As always, my staff and I work to set the record straight and correct the lies Christian masters feel compelled to mouth off for their gods.

Cops Think Shooter Had Help By TED BRIDIS .c The Associated Press

WEST PADUCAH, Ky. (Dec. 3) - The suspect in the shootings of eight students in a high school prayer circle might not have acted alone, the sheriff suggested today.

McCracken County Sheriff Frank Augustus said he had no proof of any plot, only a gut instinct. He said it was unusual that the boy had brought so many guns with him unless he was expecting some help from another student.

''I don't believe this boy planned this out by himself,'' Augustus said. ''I believe there's someone else out there we need to talk to. I think it's another student,'' he said at a news conference.

''I may be totally out of whack here, but I believe there's someone else involved.''

Augustus said earlier that the suspect had smuggled spare ammunition, two rifles and two shotguns into school inside a quilt. The sheriff has said the boy couldn't explain the shootings.

The 17-year-old senior praised for preventing even more bloodshed at Heath High School takes little solace in his courage. Ben Strong wishes he had done more.

Eight students were shot, three fatally, before the gunman obeyed pleas from Strong to put down his pistol. The suspect was Strong's friend, a 14-year-old freshman identified by friends and others as Michael Carneal.

''Dad, I feel guilty,'' Strong told his father after Monday's shootings. ''I didn't react quickly enough.''

The Rev. Bobby Strong, glad his son was alive, answered: ''Benjamin, I believe you did all that you could do.''

Witnesses said Carneal, an unexceptional student with no known discipline problems, fired at least 10 shots from a handgun in the crowded school lobby minutes before classes started. The shots rang out just after about 35 students in an informal prayer group led by Strong said ''amen.''

Principal Bill Bond said the suspect told him he was sorry, and told a teacher who watched him until police arrived: ''It was like I was in a dream, and I woke up.''

Two students remained hospitalized early today. Funeral services for Kayce Steger, 15, Jessica James, 17, and Nicole Hadley, 14 - will be held Friday.

Ann and John Carneal told their minister, the Rev. Paul Donner, that they were stunned and couldn't explain what might have motivated their son to shoot the other students, who included some of his closest friends.

The family declined to talk with reporters. Carneal's sister, a senior, did not attend classes Tuesday.

''They really feel very deeply for the whole community and the other families,'' said Donner, who baptized Carneal as an infant at St. Paul's Lutheran Church.

Donner also said Carneal - described by some as a self-professed atheist and an occasional heckler of the prayer group - had been confirmed at church just last spring. Carneal, the minister said, is no atheist.

Carneal was charged as a juvenile with murder, attempted murder and burglary. Authorities said he stole the guns from a neighbor. He faces a hearing next Wednesday on whether the case should be moved to adult court.

The day after the shootings, counseling at the 600-student school took center stage. All but about 50 students returned to the same halls to mourn, lay flowers and silently pray again. Outside, a handwritten sign said, ''We forgive you, Mike.''

Counselors spent the morning talking with students, and teachers did their best to hold regular classes in the afternoon.

''There was very little being said. It was mainly quiet and kids praying,'' guidance counselor Allan Warford said. ''It's a very somber scene inside ... We're going to be looking at long-term counseling for some of these students.''

Some students wore white ribbons in honor of the fallen students. Others wept, hugged their classmates for support and wondered why their friends had died.

''This is going to go on for a long time,'' said Renelle Grubbs of the Kentucky Community Crisis Support Board in Frankfort, which sent counselors to the school. ''This is not going to be over in a day or two.''

Strong led Tuesday's prayer circle, just as he had 24 hours earlier.

''We had just a time of silence for everyone to reflect and pray,'' Strong said. ''I told them God's the only thing we can turn to in a moment like this.

''I could have ran over there and tackled him,'' he said. ''Somehow I didn't act quick enough. In a way, you think, I could have saved a few more people's lives if I had reacted more quickly.

''I guess after I got to thinking about it, besides getting myself shot, there wasn't a whole lot I could do that would have been better.''

AP-NY-12-03-97 1445EST

Copyright 1997 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Right Wing Watch Online Special Edition

People For the American Way's
Right Wing Watch Online, #1.14 December 6, 1997.

Following is a special edition of People For the American Way's Right Wing Watch Online, focusing on a series of right-wing statements in the wake of Monday's shootings in Paducah, Kentucky. Subscription and unsubscription information for Right Wing Watch Online is at the end of the document; subscriptions are free. Please forward to anyone you think might be interested.

