. At the end of his shower he would wrap himself in towels and make a mad dash for his bedroom.

Sometimes these forces entered Michael's bedroom at night. When this happened, Michael would sleep in the family room, to be safe near his parents' sleeping presence.

Michael attempted to control his fears with video games and his writing. He composed complex scenarios in which he would avenge the attacks on others, using bloody tactics. Michael the Victor in a cruel world of his making.

As Michael internalized his fears, members of Heath High School's Agape Club externalized their faith. This group consisted of students openly proud to be Christian and who expressed their commitment through group prayer each morning before the start of classes. The club has been a part of Heath High School since the 1970s, sponsored by a faculty member and led by a club President.

Although Michael made a commitment to Christ, he was not a member of the Agape Club. In fact, newspaper reports allege that on random occasions, Michael and his friends would tease members of the club about their prayer and professed faith. Yet Michael had also been befriended by club President Ben Strong, a young man who was raised in the Assembly of God church and who planned on studying for ministry after graduation. Michael was also friendly with Nicole Hadley and Missy Jenkins. Perhaps Michael's small stature and quiet demeanor caused the group to think that his teasing was a joke. Be sure, what Michael did on 1 December 1997 was no joke.

According to Michael, he hatched his plan 30 to 45 days before the shooting. Before school broke for the Thanksgiving holiday, Michael told Ben Strong not to be at prayer meeting the day they got back to school. Ben, thinking it was part of a joke, and lead the group anyway.

During the break, Michael stole rifles and a .22 semi-automatic pistol from the uncle of one of his classmates. He also took his father's guns, ammunition for all of the weapons, and a pair of orange earplugs. Michael wrapped the weapons, except for the pistol, in bedclothes. The pistol, its ammunition clips, and the earplugs he stowed away in his backpack.

1 December. Michael and his sister Kelly get ready for school. Both Michael's parents and Kelly are curious about the bundle Michael in his arms. Michael tells his parents that it's soiled bedclothes because the cat got sick. He tells Kelly that the bundle contains props for an English project. He loads the parcel into Kelly's car and they head over to school. They part ways when they reach the campus.

Michael goes to the school lobby where the Agape Club is holding its morning prayer. He stands against a wall, watching. As the group finishes in prayer, Michael removes the earplugs from his pack. He inserts them into his ears. He then extracts the pistol from the pack, takes aim, and fires. For the next few seconds Michael takes and injures the lives of his classmates.

It was 7:40 AM.

Ben Strong thought he heard "pops. … I spun around … I ran up to him and I just kind of pushed him against the wall. And he was like "I can't believe I'd do this."

Michael lowers his pistol amidst the screams of the students. Principal Bond rushes out and reaches Michael. Michael says, "I'm sorry."

News of the shooting traveled fast through the school and community. The Law took Michael into custody. Paramedics brought the wounded and the dead to Paducah's hospitals. The shooting tore through Heath High School, Paducah, and the nation. Steve Polston, General Manager of Paducah's Lockheed-Martin engine plant expressed community shock: "This tragedy has affected us all. Our sense of security has been shaken and will be slow to return. Even in a world filled with violence, it is still a shock when it strikes where we live."(Paducah Sun 4 Dec. 1997)

The Heath shooting was an example of home breaking where community well-being was rent and tossed into limbo. The events following the shooting were purposeful attempts to mend the torn, come out of that state of betwixt and between, and carry on - albeit with heavy hearts and unanswered questions.

Detail of marker in the memorial garden

The media coverage of the tragedy was intense; to some it may have seemed like a feeding frenzy. Whatever the methods, the media highlighted the dire need to pay attention in our schools, not only to class work, but to the emotional health and safety of students and staff.

Then there was the investigation and Michael's hearing. Investigations concluded that Michael acted alone in the shooting. Psychological evaluations of Michael indicated paranoid and schizophrenic tendencies. With this in mind, it was agreed that Michael would plead "guilty but mentally ill" to the charges made against him. He would be sentenced to life imprisonment with no parole until 25 years into the sentence: 30 November 2022.

3.

The community moved slowly toward closure. It started with the joint funeral of James, Steger, and Hadley, held on 5 December 1997, in the Heartland Bible Baptist Worship Center.

It was a day that took on the dimensions of drama, highlighting tragedy, celebrating life, and looking toward the heavenly beyond. It was a time when the sanctuary's 1800 seating capacity overflowed, and all of America was invited to witness the drama via live, national television broadcast.

