News Break
03/28/2005 14:54:06 EST Ann Heisenfelt/AP Photo
Teacher Killed in School Shooting Mourned
By STEVE KARNOWSKI
Associated Press Writer
BEMIDJI, Minn. - The teacher gunned down in a 16-year-old boy's attack on his schoolmates was remembered Monday as a selfless woman who died praying for her students.
Neva Rogers "will be remembered always for a selfless act of love," the Rev. Genelle Netland told more than 300 mourners at Calvary Lutheran Church.
"She symbolizes and embodies all teachers everywhere, for the courage it took, for the strength it took, for the sense of wanting that it took, to care about others with all of yourself - your entire self," Netland said. That "represents a gift to everyone," she said.
Rogers, 62, was the only teacher killed by gunman Jeff Weise, a depressed teenager who stormed through Red Lake High School killing five students, a security guard and Rogers before turning the gun on himself. Witnesses said Rogers was praying "God be with us. God help us" just before Weise shot her.
"I am in awe of the incredible courage and faith she showed us in those last moments," said U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton, himself a former schoolteacher.
School board member Charmaine Branchaud paid tribute to Rogers' dedication to her students.
"We are all in this together, and hopefully there will be a change so our communities can come together and these deaths will not be in vain," she said.
Rogers was laid to rest in an ivory casket topped with a large bouquet of red roses. Family members followed the casket outside for the burial in the church cemetery.
Rogers was the only non-Indian killed in the shootings on the Red Lake Band of Chippewa's reservation, about half an hour north of Bemidji. Family members said she felt needed at Red Lake, a place where teens deal with poverty, pregnancy and violence regularly.
Mourners wrote messages for the family on a large white piece of paper hanging in the church lobby.
"She was the kindest person. I was lucky to be one of her students," one person wrote.
"Sorry for what happened. She will be missed. Miigwetch," wrote another, using the Ojibwe word for "thanks." The message was signed by Summer Weise; it couldn't immediately be determined whether she was related to the gunman.
"A very special, caring, loving and compassionate teacher. She will be greatly missed. We have been blessed to have her as a teacher at Red Lake. Thank you," another mourner wrote.
Services for security guard Derrick Brun, 14-year-old student Alicia Alberta White and Weise, the gunman, were also planned for Monday. Services for Daryl Lussier, his companion Michelle Sigana, and student Chase Lussier were held Saturday.
Authorities say Weise's first victims last Monday were Sigana and Daryl Lussier, his grandfather and a longtime tribal police officer. They say Weisse took Lussier's handgun and shotgun, and drove his police SUV, to the high school to continue his rampage. It was the worst U.S. school shooting since Columbine.
Youse guys are right, teachers should not be armed they might go ballistic and shoot an innocent mass murderer.
JonR