==============

Monday's senseless deaths of three teenage children in Paducah, Kentucky, apparently at the hands of a disturbed classmate, have touched off a wave of sympathy from Americans of all walks of life. The grieving families deserve all our support. While most Americans have focused on the tragedy itself, the right wing has sought to exploit the event for political gain.

The Right's rhetoric has exploited the tragedy in two ways. First, some leaders have sought to describe the victims of the crime as martyrs for the cause of religious liberty, children who died in defense of organized prayer in the public schools. Second, some are arguing that the shootings are evidence of the need for prayer in the schools in order to repair the frayed fabric of American society. Tellingly, even though the apparent attacker was reportedly in possession of multiple firearms, the availability of guns seems to play no role in the right wing's interpretation of events.

The Right's motivation in advancing these lines of argument is plain: in its effort to build support for its Christian Nation Amendment to the Constitution -- what it calls the Religious Freedom Amendment -- movement leaders seek to portray Christians as victims of rampant persecution in America. Pat Robertson has compared this 1990s treatment of Christians in America to the situation of Jews during the Holocaust, for example.

Following are several examples of the Right's use of the tragedy:

• Heidi Stirrup, the Christian Coalition's Washington DC spokesperson, December 4, two days after the shooting: "Here is a situation where children -- fifteen, sixteen year old school children -- in their own student-led way, were praying, and two [sic] of them lost their lives over it. It is a devastating situation, and we are going to do all that we can to make sure that people’s rights to practice their religion, and free expression of religion, are going to be upheld."

• Gwen Daye Richardson, who runs a political action committee that supports conservative African Americans, December 6 in USA Today: "The massacre this week of three Kentucky high school students who had just finished their weekly prayer circle is symbolic of a larger trend which has grown during the past decade: attacks on Christians who publicly acknowledge their faith, and the removal of all references to a higher power from the public arena. The trend is most pronounced in the educational arena, but has extended to other environments as well...[T]he church state separators have not been content to stop with the removal of religion from government. Their goal is to remove religion, particularly any positive images of spirituality, from the culture entirely."

• Gary Bauer, of the Family Research Council, December 3, the day after the shooting: "Details are sketchy, and it's too early to speculate about the motive, although some reports indicate that the 14-year old shooter had a grudge against the prayer group. Some reports say he was an avowed atheist and a devotee of hard metal music. But regardless of the reason, the shooting shows us once again, in painfully tragic terms, the results of the breakdown in reliable standards of right and wrong. For 30 years, religion and moral values have been squeezed out of the public square."

• An aide to Alabama Member of Congress Robert Aderholt, quoted December 3, the day after the shooting: "The congressman believes that the decline of values shown in our schools, including the shootings and so forth, is a direct result of taking religion out of schools. The Constitution allows for freedom of, not freedom from, religion. And so I'm sure that student wasn't compelled to pray."

  People For the American Way, 2000 M Street #400 Washington, DC 20036, (202) 467-4999, http://pfaw.org, pfaw@pfaw.org

  ---

  Alan Hess:
  The latest asshole teenager to shoot up a high school did so after a prayer meeting. One can only hope that nobody at that prayer meeting was wishing any of his or her fellow students dead for some real or perceived slight, or that person may be overcome with guilt, as in "what if god chose to answer my wish, and that got everyone hurt and killed?"

  Of course, the asshole shooter should be drawn and quartered following conviction. He made the choice to shoot.

  Don Martin:
  I was concerned that he might have been a deranged atheist taking arms against a violation of the separation of church and state in his high school. It turns out to be more ordinary and a great deal more sad, according to stuff on last night's NBC News.

  The guy was undersized and "talked funny", apparently, and got teased for these sins by the bigger, straighter-talking members of the HS football team.

  The prayer meeting was led by those bigger, straighter-talking members of the HS football team, and the gimp-tongued shrimp was trying to get back at them.

  I noted with interest that the dead were all girls: drawing a bow at a venture, I would speculate that the girls were both the ones the shooter wanted the attention of and the ones who laughed the loudest when the bigger, straighter-talking members of the HS football team did the teasing.

  The "hero of the day", the guy who took the gun away from the shooter, leader of the prayer meeting, and captain of the football team, stated on-camera that the teasing "was just friendly joshing." Apparently, the gimp-tongued shrimp didn't appreciate its basic friendliness.

  Karl Schneider:
  Funny, none of the victims friends/families have commented on the apparent inability of the deity they were praying to, to give them a little assistance. If none had died, you can bet your sweet bippy they'd have all been 'thanking gawd' for it.

  ---

  This was published in the Tulsa World yesterday (Dec 29).

