School shooting turns unwanted attention to Lindhurst

As years pass, memories will never be completely erased and the questions will never completely stop, but staff at Lindhurst High School make it a point to keep a healthy perspective.

It’s been nearly 15 years since Eric Houston - at the time a former student at the school in Olivehurst - walked on to the campus May 1, 1992, and began shooting. He held 80 students hostage for several hours before finally surrendering to police.

At the end - three students, Beamon Hill, Judy Davis, Jason White, and one teacher, Robert Brens - were dead, and 10 others wounded.

“What’s unfortunate more than anything, is we’ve moved past that, but it’s still how Lindhurst is defined,” Bob Eckardt, principal for more than a year, explained Monday after the Virginia Tech shooting in which 33 people were killed.

Though Eckardt wasn’t at the high school when the Lindhurst incident happened in 1992, he followed the coverage and has seen, in just his last two years at the school, how much the school is known for the incident.

“It is not what Lindhurst High School is, it is something that happened at Lindhurst High School,” he said.

“Eric Houston hurt a lot of people and took a lot from us, but we are moving on, and no, we don’t go locking down the school every time a shooting happens. We’re not at DEFCON 4 out here.”

When a school shooting like Monday’s incident happens, the close-knit high school staff breathe a collective sigh and prepare for the questions and rehashing of that fateful day.

It’s an unfortunate reality that the school will never stop dealing with the past. When Houston, who currently is awaiting execution on San Quentin State Prison’s death row, makes the news or someone shoots at a school, officials, teachers and other staff know the inevitable stories will appear in the media, and students ask questions about what happened, Eckardt said.

Some were not even born when Houston attacked, and others were barely in kindergarten. So how do those still living with the losses of that fateful day answer questions but also move on in a healthy manner?

“If they ask questions, we are always honest and we never make light of it; we’re always respectful, but we really have moved on,” Eckardt explained.

In fact, Eckardt asked the half-dozen teachers who were on campus the day of the shooting if they would comment to the Appeal-Democrat on Monday, and most said they preferred not to - not because it would make them emotional or upset - but because they didn’t feel it related to the college shooting, and that that they had nothing to add other than they could understand what the people and community must be going through.

“All of our hearts go out to everyone involved in the Virginia Tech shooting; but the bottom line is, that incident does not impact us or our students; we have moved forward and will continue to do just that,” Eckardt said.

Appeal-Democrat reporter Kymm Mann can be reached at 749-4707 or kmann@appealdemocrat.com