Nicole, Jessica, and Kayce were buried in specially made caskets on which visitors could write their thoughts and wishes. The caskets were literally covered with handwritten messages of love and hope and the desire to see them in heaven. Above the caskets on two television screens a video was shown documenting the girls' respective lives. The title of the video was "Gone Too Soon." The caskets were surrounded with flowers, memorabilia, and photographs of the girls.

Six preachers, two for each girl, eulogized the girls. There were musical and dramatic presentations, and two songs performed by Christian singer Steven Curtis Chapman, himself a graduate of Heath High School and the Agape Club.

Nicole Hadley, Jessica James, Kayce Steger

At the end of the service, the girls were taken by their respective families for burial. But burial and Carneal's indictment would not achieve closure. In addition to the families' sorrow, there was fury. They chose to deal with that anger through the legal system. Hence in April 1998 the Stegers, Jameses, and Hadleys filed suit against school officials, Heath High School staff, select students, and the Carneal family.

The families believed that if the defendants had acted on Michael's behaviors, the shooting could have been prevented. If the media industry had not created such movies as the Basketball Diaries and video games with violent action, violent thoughts would not overtake the child's mind. But how could anyone have recognized behaviors in Michael that seemed to be masked?

On 16 December 1998, Judge Jeff Hines sentenced Michael Carneal to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years. Michael would be incarcerated at the Northern Kentucky Youth Development Center until the age of 18. At that time, his mental health would be re-evaluated and he would be placed within the adult prison population. While at the Youth Center, Michael would follow a regimented schedule that would include classes and counseling. He would also be placed on medications specific to his mental health needs.

And the families continued to pursue legal action. They waited, they became close friends who started out as strangers in a terrible storm.

On 31 March 2000, Chief Regional Circuit Judge Will Shadoan dismissed the families' lawsuit against the owner of the pistol stolen by Michael, Wendell Nace, and the five students who had had contact with Michael prior to the shooting. According to Paducah Sun journalist David Fraser who quoted Shadoan, "There may have been a moral or Christian duty to do something [about Michael's statement that "something big was going to happen"] but there was no legal duty." As for Nace, Shadoan ruled that Nace was "not negligent in leaving the .22 pistol outside a locked cabinet, "

A week later, on 6 April, US District Judge Edward Johnstone dismissed the families' $130 million dollar lawsuit against the media producers. According to Johnstone the companies were not liable since Michael's acts were unknown.

I don't think we will ever have all of the answers regarding the Heath High School or any school shooting. There will always be a gap in the lives of those families who were directly affected by the incident. They will never completely achieve closure, therefore, their sense of home will be incomplete until they find a way to recraft it.

4.

Violence in schools is a timeless fact. How can we deal with it in its current magnitude? The Heath School families' lawsuit, while a sad and angry action, points out the need to pause, think, and act on this disturbing reality.

In August 1998, the US Department of Education published Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide to Safe Schools. The assumption behind the guide is that with the help of communities, families, school students, and staff, law enforcement, and mental health professionals, the potential for school violence can be identified and dealt with before something happens. It is a useful guide, full of suggestions and a sensitivity to the culture of schools and communities. It is not, however, a recipe book for dealing with school violence, yet it does not leave schools on their own to figure out their problems.

But the guide leaves out three important aspects of school life to figure into the equation of violence prevention: (a) the changing concept of childhood, adolescence and adulthood; (b) the curriculum itself; and (c) the physical environment of the school.

Our images of children, adolescence, and adulthood are frustrated by the stereotypes of the cherubic child, the responsible adult, and the adolescent who develops into a useful citizen. In our heart of hearts we expect the child to be a creature of innocence. We anticipate the growth of teens into citizens. But all too often the actions of children and teens gnaw on our dreams. For in addition to video games and the media, children and teens have access to their own stereotypes of adults. In addition to parents and teachers, what kind of stereotype is available? Individuals who often times take matters into their own hands, sometimes with violence.

So what is happening is a clash of stereotypes. This clash may never be undone, but it merits understanding. We all have stereotypes of something. This is our way of controlling the unknown in our lives. Children incorporate the stereotype of adults into their concept of self. So, a quiet boy, like Michael Carneal, takes his personal matters into his own hands through a violent act. Sound confusing? It is. And we are nowhere near figuring it out.

Let's turn to the school curriculum. Teachers are trained to teach. Implicit in the teachers' profession is the expectation that they are to be cultural guides for students, serving as role models - responsible citizens within the culture of the school and community.

Now, more than ever, teachers need additional education in identifying trouble spots in the school and community culture that may lead to acts of violence. It is necessary and vital to the teachers' craft.