  
  Editor
  Tulsa World
  318 Main Mall
  Tulsa, OK 74103

  Dear Editor:

  Reader Bill Kumpe expressed some outrage (People's Voice, Dec. 14) for the 'lack of publicity' on the High School killings in Paducah, apparenty placing the blame for both the massacre and his perceived suppression of coverage on 'anti-Christian bias'.

  I have also noticed a paucity of comments concerning the fact that this tragedy occurred during an activity specifically addressed by the presumed object of their faith, Jesus, in Matthew 6:5.

  It isn't my intention to make any conclusions about Mr. Kumpe's take on Scripture, but I have met many people who are much more adept at thumping Bibles than at reading them.

  Sincerely,

  Karl Schneider

  ---

  
  From: Cgastbook <Cgastbook@aol.com>
  Date: Sat, 3 Jan 1998 18:01:40 EST
  Subject: [Atheist] re: AANEWS for January 3, 1998
  Organization: AOL (http://www.aol.com)
  X-Mailer: Inet_Mail_Out (IMOv11)
  Sender: owner-aanews@listserv.atheists.org
  Reply-To: cg@atheists.org

  IS THERE A PROBLEM IN PADUCAH? COMMUNITY ACTIVIST CHARGES NEGLIGENCE IN HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTING SPREE

  A self-described community activist is charging that officials in Paducah, Kentucky are "wholly and directly" responsible for events which may have resulted in a shooting spree which killed three and injured five other students at Heath High School on Monday, December 1, 1997.

  A 14-year old youth identified as Michael Carneal has been charged in that incident. Early media reports identified Carneal as an "atheist" with possible ties to other students who heckled a Christian prayer group that assembled in the high school lobby each day prior to class. It quickly became evident, however, that Carneal was neither an atheist nor a "nonbeliever," and his family's Lutheran minister said that the shooting "was the act of a sinful Christian."

  For much of America's freethought community, the Paducah story has faded now that the "atheist connection" is no longer media fodder. Despite efforts by religious groups to capitalize on the tragedy by suggesting that Carneal, and the entire incident, was somehow symptomatic of moral decline in public schools, the 14 year old has been portrayed as a bright but troubled youth whose motivations remain unclear.

  End of story.

  But Georgia-based atheist and community activist Charles Schrader says, "Not so fast!" Schrader, a 60-year old retired Marine ("I fear no sonofabitch on this planet") has developed a reputation as a regional spokesman on behalf of civil liberties and individual rights. He's challenged closed meetings of government bodies, and spoken on in defense of public access at such events.

  And he's taking on his hometown of Paducah, Kentucky.

  For Charles Schrader, there is a stench of official negligence surrounding the Heath High School tragedy involving school board officials, teachers, school administrators, the high school principal, and possible even the McCracken County District Attorney's Office. And his rendition of events before and after the shooting differ significantly from what Americans have been reading and seeing in the mass media. Schrader claims that important information is being ignored, even suppressed; and on January 15, he intends to go before the McCracken County School Board to voice his complains. The Board has thus far refused Schrader's request to speak, and the community activist says that, if necessary, he will take his case to the news media.

  Schrader's information comes from "sources" that he will not specifically identify; in a conversation with this writer and American Atheists President Ellen Johnson, however, he agreed that he would turn over both his sources and his full information about conditions at Heath High School to reporters or news teams from any major national media that took an interest in the case. "There are no secrets in Paducah," Schrader declared, defending his present reticence about identifying the source of his information.

  And the information is, potentially, damaging to public officials. Among Schrader's allegations:

  * A climate of fear and intimidation was rampant at Heath High School in the days leading up to the shooting. "Christian athletes were loose in the halls," and students were required to pass through what Schrader describes as a "gauntlet" of prayer warriors exhorting their fellows to join the Agape prayer circle, or wear wrist bracelets now popular with religious youth inscribed with the legend "What Would Jesus Say?" The Agape group -- a recognized student organization at Heath High School -- was "proselytizing and running amok," and that "it was decided by unnamed officials in the school to ignore the contentious ongoing confrontations... between the believers, non believers and those students who felt it wasn't the proper place for church and all they wanted was an education and to get to their lockers without being accosted."

  * Students weren't the only people gathering in the pre-class prayer circle which formed each morning in the lobby of Heath High School. Teachers were present, charges Schrader -- and maybe school principal Bill Bond. Schrader adds that this presence had the effect of encouraging the prayer group in its proselytizing efforts.

  * Other teachers did complain about the proselytizing, says Schrader, with whom "the prayer thing was a contentious issue." Some reportedly told principal Bill Bond, "We're setting ourselves up for a confrontation that will be difficult to explain to lawyers, parents and the school board." One suggestion was to comply with the Equal Access law, and move the Christian athletes and other Agape members to a room away from the lobby where they would not be blocking traffic. Schrader told us that "some students entering the lobby at Heath High School before classes would be blocked by the assembled members of the prayer group and had to move around them." Would any other student group -- say, a hypothetical group of Student Atheists -- be accorded the privilege of assembling in the lobby of the school during a "high traffic" time period?

