Bend reopens schools, except Silver Rail, after the shooting
Classes resume with more police and counselors while the FBI and local police examine the 16-year-old shooter's devices. No motive has been given.
Schools in Bend, a city in central Oregon, reopen Wednesday, six days after a 16-year-old killed a teacher and three children at Silver Rail Elementary.
Silver Rail remains closed, with no date to return. The other schools have more counselors, and Bend police will put an officer at each campus at the start and end of the school day this week, spokeswoman Sheila Miller said. Classes begin with early dismissal.
The dead are Megan Lambert, a 25-year-old teacher, and three students ages 5, 8 and 11. A 54-year-old school aide underwent surgery and is improving. A 7-year-old remains in critical condition.
The investigation
Local police and the FBI are examining computers and other devices taken from the shooter's home. He was a former student at the school. There is no known motive. His parents are cooperating with investigators, and the Deschutes County prosecutor's office calls the case "active" without saying whether the mother will face charges.
The 12-gauge pump-action shotgun he used was bought by his mother, a police official said. How it ended up in the teenager's hands is under investigation.
The shooter died inside the building, shot by a parent who followed him in with a legally purchased handgun of his own.
What slowed him and what was missing
The school had locked doors, a secure vestibule and a fence. Nothing prevented entry, but everything slowed it, Superintendent Steve Cook said. The teenager shot at the glass of the double doors to get through. Officers arrived within three minutes.
Silver Rail has a part-time school resource officer from the Bend police, who splits time among seven schools. That day the officer was at another one.
Now some parents want more. Trey Heiss, the father of a Silver Rail student, started a petition with more than 1 500 signatures for an officer at each of the district's roughly 30 schools. The school board meets again Nov. 10.
