1998 Thurston High School shooting
On May 21, 1998, 15-year-old freshman student Kipland Kinkel opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle in the cafeteria of Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, United States, killing two of his classmates and wounding 25 others. He had killed his parents at the family home the previous day, following his suspension pending an expulsion hearing after he admitted to school officials that he was keeping a stolen handgun in his locker. Fellow students subdued him, leading to his arrest. He later characterized his actions as an attempt to get others to kill him, since he wanted to take his own life after killing his parents but could not bring himself to.
| 1998 Thurston High School shooting | |
|---|---|
The first memorial after the Thurston shooting | |
| Location | Springfield, Oregon, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 44°02′58″N 122°55′29″W |
| Date | Murder of parents: May 20, 1998 Shooting: May 21, 1998 7:55 a.m. (PST) |
| Target | Students and staff at Thurston High School |
Attack type | Spree killing, mass shooting, school shooting, parricide |
| Weapons |
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| Deaths | 4 (including the perpetrator's parents at home) |
| Injured | 25 |
| Perpetrator | Kipland Kinkel |
| Defender | Jacob Ryker |
| Verdict | Pleaded guilty |
| Convictions | Murder (4 counts), attempted murder (26 counts) |
| Sentence | 111 years imprisonment without the possibility of parole |
During the year before the shooting, Kinkel's increasingly aberrant behavior and fascination with weapons and death had led his parents to take him to a psychologist, who diagnosed major depressive disorder. After he appeared to respond to Prozac, his treatment was discontinued and the prescription expired. But Kinkel's parents had not disclosed histories of mental illness in their families, and Kinkel himself had not told anyone about having heard voices urging him to violence since he was 12, out of fear of being ostracized or institutionalized. Since the shootings he has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and takes antipsychotic medication; his sister and one of the victims believe that better awareness of mental health issues might have averted the shooting. Kinkel pled guilty to murder and attempted murder. He was sentenced to 111 years in prison without the possibility of parole; a sentence upheld on appeal. He is currently incarcerated at the Oregon State Correctional Institution in Salem.
The shooting made national news, as the latest in a series of school shootings over the previous year. Kinkel's was seen as more egregious than the earlier ones before since he had gone into a crowded internal space and indiscriminately opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle. President Bill Clinton spoke at the high school a month later about the issue. A memorial outside the school memorializes the two students killed.