  * Immediately after the shooting, charges Schrader, as the spotlight of media attention turned on Paducah and Heath High School, Mr. Bond purportedly remarked that in any subsequent assessment of the tragic events of Monday, December 1, "I am not going to be perceived as a Christian basher..."

  * "Local Christian influences (in Paducah) are felt up and down the chain of command in the school system..."

  * School officials blatantly violated the Equal Access Act, charges Schrader, by giving too much latitude to the Agape group, and ignoring complaints. Schrader adds that such complaints were lodged by students who were "sick and tired of the proselytizing" by the Christian athletes in particular; he charges Bond with "stonewalling" information which includes written complaints and/or a written record of such complaints. In a statement to the Henry Herald newspaper on December 10, 1997, Schrader wrote: "I question why these students were permitted to hold their prayers in the main entrance of the school making it difficult for anyone who enters to avoid their prayer meeting in progress causing or forcing a confrontation with the praying students."

  Principal Bond disputes any description of the school, however, as resembling a confrontational zone where "prayer warrior" students were harassing their classmates; he also contradicts the early media reports which said that Carneal and a group of "nonbelievers" were involved in confrontations with Agape. On December 3, 1997, CNN reported: "Bond said he never saw Carneal 'or any other child heckling the prayer group. I never saw that occur. To my knowledge he (Carneal) was not a member of any organized group other than the band,' the principal said."

  A Different Perspective on Michael Carneal

  Michael Carneal, the 14 year old charged in the shootings who was prematurely identified as an "atheist" (and possibly even part of a group of "nonbelievers" who supposedly confronted the prayer circle), is the son of a local attorney; his family worships at St. Paul's Lutheran Church. Media accounts which discuss Carneal, and the sequence of events leading up to and including December 1, report that Carneal maintained a peculiar friendship with Ben Strong, age 17, who ironically was the leader of the Agape prayer group and a member of the football team. Carneal supposedly warned Strong and others to avoid joining in the prayer activities on that fateful Monday morning.

  "Don't come because I'm going to do something," Strong quoted Carneal as saying. Strong then jokingly responded, "I'll beat you up if you do."

  "We were just joking around because we always joke like that," he told CNN following the shooting.

  Schrader minimizes the reports of friendship between Carneal and Strong, however. Any warning to Strong, insists Schrader, was an effort to impress the larger and older boy. He also disputes the friendly tone of the "I'll beat you up..." remark which Strong says he made to Michael Carneal.

  "I find it interesting," says Schrader, "that the student prayer leader allegedly admitted that after he learned the shooter would confront the prayer meeting he in turn threatened the student (Carneal) with, 'I'll beat you up if you do.' It doesn't escape us (that) the 'hero' prayer leader is a 17-year old strapping football player and son of a minister speaking to a small in stature 14-year old who was obviously fearful, confused and took exception to the group leader holding forth with a sectarian event he was unable to avoid..."

  One problem not addressed by Schrader or, indeed, just about any other explanation for the shootings involves the targets. Of the 30 to 35 students involved in the Monday morning prayer gathering in the lobby, eight we hit by the gunfire. Three girls were killed, and five other students -- three of them girls -- wounded. Carneal has been described as calmly putting on ear plugs, and firing "randomly" into the crowd with a .22 caliber semi-automatic pistol which, moments before, he had removed from a back pack.

  Ben Strong told CNN that "he worried about what Carneal had said but did not tell any adults (about the warning) because he felt it would only agitate Carneal more if there were teachers present at the prayer meeting..." Schrader says he does not have definitive information as to whether or not principal Bill Bond and/or teachers were present on Monday, December 1; but Mr. Schrader indicates that "according to his sources," school personnel were present and active in other Agape gatherings in the school lobby.

  CNN added in a December 2, 1997 dispatch that "Carneal intended to shoot someone and knew what he was doing, Strong said, 'but when he saw he had shot one of his best friends, he saw it wasn't a prank.'"

  Nagging questions remain, however, concerning the discrepancies between many media accounts and Mr. Schrader's claims. Six of the eight victims were girls; the targets, if selected deliberately or as part of a pattern by Michael Carneal, were not the hulking "Christian athletes" said to forming gauntlets in the hallways of Heath High School. And there is a problem of demonstrating causal links between Carneal's alleged actions, and the atmosphere which may have existed at the school. A permissive atmosphere where student "prayer warriors" were given special latitude and perhaps even encouragement by negligent officials may not have "caused" Carneal's actions. If anything, Carneal's behavior remains an enigma, and officials have yet to find any conclusive explanation for why he opened fire on his fellow students. Even so, Schrader's charges pertaining the atmosphere at Heath High School, have serious implications.

