School Hero Honored By Scouts

Three months ago, Jake Ryker was shot in the chest but managed to tackle a schoolmate who had opened fire in the Thurston High School cafeteria.

On Monday night, Jake's father, a Navy diver wearing his full dress uniform, presented him with the highest honor in the Boy Scouts of America.

Robert Ryker's hands trembled as he pinned the red ribbon with gold medallion of the Honor Medal with Crossed Palms to Jake's chest before a crowd of about 300 people at Thurston Christian Church.

Jake embraced his tearful mother, Linda, as his girlfriend, Jennifer Alldredge, who also was wounded in the shooting, watched from the back of the room and joined in a standing ovation.

"I'm normal just like everybody else," Jake said with his typical modesty. "I just have more holes in me."

Jake and his younger brother, Josh, 14, and three other Boy Scouts subdued the gunman after two other Thurston students were killed and 22 wounded on May 21.

Josh Ryker, Douglas and David Ure, and Adam Walburger all were presented Monday night with the Honor Medal, the second-highest honor in scouting. It was the first time in the 88-year history of the Boy Scouts that five medals for heroism were awarded at one time.

"I believe it was no coincidence that the five who stopped the shooting were Scouts," said Jerry Dempsy, Oregon Trail Council executive for the Boy Scouts. "I'm so grateful they stopped the killing when they did."

The suspected gunman, 15-year-old Kip Kinkel, also is accused of shooting and killing his parents the day before the cafeteria rampage, and leaving their house rigged with bombs.
Jake was shot through the chest during the shooting spree. When the gunman ran out of ammunition and started to reload, Jake tackled him, and was shot in a finger. His brother and the three other Scouts piled on and held the shooter until help arrived.

"I don't think any of the boys really realize what they've done," Robert Ryker said. "I think it will be years before they do."