Current:Home > FinanceKids return to school, plan to trick-or-treat as Maine communities start to heal from mass shooting -EverVision Finance
Kids return to school, plan to trick-or-treat as Maine communities start to heal from mass shooting
View
Date:2025-04-15 11:57:37
LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — Children returned to school Tuesday and planned to go trick-or-treating in the evening after spending days locked in their homes following the deadliest mass shooting in Maine’s history.
At Lewiston High School, hundreds of students returned to a facility which days earlier was transformed into a law enforcement command post with three helicopters utilizing the athletic fields and 300 vehicles filling the parking lot.
Inside, students were petting three therapy dogs, and were signing a large banner that said “Lewiston Strong,” the community’s new motto.
Calista Karas, a 16-year-old senior, said students have a lot to process. She said she was frightened sheltering at home and unable to immediately reach her mother, who was at work, when the shootings happened.
“You know, I just couldn’t believe something like this would happen here, to us,” Karas said. “And I know that sounds like detached, kind of like, ‘Oh, we wouldn’t be affected.’ But you never think it’s gonna happen to you when it happens, you know?”
Robert Card, a U.S. Army reservist from Bowdoin, fatally shot 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston on Wednesday night, authorities said. A massive search for the 40-year-old swept through the area until he was found dead Friday.
Police and other authorities had issued a shelter-in-place order for residents during the massive search for Card on land and water.
As students returned to school on Tuesday, Karas said she felt her stomach drop a bit when she walked through the school doors.
“Not because I felt unsafe,” she said. “But because I felt like, what’s going to happen from here on out? I was really unsure and uncertain of what was going to happen and how people would react. It was a weird experience to walk though school and see… life going on.”
Superintendent Jake Langlais said staff and students will take it one day at a time, understanding that some will need more support than others, depending on their proximity to deadly rampage.
“You know, having helicopters with search lights and infrared sensors over your homes and apartments is pretty uncomfortable. So we’re recognizing that everybody had some level of impact,” he said.
veryGood! (2)
Related
- The company planning a successor to Concorde makes its first supersonic test
- Remains of 19-year-old Virginia sailor killed in Pearl Harbor attack identified
- Former NYPD officer acquitted of murder in shooting of childhood friend during confrontation
- Former Justice Eileen O’Neill Burke wins Democratic primary in Chicago-area prosecutor’s race
- Google unveils a quantum chip. Could it help unlock the universe's deepest secrets?
- Abercrombie & Fitch’s Clearance Section Is Full of Cute Styles, Plus Almost Everything Else Is On Sale
- Devastating loss to Illinois shows Iowa State is very good program, just not great one yet
- Jenna Dewan Shares Update on Wedding Plans With Fiancé Steve Kazee
- Jamie Foxx reps say actor was hit in face by a glass at birthday dinner, needed stitches
- Bad blood on Opening Day: Why benches cleared in Mets vs. Brewers game
Ranking
- 'Kraven the Hunter' spoilers! Let's dig into that twisty ending, supervillain reveal
- Joseph Lieberman Sought Middle Ground on Climate Change
- Snow-covered bodies of 2 men from Senegal found in New York woods near Canadian border
- Men’s March Madness live updates: Sweet 16 predictions, NCAA bracket update, how to watch
- Meta donates $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund
- David Beckham welcomes Neymar to Miami. Could Neymar attend Messi, Inter Miami game?
- Harvard applications drop 5% after year of turmoil on the Ivy League campus
- Volunteers uncover fate of thousands of Lost Alaskans sent to Oregon mental hospital a century ago
Recommendation
$73.5M beach replenishment project starts in January at Jersey Shore
Bear that injured 5 during rampage shot dead, Slovakia officials say — but critics say the wrong bear was killed
Ukraine's Zelenskyy warns Putin will push Russia's war very quickly onto NATO soil if he's not stopped
Steve Martin: Comic, banjo player, and now documentary film subject
What to know about Tuesday’s US House primaries to replace Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz
A Filipino villager is nailed to a cross for the 35th time on Good Friday to pray for world peace
Last-minute shift change may have saved construction worker from Key Bridge collapse
At collapsed Baltimore bridge, focus shifts to the weighty job of removing the massive structure