Eighth Grader Shoots & Kills Teacher
NanLeeCro
Teacher shot and killed at eighth-grade dance; 14-year-old accused
Copyright © 1998 Nando.net
Copyright © 1998 Reuters News Service
EDINBORO, Pa. (April 25, 1998 01:43 a.m. EDT http://www.nando.net) - A
14-year-old boy shot and killed a teacher and injured two other
youngsters during a Friday night dance for eighth graders at a
restaurant in rural northwestern Pennsylvania, authorities said
Saturday.
Killed was science teacher John Gillette, who was hit when "a
14-year-old boy took out a handgun and began firing," said Jane Sicker,
nursing supervisor at Saint Vincent Health Center in Erie, Pa., where
the victims were taken for treatment.
Sicker said two 14-year-old boys were injured, but they were released
from the hospital. Gillette died at the scene, she said.
Sicker said the shootings took place about 9:30 p.m. EDT during a Parker
Middle School dance at Nick's Place, a restaurant in Edinboro, which is
about 100 miles north of Pittsburgh.
Sicker said state police arrested a 14-year-old boy, but Reuters could
not confirm that with state police.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have seen gross intolerance shown in support of tolerance...Coleridge
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Joe1orbit
Hello,
Here is an update on last evening shooting rampage at a school dance in
Pennsylvania, where a 14 year old boy became our newest murderer. We now get a
name for our brand new child murderer. He is Andrew Jerome Wurst, an 8th grade
student at Parker Middle School school. Jerome shot 4 people, two teachers and
2 students, at the restaurant where this school dance was being held, at about
9:30 last night. One of the teachers was indeed successfully killed. The other
teacher only suffered a superficial wound, and both wounded schoolmates, also
boys aged 14, suffered very minor injuries. Oh well, at least Andrew did manage
to kill one person, and that person was quite a popular teacher.
Police do not have any motive for this shooting spree as of now. They also
don't know if the 46 year old Science teacher than Andrew killed was a SPECIFIC
target, or whether the 14 year old was merely shooting at anyone in his line of
sight. The gun used was a .22 caliber semi-automatic. That is a weak caliber,
not trult suited for murdering people. The gun was legally owned by Andrew's
father, and Andrew just decided to borrow it, and take it to the dance. It's
not clear whether Andrew had a definate intention to kill humans, before he
arrived at the dance. However, one classmate of Andrew's tells us that Andrew
had told him, prior to the dance, that he would be making the dance a MEMORABLE
event! That certainly does hint at the likelihood that Andrew did decide, at
least a full day prior to the dance, that he would undertake a shooting/killing
spree.
As can be expected from your profoundly irrational society, 14 year old
Andrew has been charged as an ADULT with murder. This BOY, this creation of
your society, will be treated as an adult, for the purpose of inflicting
punitive punishment upon him. How ridiculously perverse that is, for your
society to have the right to ARBITRARILY treat this ONE boy as an adult,
specifically to HURT him, when NO other 14 year old is ever given the right to
vote or to drink alcohol or to engage in any other adult "priviledges".
Guess what? The school, ever mindful of their image, and relishing their
ability to treat their enrolled students as slaves, has INSTRUCTED all students
to NOT SPEAK to the media about the shooting. How nice, we have children being
told to keep quiet, as a way of allowing school officials to put out their own
spin on the incident. Once again we see children being denied their most basic
rights, as a society tries to deny the FACT that it is guilty of brutalizing
children and treating them as worthless slaves. Nobody cares about the TRUTH
behind this shooting rampage. Nobody cares to look at the fact that society is
responsible for having caused enough TRAUMA and INJUSTICE to this boy, to
result in him feeling a desire/need/compulsion to slaughter fellow humans. The
entire goal of society is to cover-up the truth, maintain domination and
control over the masses, and appease the whims and wishes of the adult
citizen-slaves.
Take care, JOE
The following appears courtesy of today's Reuters news wire:
Teenager Kills Teacher at School Dance in Pa.
April 25, 1998
Reuters
EDINBORO, Pa. — A teenage boy opened fire on fellow-students and teachers at a
school dance in rural northwestern Pennsylvania, killing a teacher and wounding
two youths, police and hospital officials said Saturday.
Police said they had not yet established a motive in the Friday night shooting
at the dance for eighth graders held at a restaurant in Edinboro, about 100
miles north of Pittsburgh.
They said Andrew Jerome Wurst, 14, an eighth grade student at the Parker Middle
School, had been charged as an adult with one count of criminal homicide.
