My (distant) connection to the Regina hostage situation is that one of my high-school classmates, Cherie Robbins (last name Larochelle back in the day) has a son attending that school. She and her son, Nat, are quoted in this article from The Leader Post.
Some bits and pieces from the CBC website:
Another article in The National Post.Hostage-taking at Regina school ends safely, former student arrested Principal and SWAT team members tackle youth armed with air pistol
Last Updated: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 9:15 PM CT
A Regina high school was the scene of a hostage-taking Tuesday.
A 16-year-old male was taken into custody after police converged on Luther College High School in Regina, where a former student held a pastor at gunpoint in front of a terrified assembly of students who had gathered for chapel service.
The incident began around 10:15 a.m. Tuesday, Trista Gargol, a student at the independent school in Regina's west end, told CBC News.
About 300 students were in the gym for the regular religious service.
Gargol said a youth approached the pastor leading the service and handed him a three-page letter, demanding that it be read or he would shoot him.
School officials confirmed the suspect is a former student who was expelled in 2007.
As the pastor read the letter, teachers were able to escort some of the students to safety. About 60 students could not leave.
Mark Anderson, the school principal, later told reporters he decided to take action after determining the threat could be managed.
"During the course of events, I and one or two other teachers were creeping closer to the suspect," Anderson said. "Eventually at one point I was able to get close enough that I could see that it was not the kind of firearm I thought it was. It was indeed less serious than that, so I took that opportunity to try to take the firearm away from him, or the pellet gun away from him or whatever it was."
"We wrestled over it for a couple minutes or a couple seconds, sorry, and at that point the SWAT team came in and took control of the situation and handled it very well."
By 11 a.m., police reported they had a suspect in custody and were escorting the remaining students to a safe area, including a nearby church.
Jennifer Arends, a spokesperson for the school, told CBC News that all students were safe, and by the early afternoon they were being reunited with parents and sent home.
No doubt there will be some kids (and parents!) having nightmares for a while to come but the finale was not nearly as disastrous as it could have been. Kudos to the principal and the other adults for their couragous actions and hopefully that young man gets help, he obviously needs it. And best wishes to my friend Cherie and her family.
There is another scary side to this story ... my childhood friends and class-mates now have children of their own who are already in high school!!! It wasn't very long ago that WE were the kids running around the school hallways, terrorizing Mr. Fleck the bus driver and throwing a pair of girls panties around the school bus (true story!)
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