Shortly afterward, several loud pops punctuated the students’ chatter. “Seniors talking smack in the hallways about what they will do after graduation, others talking about summer vacations with friends and family, others making plans to meet up after school.” “There were no signs of danger, no threats, everyone going about their day,” Welch said. With the semester nearing its end, excitement filled the air. That afternoon, Welch recalls, she was in a history class in Building C, preparing for a quiz and chatting about summer plans with her classmates. It’s a pain that may affect them for years to come, she said.Īt first, she thought the shots she heard were seniors popping balloons “I can feel the pain the students feel from losing a classmate,” said Welch, speaking of the Uvalde shooting. The women said that every massacre at a school, like the recent one in Uvalde, Texas, brings back harrowing memories. “I can’t believe it’s still happening, 30 years later,” Vanartsdalen said. Vanartsdalen and Welch never imagined so many other school shootings would follow. The two women described a drawn-out day of chaos, terror and questions that still haunt them three decades later.īack then, attacks on schools were largely unheard of. From The Sacramento BeeĬNN spoke to Welch and Lynda Vanartsdalen, a former Lindhurst teacher who also survived the shooting. The shooting at Lindhurst High School - an almost unheard of occurrence at the time - made national headlines. The town of about 10,000 north of Sacramento was forever changed.Īuthorities described the shooter, Eric Houston, then 20, as a Lindhurst High dropout who’d failed to graduate from the school three years earlier and who blamed his former history teacher, Robert Brens, for giving him a failing grade. The vaguely familiar young man stalked the halls, gunning down a teacher, shooting students in classrooms and holding dozens of others hostage.īy the time the eight-hour siege was over, three students and a teacher were dead, and 10 people were wounded, court documents show. Then, suddenly, the school erupted in chaos. Lindhurst High School was abuzz with anticipation – it was the day before the prom. It was – seven years before Columbine, before the days of active shooter drills, before anyone imagined a gunman entering a school and harming students would become a common occurrence. 22-caliber rifle slung over his back and a band of ammunition on a belt. Welch was a high school sophomore in Olivehurst, California, when a former student entered her school on a Friday afternoon with a 12-gauge shotgun in one hand, a. The piercing screams, echoing through the building.
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