Students Pray For Slain Teacher

A prayer service was going on Monday morning at James W. Parker Middle School in Edinboro, Pa., for slain science teacher John Gillette. A 14-year-old pupil allegedly gunned Gillette down Friday night at a dance for eighth-graders.

Classes are starting two hours late because of the service. Teachers attended an emergency meeting Sunday at the school to get advice on how they could help pupils cope with the tragedy.

At a memorial service Sunday afternoon, sympathy cards addressed to the Gillette and Andrew Wurst, the teen accused of the shooting, adorned the entrance of First Evangelical Lutheran Church.

The Rev. Robert Schmidt urged his congregation to avoid blaming anyone for the shootings in this quiet town in northwest Pennsylvania, 100 miles north of Pittsburgh.

"We all have that false sense of security that we are in a rural part of the state, so we are safe," he said. "While we are angry, let us remember not to project it at anyone else or at any one group."

Wurst is in isolation at the Erie County Prison. Police say the eighth-grader killed Gillette and slightly wounded another teacher and two students at his school's dinner-dance Friday night.

Wurst is charged as an adult with criminal homicide, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment, but the judge could send the case to juvenile court. Wurst also faces gun and drug charges. Police said he had a small amount of marijuana.

"The one who needs the most help isn't here tonight. He's sitting in a jail cell," said Adam Stickle, a high school student who urged 350 people at a Sunday night vigil to pray for young Wurst and his parents.

A funeral for Gillette, 48 and the father of three, is scheduled for Tuesday in Edinboro, a college town of about 5,000,

Witnesses said Wurst pulled out a .25-caliber handgun and shot Gillette in the head, then walked inside and fired several more shots before leaving. The injured did not require hospitalization. The shooting took place at Nick's Place, a banquet hall where Parker eighth-graders were enjoying a dance that Gillette had arranged every year.

The gun reportedly belonged to Wurst's father. The teen's attorney, Philip Friedman said the youth and his family are devastated by the events.

Authorities refused to discuss a motive. They said they were investigating reports that Wurst had talked of killing people and taking his own life a month before the shootings.

Friends said the boy did not take Gillette's class at the school and may have picked the teacher at random.

"This isn't the person who he picked out to kill, I think," said Ben Mills, 13, who described himself as a friend of Wurst.

About a month ago, Wurst told classmates he wanted to kill people and commit suicide, said Mills and another friend, Triston Lucas, 14. Neither boy accepted the threats at face value.

"He would, like, laugh when he said it: 'I'm going to go to he dinner dance and kill some people,"' Lucas said.

According to the two boys, Wurst said he was unhappy at home and became obsessive about girls.

It was the nation's fourth school-related shooting since October that has left 11 dead and 25 wounded. Teens also are accused of firing at their classmates and teachers in Jonesboro, Ark., West Paducah, Ky., and Pearl, Miss.

"It is eerie that this is repeating itself," said Dr. Burt Singerman, director of psychiatry at St. Francis Medical Center in Pittsburgh.

"I really think this has occurred enough times that teachers, principals and guidance counselors need to think about how they would handle students who make these statements about wanting to hurt people," he said.