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A child's death, A mother's pain


Associated Press/Karie Hamilton

Alice Fritz, mother of Moses Lake shooting victim Arnold Fritz, dries her tears Sept. 24, 1997, as she and her husband, Phillip, talk to reporters after hearing the guilty verdict in the Barry Loukaitis murder trial in Seattle.

By Kristin Alexander and Colleen Pohlig
Tri-City Herald and Yakima Herald-Republic

Alice Fritz's life changed forever three years ago today, when Barry Loukaitis opened fire in a Moses Lake classroom.

Since the death of her son, Arnie, and two other people that day, Fritz has been haunted by questions about Loukaitis, then 14. Why was he teased unmercifully, and why did his cries for help go unanswered?

"No one could have saved Arnie," she said, "without saving Barry first."

If there is one message that can be gleaned from her anguish, it is to other parents: "Get involved."

Know what school policies are, and know what's going on with your kids.

"It's all too easy for parents to drop their children off at kindergarten, then pick them up in the 12th grade and wonder what happened in between," said Ronald Stephens, director of the National School Safety Center at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif.

Parents must talk to their children daily to find out what happens at school and regularly visit teachers and principals, Stephens said.

"Typically, youngsters don't just come onto a campus and start pulling the trigger of a gun. There have been warning signs," Stephens said. "But it does take someone who knows the student, who knows them by name, someone who is monitoring what's going on."

A father's challenge

For 14-year-old Dennis Langton of Yakima, having his father involved with his teachers and principal this year has made a difference.

A year ago, school was a joke to Dennis. An example of his school day went something like this: He'd wake up late, rally some buddies together and walk over to a department store to steal a few BB guns. Then they would go to the Yakima Greenway to shoot at rabbits in the grass and at trucks on Interstate 82.

This year, the eighth-grader at Wilson Middle School in Yakima makes it to class every day, earns B's and C's and said he's trying to stay out of trouble. He wants his father's approval and said he doesn't think getting in trouble is "as exciting as it used to be."

Dennis' father, Ron, is showing interest in his son's education now and immediately comes to Wilson if there's a problem, said assistant principal Alan Krauss, who once taught Ron in middle school.

"In my heart of hearts, I know Ron truly wants a better life for Dennis," Krauss said. "But does Ron have the parenting skills to be able to give him that? I don't know.

"One positive piece is that Ron has an education in hard life, and he tells his son, 'Look, these are the choices I made, and look how I turned out.' "

Ron wants to see his son, the second-oldest of six, graduate from high school. That would make Dennis the first in his family to earn a diploma. Eventually, Ron would like to see his son attend a trade school.

"I just want him to be better than me, better than his dad," said Ron, who has had his share of run-ins with the law, ranging from burglary to drug convictions. "I want him to deal with the cards life gives him better than I've dealt with mine."

But, for Dennis, keeping an unblemished school record isn't going to be easy. Two months ago, his streak of good behavior ended when he broke a kid's nose in class who kept calling him "white trash." Both were suspended for a day-and-a-half.

"I hadn't gotten in trouble for three months, and I was holding everything in for that long, but the kid kept saying it and my dad says you only got four cheeks to turn and after that, you got to take 'em out," Dennis said.

Kids like Dennis - angry, confused, prone to violence -are on the rise in schools across the country.

With the recent school shootings in Moses Lake, Oregon, Kentucky and Arkansas, parents and educators worry the unspeakable could happen in their child's school. The American Psychological Association estimates 270 guns go to American schools every day.

With a statistic like that, experts say parents and educators have reason for concern, but they can lessen the chances of a tragedy occurring at their children's schools by working together.

Schools and parents, they say, can no longer assume the other is doing an adequate job of teaching youngsters to solve problems nonviolently.

Parents as partners

Educators can only do so much to stem violence in schools. The rest is up to parents and community.

"Parent involvement is the key to a lot of success in a child's life," said Steve Nielsen, executive director of the Washington State School Directors Association.

Issues like youth violence are best addressed by the entire community, he said. Schools should be clearinghouses, putting parents in touch with other concerned individuals or advocacy groups, Nielsen added.

Being part of a parent-teacher group is a start but may not be enough, said Merrill Oaks, an education professor at Washington State University. He said parents should not be afraid to ask teachers and principals how to get involved. Parents may monitor halls or parking lots, help in the office, tutor or help raise money.

Peter Sheras, a clinical psychologist in Virginia who works with schools nationwide to prevent youth violence, said parents who work full time can get involved by joining parent-teacher groups, coaching sports teams and organizing fund-raisers to buy school safety equipment, such as surveillance cameras or name badges.

"They should also ask many questions of their schools to make sure things are in place in case there is a crisis," he said. Important questions to ask include whether the school has a crisis plan, the names of school contacts for parents if their child is being bullied or has other problems, and what programs are in place to teach students to resolve conflicts peaceably.

"I think parents need to go in with a sense of partnership with the school," Sheras said. "Schools are squeamish about demanding parents who are always complaining, and they're more than happy when parents say they want to work with the schools."

Schools: in denial or in need?

School officials and national statistics continue to say schools are the safest places for kids. And, in fact, the number of violent deaths in American schools has declined slightly since 1992.

But experts in preventing violence and even some school officials insist schools still are not prepared for a crisis, or equipped to teach students how to stop violence from occurring.

Scott Poland, a school district psychologist in Houston, headed a national crisis team that responded to the shootings in 1997 in Paducah, Ken., and in 1998 in Jonesboro, Ark. In Paducah, a 14-year-old boy shot and killed three students and wounded five; in Jonesboro, an 11-year-old and a 13-year-old shot and killed four students and one teacher and wounded 10 others.

From what he learned at both bloody scenes, Poland said schools must do two things: train teachers to swiftly handle a school crisis, and make safety a prime focus in the classroom.

But first, he said, they must admit they can be the next targets for a crisis.

"Part of the problem is getting schools to recognize that these schools could be them," he said, referring to Paducah and Jonesboro.

"Academic scores are the only things schools are held accountable for," he said. "Everybody asks where the scores are, but nobody asks where the safety plan is.

Poland said every school should take 30 minutes a day to teach how to handle anger peaceably and to accept diverse cultures and opinions.

Keith Mars, Washington delegate of the National Association of School Psychologists, said schools must provide help for troubled students.

"Part of making schools safe is providing the proper support for kids who may be struggling or feeling rejected or isolated," Mars said. "Schools are working hard to do that, but funding is limited."

Larry Petry, superintendent of the Yakima School District, said that because there is so little funding for safety, the district relies on a partnership with the community to boost safety in schools.

"At this point, we feel kids are safer in our schools than they are out on the streets," he said. "And it's taken working with the staff and the community to design policies and procedures, as well as the willingness to follow through on those ... so that we can be ready, just in case."

Two years after the Moses Lake shootings, a 16-year-old in Springfield, Ore., shot and killed two students and wounded 22 others in the Thurston High School cafeteria.

For Alice Fritz, it was a recurring nightmare of pain and regret. If you can reach out to a child, she advises parents, do it before it's too late.

"We feel so guilty about Springfield," she said. "If we had spoken up sooner, maybe it wouldn't have happened.

"We had been so quiet about sharing what had happened with Barry. It didn't occur to us that people in the South, where the other shootings occurred, would have heard what we had to say, anyway. But, my goodness, Oregon and Washington are so close. We wish we had said something sooner."

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