The man killed was science teacher and former football coach John Gillette, 46,
who was married with three children and lived in the town of Albion 11 miles
away. He died at the scene.
State Police spokesman Mark Zaleski said the boy faced several charges in
addition to homicide, including three counts of aggravated assault, reckless
endangerment and firearms possession, and could be arraigned on those charges
later.
"We don't know a motive at this time but we're exploring a couple of different
avenues,'' Zaleski said, declining to elaborate.
According to the criminal complaint, the small caliber handgun used in the
shooting was registered to the boy's father.
Zaleski said the boy's mother was with him at the Erie County prison where he
is being held.
Jane Sicker, nursing supervisor at Saint Vincent Health Center in Erie,
Pennsylvania, where the victims were taken for treatment, said two 14-year-old
boys wounded in the shooting had been released from the hospital.
A woman teacher at the dance was grazed by a bullet, but did not require
medical treatment.
Sicker said the shootings took place during a school dance at Nick's Place
restaurant at about 9:30 p.m. EDT.
Bill O'Brien, 27, whose mother is a neighbor of the Gillettes in Albion, was a
former student of the dead man.
"He was the best football coach I ever had. You see this happening on TV but
you never expect it to happen in your own backyard,'' O'Brien said.
Children at the Parker Middle School have been instructed not to speak to
reporters. But television stations quoted one student as saying Wurst had told
him he would make the dance ''memorable''.
The shooting followed the deaths of four schoolgirls and a teacher in
Jonesboro, Ark, last month when two boys aged 11 and 13 opened fire on them
with rifles and handguns.
Joe1orbit
Hello,
Here is another update on last evening's shooting rampage at a school dance
that was being held in a restaurant in Pennsylvania. 14 year old Andrew Wurst
shot four people, but only managed to kill one teacher. The other three victims
suffered VERY minor injuries and have already been released from the hospital.
This update provides us with some new details on the shooting. We learn that it
was a .25 caliber handgun that Andrew used, which is even WEAKER than a .22
caliber. The .25 caliber is a true "mousegun", that really was never intended
to be used to shoot any human being, due to it's ridiculously poor
stopping/killing power.
This was a BIG dance, with 240 students attending. Andrew certainly had a lot
of potential victims to mow down, but he simply was not properly armed, and
seemed to lack the true bloodthirsty motivation necessary to carry out a
prolific massacre. After shooting these 4 people, Andrew fled the restaurant,
but was immediately captured by the owner of the restaurant banquet hall, who
was armed with a stotgun. He apparently chased Andrew into a field behind the
restaurant, then either tackled him or got him to stop by pointing the shotgun
at him.
The 48 year old male teacher was shot right in the FACE/HEAD, and died at the
scene. With a .25 caliber gun, you really do need to shoot somebody RIGHT in
the head or heart, if you want to be reasonably sure of achieving a fatality.
We also learn that 14 year old Andrew had a small amount of marijuana in his
possession, when he was taken into custody right after the shooting. The
rampage occured just before the dance was about to end, at 9:30-10:00 PM.
A classmate of Andrew's confirms that earlier yesterday he told other
students that he was going to make this 8th grade dance a "memorable" one.
Well, he certainly did accomplish that goal. The 48 year old teacher shot in
the face/head had apparently organized this entire dance, and was very popular
the among students. I wonder whether Andrew specifically targeted him because
he was so popular and well-liked by the other students. It is clear that Andrew
DID very specifically target this teacher. He was the FIRST person shot, and
Andrew walked right over to him and shot him in the face/head at point-blank
range. This classmate also confirms that Andrew was not really a loner, and
did have quite a few friends at school.
Finally we get the typical set of comments from students and teachers, in
which they express their shock over the shooting rampage, and how they
experienced it on a personal level. Nobody is talking about the TRUTH of why
children choose to commit murder, or acknowledging the VALIDITY of the rage and
hate that motivates them. But that is to be expected, in a pathetically
irrational and lie/myth-based society like yours.
Take care, JOE
The following appears courtesy of today's Associated Press news wire:
Teacher killed at school dance; 14-year-old student charged
April 25, 1998
By Kristen Hays, Associated Press
EDINBORO, Pa. (AP) — A student shot and killed a teacher chaperoning an
eighth-grade graduation dance and wounded three others before the banquet hall
owner captured him outside, authorities said.
Andrew Wurst, a 14-year-old student at Parker Middle School was charged as an
adult this morning with criminal homicide, three counts each of aggravated
assault and reckless endangerment, along with gun and drug charges.