  A Call For An Investigation

  Charles Schrader had hoped to address the McCracken County School Board during its January 15, 1998 meeting and had formally requested the opportunity to do so in a faxed communication to Larry Wilson, Chairman of the Board which was sent on December 15, 1997. He insists that school board authorities, and Heath High School Principal Bill Bond "are on the spot," if their alleged role in violating portions of the federal Equal Access act or other regulations concerning religious activities in public schools are brought to light. Only a full investigation, says Schrader, can do that.

  New Developments ... And New Revelations

  Charles Schrader now reports that "at least two" of the victims' families have retained legal counsel "to explore a civil action," though he does not say what the basis of that action might be. And in addition to his suggestion that principal Bill Bond and school board authorities are deliberately sitting on complaints lodged either verbally or in writing (or both) against the prayer group for blocking access, harassment and other coercive tactics, he also alludes to an equally dark motivation concerning the whereabouts of Michael Carneal. Media sources in Paducah reported, as of Thursday, that "Carneal remains incarcerated at a juvenile detention facility in the central part of the state." Indeed, Carneal's present status is a bit of a mystery, and no statements have been reported from the 14-year old, except those passed on by law enforcement authorities, such as Sheriff Frank Augustus. As reported earlier in aanews, it was Augustus who "had a gut feeling" that others were involved with Michael Carneal; he cited the fact that Carneal had smuggled four other guns besides the .22 caliber pistol into school, along with over 200 rounds of ammunition. "I don't believe this boy planned this out by himself," Augustus told reporters on December 5, well at the start of a comprehensive investigation into Carneal .

  Augustus also disputes Commonwealth Attorney Timothy Kaltenbach's suggestion that Carneal may have been motivated by an scene in the movie "The Basketball Diaries." Carneal allegedly disclosed, under questioning, that he had seen the film, where a character played by Leonardo DiCaprio has a dream sequence where he breaks down a door with a religious symbol and begins shooting fellow students at a Catholic school. Carneal "merely mentioned the scene," reported CNN.

  For Charles Schrader, the possible lack of access to Carneal -- and the fact that what access does exist seems to be tightly controlled -- suggests the possibility of certain information being concealed, ignored or filtered. Those with a stake in the Carneal case, including the County District Attorney, "don't want Carneal talking" about the climate in Heath High School, or the activities of the "Christian athletes" and other members of the prayer circle. Schrader says that he has knowledge of, and will allege, that "the board of education, superintendent of schools, principal, faculty and staff of Heath High School knew of the confrontations coming out of the proselytizing AGAPE club, had prior knowledge alleged by complaints posted to school authorities, and did nothing about it."

  There is also a report published in Thursday's edition of the Paducah Sun newspaper that the FBI has been called in to examine Michael Carneal's home computer "for evidence that might tell local investigators what motivated the Heath High School shooting rampage and to determine if anyone was involved." According to the story, Sheriff Augustus said that a "preliminary review" of the computer's contents "failed to uncover any documents or writings related to the Dec. 1 shooting."

  Augustus adds that he is requesting federal help in an effort to recover erased files or messages; he repeated his claim that he "believes more people were involved" with Carneal prior to the shooting.

  Schrader's Next Step...

  While some might challenge Mr. Schrader's allegations, it is clear that members of the McCracken School Board do not wish him to address that, or any other public meeting, and raise questions about the climate at Heath High School prior to December 1. It is also obvious that on an official level, the investigative focus of Sheriff Augustus involve "hunches" and "gut feelings" that Carneal's actions have to do with a yet-to-be-discovered group of some kind. There is no indication that at the official level, police or school authorities are looking into school policies for any explanation of the December 1 events.

  Others might disagree with Schrader's assertion that he holds officials at Heath, and on the County School Board, "directly responsible" for the tragedy on December 1. But was there a climate of intimidation fostered by a malevolent combination of "prayer warrior" exuberance and official neglect --even encouragement -- that led at least some students at Heath High School to feel imposed upon, harassed and even victimized? Did principal Bond or other school officials turn a blind eye to written or verbal complaints? Those remain as serious charges; and while they may not exonerate the actions of a lone shooter, they certainly can not be ignored or suppressed in the hopes that the tragedy of December 1, 1997 will pass into history, and with it the memories of dead and wounded youngsters.