Springfield Students Return to School, Attend 2nd Funeral

Hundreds of students returned to school Tuesday for the first time since last week’s shooting rampage, gathering outside to sing “Amazing Grace” and read the names of the two students killed and 22 injured.

Thurston High School cut the day short so students could attend the funeral of 17-year-old Mikael Nickolauson, who was buried with military honors because he had signed up for the National Guard three days before he was slain. The other student killed, 16-year-old Ben Walker, was buried Monday.

Inside the cafeteria where 15-year-old Kipland P. Kinkel allegedly opened fire, many students went back to where they were sitting when the shooting started for a free breakfast of muffins and juice. Several who couldn’t bear to go back were allowed to eat in an adjacent courtyard outside.

Walking past walls where bullet holes had been patched and painted over, about 100 students went straight to special “safe rooms” where they could be alone or talk to counselors.

“I’m kind of scared in a way,” said Jessica King, 16. “It’s going to be a tear-jerker for a lot of people. Everyone is going to come together today.”

Principal Larry Bentz said nearly all of the 1,400 students, including many of the injured, showed up. Teachers were instructed to let the students dictate how the day would proceed. In a typing class, for example, those in the class simply tapped out their feelings.

The desks of the dead and critically wounded were left empty and counselors were available in every class. Some counselors brought dogs for students to pet as a way to break the tension.

Students were later taken by the busload to Nickolauson’s funeral, where more than 900 people packed the Eugene Christian Fellowship to remember him as a quiet boy who loved computers and board games, and dreamed of a job as a systems analyst in the military.

“It hurts so deep it stabs at the very heart of our being,” said the Rev. Otis Harden. “Yesterday is terrible. Today is terrible. Tomorrow is another day.”