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  #1  
Old 03-18-2004, 10:24 PM
CrimsonTide4 CrimsonTide4 is offline
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Unhappy Boy Commits Suicide in Front of His Classmates

Boy shoots himself in 8th-grade classroom
Tragedy rocks small community of Joyce near Port Angeles

By KERY MURAKAMI AND LEWIS KAMB
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERS

JOYCE -- The owner of the Joyce Cafe watched the boy ride by on his bike yesterday morning -- just like any other day.

The boy waved to his grandfather, who was having a cup of coffee at the cafe outside Port Angeles. His grandfather waved back. Cafe owner Alex Stevens couldn't remember if the boy was carrying a backpack or a guitar case.


A parent accompanies shocked students from Crescent Elementary in Joyce after a 13-year-old boy shot and killed himself in front of about 20 classmates. (Keith Thorpe / Peninsula Daily News)

Shortly after 10 a.m., according to Clallam County Sheriff Joe Martin and Crescent Schools Superintendent Rich Wilson, the 13-year-old boy pulled a short .22-caliber rifle out of a guitar case in a portable classroom at Crescent Elementary School.

Without saying anything, and in front of about 20 other eighth-graders, the boy put the rifle to his chest and fired, killing himself.

The boy was in the rear corner of the classroom, not drawing attention to himself, at the end of social studies and languages period.

"He just quietly did it," Wilson said.

Many in the class didn't know what happened, Wilson said. The teacher, hearing the shot, ordered everybody out. Only later did everyone realize that the boy who was always telling jokes and doing stunts on his BMX bicycle wasn't there.


The boy's name was being withheld until all his relatives could be notified. But as Stevens describes it, Joyce is essentially two restaurants, a general store, two schools and a post office off scenic state Route 112, 16 miles west of Port Angeles.



"It's not even a town, it's a spot on a map," Stevens said. "Everybody knows everybody else."

No one could imagine what demons could have been driving the boy.

The boy's father is a log truck driver. The boy's mother works in the post office. The boy's older brother also goes to the school, and the two of them had ridden by yesterday morning.

"Just like any other day," Stevens said. "Mom's home by the time the kids get home from school. They're all just nice, well-respected people, who spent time with their kids. They had motor bikes. They were not wanting for anything. Their grandfather and their great grandfather live here in the community."

Rebecca Baillargeon found an ambulance and paramedics at the school when she stopped to drop off something for her son. At first, she thought somebody had tripped and fell or there had been a fight.

"But not something like this," Baillargeon said.

Her son is also in the eighth grade, but wasn't in the same classroom as the boy with the rifle.

"Thank God," she said, but "he heard the gunshot."

Although she didn't know the boy, Baillargeon said her son told her he "was a popular, well-liked, nice kid. They've been over to his house."

Baillargeon and her son were on their way to see a grief counselor, who was at the school.

Wilson, the superintendent, said the boy didn't show outward signs of trouble.

"He's not someone you'd say was having trouble with life," Wilson said, shaking his head and pushing up his glasses, as if deep in thought, as he spoke.

The boy played basketball, rode his skateboard, and Wilson would see him outside his office window doing tricks. He was always joking, talking, smiling, and would say hello when he passed.

"He clearly didn't fit into any of the niches to suggest he would harm himself, that he would kill himself," Wilson said.

Sheriff Martin said the school automatically locked down the wide-open grassy campus -- which holds the 120-student Crescent Elementary and 110-student Crescent Junior-Senior High School.

Sheriff's deputies did a sweep of the school but found no one else with guns. The school stayed open, but many parents picked up their kids.

A group went to the Joyce Cafe.

"There were two or three parents and a few kids at one table." Stevens said. "There was another table with three kids and five parents. Mostly they sat and talked about it."

Jeff Baillargeon, Rebecca's husband and a Crescent School Board member, was baffled how the boy could have been that troubled without anyone noticing.

"As a parent and a board member, I've heard next to nothing about bullying or kids picking on each other," he said.

He said the Crescent school is just a "little country school."

"My son shares some of the same teachers and I'm here to tell you, they are the most concerned group of people," he said. "They will send weekly e-mails home to let you know what's going on or (to say) they noticed something that didn't seem quite right."

Jeff Baillargeon said he broke down when he heard of the suicide.