About 240 students had attended the dance with the theme, "I've Had the Time of
My Life.'' Sobbing girls in satin dresses and terrified boys in neckties
huddled together outside the hall after the shooting. Some hid in a closet when
the shooting broke out.
Science teacher John Gillette, 48, was killed Friday night with a gunshot to
the head. The dance was being held at Nick's Place, about two miles north of
Edinboro, in northwest Pennsylvania.
State police said the boy was carrying a .25-caliber handgun and a small amount
of marijuana.
Gillette was shot on a patio in the front of the hall, then the shooter walked
inside and fired several shots before leaving through a rear exit, state police
spokesman Mark Zaleski said.
Hall owner James Strand, armed with a shotgun, captured the boy in a field
behind the building, Zaleski said.
The student had mentioned that he was going to make the dance "memorable,'' an
unidentified student told the Morning News of Erie.
Student Shane Rock said he saw the boy with the gun shoot another student.
"I didn't see the shot but I heard it, and then another,'' said Lucien Haury,
another Parker student. "About 10 or 12 of us then piled into a closet.''
The shooting occurred just as the dance was breaking up about 10 p.m. Edinboro
is about 100 miles north of Pittsburgh.
Two 14-year-old boys were wounded by the gunfire and treated at Saint Vincent
Health Center. One had an abdominal wound, the other had a leg wound and both
were treated and released, said Jane Sicker, a nursing supervisor.
A female teacher was grazed by a bullet and did not need medical treatment,
authorities said.
The victim was a married father of three children who once coached high school
football. In his youth he was a local high school football star and champion
discus thrower. Gillette had taught for 27 years and recently began thinking
about retiring, said band teacher Dennis Kitchen.
"He was really dedicated,'' Kitchen said. "He's the one that started these
dances in the first place.''
----------------------------------------------
The following two news articles both appear courtesy of the 4/25/98 online
edition of The Erie Times-News newspaper:
Suspect wanted to make dance 'memorable', student says
Publication date:04-25-98
Stunned and shivering outside Nick's Place Friday night, Shannon Gebhardt said
she hugged her science teacher 15 minutes before he was shot to death by her
classmate.
John Gillette, science teacher, coach and student council adviser, was shot in
the face, she said.
Gebhardt, a daughter of Edinboro Fire Chief Thom Gebhardt, said she knows the
boy who shot Gillette. Earlier on Friday she said he told his classmates he
wanted to make the eighth-grade dance at Nick's Place memorable.
"No one took him seriously," she said and later added: "He wanted to go down in
history."
Gebhardt said the night was a blur. She heard the shots and thought they were
balloons popping.
Kids started running. Someone said a teacher had been shot.
Gillette planned the whole dance, she said. "We were congratulating him 15
minutes earlier."
Linda Gebhardt, wrapping a coat around her daughter's bare shoulders, said,
"This is Edinboro. This doesn't happen here.
""When will it end?," she asked.
Linda Gebhardt said the boy who allegedly shot the teacher is from a prominent
Edinboro family.
The boy had a lot of friends, said Shannon Gebhardt.
Outside James W. Parker Middle School, where Gillette taught general science,
sophomore Mike Marinkovich and his friends pulled up to break the news to
students returning to nearby General McLane High School from a class trip to
Toronto.
"He didn't deserve this. He was part of everything at that school," Marinkovich
said.
Marinkovich was president of the Parker Middle School student council when
Gillette was the adviser.
"This is at least as odd as Jonesboro," he said, referring to the Arkansas
school shooting spree that left one teacher and four students dead.
Marinkovich said he knew the boy who fired the shots, whom he identified as an
eighth-grader. Everyone knew him, he said.
"No one knew he had a gun. This is Edinboro. There are no guns in the high
school and this was the middle school," he said.
"This is nuts."
-----------------------------------------------------------
General McLane Teacher slain at dance
Publication date:04-25-98
A Parker Middle School eighth-grader allegedly shot a science teacher to death
and shot two students at the school's annual graduation dinner Friday night at
Nick's Place, just north of Edinboro.
The student, who Pennsylvania State Police spokesman Mark Zaleski identified as
a 13- or 14-year-old boy, fired the shots from a semiautomatic handgun just as
the party for about 240 students was breaking up.
Teacher John Gillette was killed, according to General McLane High School
Principal Donald Ickes.
At least one student said that prior to the dance the suspect had promised to
make the night "memorable."
Another student, eighth-grader Lucien Haury, said he was with a group of
classmates on the hall's back patio when a number of teachers acting as
chaperones for the dance told them to come inside because, "It's getting late."
