US nightmare hours in a school
student takes 23 hostages and kills himself

MARINETTE (Wisconsin) – The nightmare of the Columbine massacre has thickened for the umpteenth time, and for five long hours, over the United States. A high school student armed with a gun held 23 students and a teacher hostage in a Wisconsin school, before killing himself just before the police raid. He was 15 years old. The officers entered the school after hearing three gunshots. None of the hostages were injured.

According to the first stories of the hostages, the student appeared depressed and did not seem to have any intention of hurting. In the school they were watching a movie when the boy took out the weapon and opened fire on the projector. Then, he fired another shot. Campbell and the other boys tried to keep him calm by talking about hunting and fishing. Five of the 23 hostages were released 20 minutes before the police raided the class after asking to go to the bathroom. The other 18 students and the teacher, who mediated between the high school and the authorities, were released only after the agents intervened.

In the school building the police found a 22-caliber rifle and a 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol, with their respective cases. In American schools, vigilance was strengthened just after the 1999 massacre at the Columbine High School in Colorado, in which two students killed 12 companions and wounded another 21 before taking their own lives.
(November 30, 2010)