Bonding, then turmoil envelop West Paducah as parents attempt to assess blame in school shootings

By Guy Kelly
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

ADVICE FROM PADUCAH "People keep talking about closure on this. We thought the funeral was going to bring closure. That was just another step. We thought the trial would do it. Now we have a civil trial staring us in the face. We've come to realize you just don't have a final closure; it's something that affects your community and there's a process you've got to go through, and it's different for every community." -- Danny Orazine, McCracken County judge-executive "We think early intervention is the key. ... Every child needs to have some violence prevention curriculum. One thing you need to know, people all heal in different ways, and no one has the right way. You're going to be in it for the long haul when it comes to counseling." -- Karen McCuiston, director of public information for the Paducah schools.

Last fall in West Paducah, Ky., some people thought they were starting to put the shootings behind them.

The legal process had worked, the boy who killed three classmates at Heath High School was going to prison for at least 25 years.

There was some sense that the world was moving on after being turned upside down on Dec. 1, 1997.

Now residents say getting on with life after such a senseless tragedy is perhaps the toughest test of the human spirit any community can face.

"It's so hard on people -- teachers, students, everybody," said Karen McCuiston, Paducah school spokeswoman. "They're going through things no one should have to go through."

And a legal process is under way, as well, with lawsuits that have enraged some and saddened others in a community where many are already devastated by the school carnage.

That December morning, shortly before classes were to begin, Michael Carneal, 14, pulled a semiautomatic pistol from a backpack and shot into Heath High School's prayer circle of about 35 students in the school lobby.

Three girls were killed, and one of the wounded is now a paraplegic.

Carneal pleaded guilty but mentally ill Oct. 5 to charges of murder and attempted murder. In December, he was given the maximum punishment -- life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Although many school and police officials won't talk about the incident because of litigation, it's clear much has changed since the shootings.

An armed security guard patrols the halls at each of the district's three high schools. Teachers and guards routinely search book bags and backpacks.

"We're into zero-tolerance on threats," McCuiston said.

Teachers "try to be much more aware of students that are not seeming to adjust to high school or ... kids that are troubled and why they're troubled," Heath Principal Bill Bond has said. "That's very much on your mind."

In addition, McCuiston said, the district's preschool youngsters and kindergartners have a weekly, 20-minute session on violence prevention.

The children, along with pupils in first through eighth grades, are being taught how to manage anger, control impulses and empathize with classmates.

"We have resilient kids and teachers and some who aren't so resilient, and we're still working on that," McCuiston said.

"We still have people who need counseling, and we still have that in place for them. This will be at least a four-year ongoing process because you have the kids who were freshmen on up," she said.

The shootings effected change at the state level in Kentucky. The legislature unanimously passed the Safe Schools Act, last year and budgeted $15 million to help schools enhance safety.

The law created a state Center of School Safety and allows juvenile courts to notify school officials when a student has been convicted of certain offenses.

Parents of the three girls slain at Heath High also turned to the law.

Last December, they sued the school district, saying officials failed to recognize and act on ominous writings and behavior by Carneal. Some students also have been named in the suit.

In April, the parents sued some of the world's largest entertainment companies, asserting that video games, Internet pornography sites and a movie -- The Basketball Diaries -- incited Carneal to murder the girls. They're seeking more than $100 million from companies that include Sony and Time-Warner.

The suits have thrust Paducah into another kind of trauma, turning neighbor against neighbor.

In a letter to the Paducah Sun, Nancy Holm, the mother of one of the injured children, wrote, "By continually parading students and faculty through the courts as defendants for a crime that was the responsibility of one person, as far as I am concerned, we cannot even start to heal."

But John B. Thompson, a lawyer from Coral Gables, Fla., who is representing the parents, said the suits target movies and video games, such as Doom, that have played a role in several school shootings.

He said the games and pornography -- all of Carneal's victims were female -- triggered the boy's rampage by blurring the line between reality and fantasy.

"Is there more than one reason why these murders happened? Yes, there is," Thompson said.

"But certain entertainment products are part of a causal chain, and but for certain links in the chain, there would have been no murders."

Paducah may provide a map of the future for Colorado, McCuiston said.

"Your whole community is in shock for a while, and after they get through the shock, they band together like nobody's business," McCuiston said.

"Then when you come to lawsuits, everything changes, your mood changes. When you start pointing fingers at kids and teachers and administrators, it's tough. It's an emotional roller coaster. Your whole community changes."