"Education isn't just giving kids textbooks. It's building people with integrity and good citizens," he said.

"To see this happen, you can't help but see it as a reflection on yourself. My heart really tears for the boy. I just can't imagine someone feeling that kind of pressure and pain, at that age, to do this."


Parents, talk to your kids. Hug them too. Listen more.
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  #2  
Old 03-19-2004, 12:08 AM
msn4med1975 msn4med1975 is offline
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This is so sad. Even though at the time it bothered the mess out of me I'm glad my mother was as nosy as she was. Not to say his parents would have necessarily noticed anything but they MAY have if they were the slightest bit as overbearing as Carol Ann was.

The only positive thing I can draw from this is that most of the class didn't know what he had done. The last time I heard of something like this happening the boy walked to the front of his class and killed himself with a handgun. The people in that class are all a bit traumatized by all of that still.

Pray over you kids and that you get the heavenly guidance ya need at all times.
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  #3  
Old 03-19-2004, 12:26 AM
Ideal08 Ideal08 is offline
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This story just hurts my heart. I forwarded it to the staff at my school. Sometimes we lose sight of what's really important.

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  #4  
Old 03-19-2004, 02:19 PM
vanda vanda is offline
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This is truly a tragey. That's why I am always asking my younger cousins questions about their well being. You never know what burdens kids carry. Today's kids have a lot of obstacles in front of them that a lot adults like to ignore. We have to take time out for them because being alone, unheard and misunderstood is a very sad state to be in.
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  #5  
Old 03-19-2004, 02:44 PM
Jill1228 Jill1228 is offline
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Girl, this is BIG news around here! I was at work and saw it on the front page of the Seattle PI. Such a shame
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  #6  
Old 03-19-2004, 02:51 PM
AKA2D '91 AKA2D '91 is offline
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Re: Boy Commits Suicide in Front of His Classmates

Quote:
Originally posted by CrimsonTide4


"Education isn't just giving kids textbooks. It's building people with integrity and good citizens," he said.

Amen.

This is truly sad!
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  #7  
Old 03-20-2004, 10:44 PM
darling1 darling1 is offline
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Unhappy i can't imagine!!!

Quote:
Originally posted by msn4med1975
This is so sad. Even though at the time it bothered the mess out of me I'm glad my mother was as nosy as she was. Not to say his parents would have necessarily noticed anything but they MAY have if they were the slightest bit as overbearing as Carol Ann was.

The only positive thing I can draw from this is that most of the class didn't know what he had done. The last time I heard of something like this happening the boy walked to the front of his class and killed himself with a handgun. The people in that class are all a bit traumatized by all of that still.

Pray over you kids and that you get the heavenly guidance ya need at all times.
i can't imagine what this town, the children and especially that boy's family is going through. upon first reading, this story reminds me of the song "jeremy" by pearl jam. that video is so horrific in that the story is infinitely sad and disturbing. i hope that as my child grows, we instill in her that she can solve problems through communicating with her parents or other loved ones.

i pray the family gets through this because this will be something that will have an effect for years to come.
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  #8  
Old 03-21-2004, 08:29 PM
msn4med1975 msn4med1975 is offline
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Re: i can't imagine!!!

Quote:
Originally posted by darling1
i can't imagine what this town, the children and especially that boy's family is going through. upon first reading, this story reminds me of the song "jeremy" by pearl jam. that video is so horrific in that the story is infinitely sad and disturbing. i hope that as my child grows, we instill in her that she can solve problems through communicating with her parents or other loved ones.

i pray the family gets through this because this will be something that will have an effect for years to come.
The incident I am referring is often cited as the "inpsiration" for Pearl Jam's "Jeremy." I was in middle school at the time in Richardson, Texas when "Jeremy" walked into a first or second period course at Richardson High School and killed himself in front of several of my friends. The school district went into a lockdown until they isolated where it had happened. Richardson is a small district, only four high schools and maybe 20 elementary and middle schools at the time, and between parents coming to get us and camera crews at the wrong location it was a very confusing day.

The reason I say it was glad that most of the class didn't see him is for the friends that were in that room, two still have periodic nightmares about it, one has refused to talk about till this day and the others attempt to pretend it didn't happen but I think we're all reminded everytime another shooting of any kind at school happens.
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