As the students were filing into the main hall, they heard a gunshot and people
began talking and shouting that a teacher had been shot in the head, Lucien
said.
"I didn't see the shot but I heard it, and then another," Lucien said. "About
10 or 12 of us piled into a closet (for safety)."
Zaleski said the suspect was captured by Nick's Place owner James Strand in a
field behind the rental hall shortly after the shootings, which occurred about
9:50 p.m., Zaleski said. Police did not have a motive for the shooting.
"It seems we are now joining a growing list of communities that have had to
deal with this type of violence," he said.
Zaleski said two male students were shot and a female teacher was grazed with a
bullet, but that those injuries did not appear life-threatening. He did not
identify the victims, who were taken to Saint Vincent Health Center.
A Saint Vincent nursing supervisor said both victims, 14-year-old boys, were
treated and released.
The eighth-graders were dressed up for the annual dance, themed "I've Had the
Time of My Life." Girls in satin summer dresses and boys wearing ties huddled
outside the rental hall, the girls crying and covering up with sweaters and
shawls.
Parents arrived to pick up their children, and counselors and teachers stayed
inside to talk with remaining students and state police investigators.
Edinboro Fire Chief Thom Gebhardt said one of the injured students had a
gunshot wound in the abdomen, the other had a wound in the lower leg or foot,
he said.
Student Lucien said he was pinned beneath a friend in the pile of bodies in the
closet. When the friend started crying, Lucien, who is of Native American
ancestry, said he "started singing a Native American song to calm my friend
down."
Another student, Shane Rock, said he did not see the first shot fired but saw
the second shot. Rock said a student with a handgun shot the student standing
next to him in the foot.
Gebhardt's daughter was at the dance and the fire chief said it was difficult
for him to do his job when he heard what had happened.
"It's very tough," he said. "The first thing I wanted to do was make sure my
daughter was OK."
Gebhardt said the adults had kept the crowd under some semblance of control.
"I don't want to say it was chaos in there," he said. "The faculty and
chaperones had a good grip on the kids."
Most of the students, teachers and chaperones were gone by 11:15 p.m.
Gillette, who was killed, was the head football coach at Northwestern High
School for six years until 1979. He won the Erie County League championship in
1976.
Following his stint at Northwestern, he moved to General McLane High School as
an assistant. Gillette took over at General McLane in 1981 and ran that program
for two seasons.
McDowell High School head football coach Ron Rudler, a lifelong friend of John
Gillette, was devastated upon hearing the news late Friday night.
"I'm just totally shocked," Rudler said. "You can't begin to imagine something
like this happening. It's a tragedy. You just start reminiscing. We'd been
friends for 40 years. I'm his son Matt's godfather. I don't even know what to
do. It's mind boggling."
Rudler and Gillette grew up together in Albion, graduating in the Northwestern
High School class of 1967.
McDowell athletic director Dave Hanlon said, "I'm just sick. John was one of my
coaches in the Save-An-Eye Game in 1975. It's a tragic loss. This happens 1,000
miles away, but now it's here. He was such a vibrant person. It's a terrible
loss."
Gillette was a two-sport star in high school, on the football field and
throwing the discus for the track and field squad. He was the PIAA runnerup in
the discus twice.
He played one year of football at Edinboro State College, mainly concentrating
on the discus. He was the Presidents Athletic Conference champion in the event.
John and his wife, Debbie, were the parents of sons Matt and Brian and daughter
Abbie.
Editor's Note: Judith Harper and Jim Camp contributed to this story.
CrynTomato
Thanks to Joe for finding multiple articles about the 8th Grade Dance Shooter.
A couple snippets follow:
>Two 14-year-old boys were wounded by the gunfire and treated at Saint Vincent
Health Center. One had an abdominal wound, the other had a leg wound and both
were treated and released, said Jane Sicker, a nursing supervisor.>
I assume she's referred to as Nurse SICKER.....Cute!
>The victim was a married father of three children who once coached high school
football. In his youth he was a local high school football star and champion
discus thrower. <
Since it seems the teacher was an intended victim, I will be interested to see
how he figures into the boy's life.
CT
MaryHedman
>I assume she's referred to as Nurse SICKER.....Cute
A couple of other examples: Judge Lawless, gastroenterologist Dr. Lipschitz
MH
"You take the lies out of him, and he'll shrink to the size of your hat; you
take the malice out of him, and he'll disappear." Mark Twain
lynn mach
what is the latest condition of the teacher who was beaten by a student
with a hammer in yonkers , new york?