Teachers deserve to be trained and encouraged to use the culture of the school as a laboratory in which to explore all aspects of the curriculum. This gives teachers and students an opportunity to look at school life in an objective manner that could possibly defuse potentially drastic situations. For example, a high school class in history or sociology might examine the social structures of the school and its effects on the school population and the surrounding community. Such an examination could be then extended to language arts where students can explore social structures through creative and expository writing. In the elementary school, the studies would not be so advanced, but they could be tailored to social studies and language arts in the form of graphing and basic writing skills.

These are activities that can be done in a manner consistent with State and local education mandates. But the teachers need training in colleges and in the school system. This isn't a cure for the ills of school violence. However, providing teachers with something they can do within their craft will render them a little less powerless in very powerful situations.

In terms of the school environment, students deserve something as well: a safe place to turn when in need of a space to stop, gather wits without being judged, and carry on. It would be a place similar to that we see in stores and restaurants where a sign is displayed indicating that this is a safe place to go for shelter from harm. Now, one would think that the school office would be the place to go, but that isn't always the case. The school office has too many connotations of being the place to go for school infractions. The safe place I have in mind is more like the teachers' lounge, where a student can go and cool his or her heels. If the student has a serious problem, then by all means go to office. But if a student just needs a place to breathe deep and rest his or her worries in a judgment free atmosphere, but under the watchful eye of an adult, then the lounge might be one place he or she can go.

Of course, the office or the counselor's office is the place to go if a student exhibits signs of serious trouble. But being a safe presence for students is something a teacher can be capable of doing: provided he or she is trained. At Heath High School, remembrance will always be strong. The memory of Jessica, Nicole, and Kayce are literally etched on the campus and in the minds of the school community. Photo: Marker in front of the school with the slain students' names and years they would have graduated.

In front of the school rests a marker inscribed with the names of the girls and the dates they would have graduated. Impressed in the marker is Ben Strong's statement from the funeral, that "They saw the face of God on December 1, 1997." In the school lobby rests a glass case. In it, safely kept, are mementos of the girls. A simple glass case, standing solid in the place where the shooting took place.

In back of the school building in a grassy area, is now a circular garden with a fountain and stone benches. The circle in the center of the garden symbolizes the Prayer Circle. Here is where the school community can go for reflection, perhaps an example of one kind of safe place. There, too, is a marker honoring the three girls, inscribed with the words from John 14:1: "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God. Believe also in me."

These memorials honor the girls and remind us that these were students from the Heath community, the Heath home. They must always be connected to this home, this place that was supposed to be safe and nurturing.

No doubt the Heath shooting threw people's sense of home into chaos. The lawsuit raised some interesting questions regarding teacher training as well as students' emotional and physical safety. Recovery of home, that feeling of safety and security continues to require the careful negotiation of a bridge from pain and violation to that safety and security, as well as a sense of wholeness. A few suggestions won't relieve the pain or cure the problem. But we all know that action must and can be taken for the sake of the school, the community, and the family -- all elements of home.

Ted Bridis. Associated Press. "Mike What Are You Doing?" Seattle Times 2 December 1997; N.A. Paducah Sun. 4 December 1997; Bill Bartleman. "Parents: Carneal a Different Person." Paducah Sun. 1999.n.d.

Nearly everyone I spoke with in Paducah remarked on the role of the media during the Heath incident. Political scientist Larry Sabato explores the role of the media in political affairs, calling their zeal and method a "feeding frenzy" (Larry Sabato. Feeding Frenzy: How Attack Journalism Has Transformed American Politics. 1991. New York: The Free Press)

While media method can influence popular opinion on a subject, it can also highlight issues of import that require true attention.

James Prichard, Associated Press. "Judge Lets Teen Plead Guilty But Mentally Ill in Prayer Circle Shootings." Oak Ridger 5 October 1998; Bill Bartleman. "Carneal Trial for Heath Shootings." Paducah Sun. 6 October 1998.

I would like to thank Rev. Jim Gearhart, former chaplain with Lourdes Hospital in Paducah for loaning me a copy of the video covering the Heath students' funeral. From what I could see on film, it wasn't until the last pair of preachers approached the pulpit that the funeral began to take on a very evangelical tone, moving the service from the spiritual to spiritually bully pulpit.

See "Carneal a Different Person"; David Fraser, "Breen Vows to Shadoan, I'll Go Down Swinging." Paducah Sun 1 April 2000.
This guide is available from the following (though long) website: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/OSEP/earlywrn.html