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comments
Oregon shooting: Thurston survivors say
talking, time helped them heal
Print Email
Elliot Njus | The Oregonian/OregonLive By Elliot Njus | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on October 03, 2015 at 5:00 AM, updated October 03, 2015 at 12:14 PM
comments
When a recently expelled student opened fire in a Springfield high school cafeteria in 1998, it
was a horrific anomaly.
Today it marks the beginning of an era, followed a year later by Columbine, then Virginia Tech,
Sandy Hook and now Umpqua Community College. The students and staff who
escaped Thurston High School that day became early members of a growing circle of school
shooting survivors.
Two of the Springfield survivors who spoke to The Oregonian/OregonLive on Friday said the
feelings of fear and anger have eased over time, but Jolene Leu and Patrick LaSalle will be
forever tied to the attack that until Thursday had been Oregon's deadliest school shooting.
Before the end of the day, two of their classmates were dead and 25 people injured. The shooter,
Kipland P. Kinkel, is serving a 111-year sentence.
Leu was finishing homework in the cafeteria the morning of May 21, 1998, when she heard a
series of pops. She saw a boy with a gun, dropped to the ground and, at her boyfriend's urging,
ran.
In the days that followed the shooting at Thurston High School, she gathered with friends and
family and listened but stayed quiet.
"Who am I to feel any fear or be upset?" she recalls thinking. "My friends are suffering actual
wounds."
Leu, then a junior at the school and now a Springfield photographer, says she wishes she had
spoken up and sought out other Thurston survivors. She also regrets not speaking to a counselor
soon after the shooting.
Each new mass shooting brings back feelings of anxiety and anger, said Leu. On Thursday, she
had just dropped her daughter off at school when she heard news of the violence at Umpqua
Community College.
"Even though it seems really dark and scary and everybody's hurting, it won't fully go away, but
it does get easier," she said. "You are able to pretty much lead a normal life without it ruining
your every day, eventually."
On the day of the Thurston shooting, LaSalle had arrived at school early and was outside the
cafeteria when Kinkel opened fire. Through a window, he saw students trying to subdue Kinkel.
Then the cafeteria doors open, and a flood of students ran out.
He joined them, turning around once to head back to a cafeteria before being warned away by a
school administrator. He eventually took shelter in a classroom.
His sister, a freshman, was supposed to be in gym class, right next to the cafeteria. He found out
later she was late to school that morning.
In the hours that followed, he gathered with friends to watch the news and try to understand.
"We were talking and watching and comforting each other, trying to figure out what's going on,"
he said.
They would gather again and again in the days that followed, and friends' homes and near the
school at a fence that would eventually become a makeshift memorial.
LaSalle, who lives in Eugene, says the sadness and anger fade over time. At least, until days like
Thursday.
"Be prepared in the future for when this happens again," he said. "Be prepared for a lot of anger
that this is happening again, that somebody else is having to go through what I went through."
Four students who attended Thurston High School in 1998, including Leu, were profiled in The
Oregonian/OregonLive on the 15th anniversary of the shooting. The Oregonian also carried a
special report on its 10th anniversary.
-- Elliot Njus
enjus@oregonian.com
503-294-5034
@enjus
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