Mourning a Slain High School Student Hostage

"A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance" (Ecclesiastes 3:4)

A gunman took a class hostage Wednesday afternoon at Platte Canyon High School, in Bailey, southwest of Denver. Wanted to take only girls hostage, Duane Morrison (aged 53) forced the male students to leave the classroom. He held as many as six girls hostage and had released four, one at a time.

After a 3-hour standoff, Morrison fatally shot 16-year-old Emily Keyes and then killed himself before police stormed the classroom.

The community is in mourning. Emily is remembered as "a great kid", "a friendly, sweet girl" who "always welcomed people." She worked in a cafe three or four days a week when not busy with volleyball or speech and debate.

Morrison got into the High School by carrying a backpack and wearing a hooded sweatshirt to look like a student. Bailey is not far from Columbine, where two students killed 12 classmates and a teacher before killing themselves in 1999. What sad stories!

Copyright © 2005-2006 Winnis Chiang, Parenting ABC