Cathedral City Struggles to Explain Deaths : Violence: School counselors help children talk about the tragedy. Attorney for the suspect in the three killings says his client will plead not guilty.

As counselors and psychologists tried to help elementary school students cope with the trauma of a triple killing, the accused killer’s attorney said Monday that his client is depressed and will plead not guilty.

A squad of “crisis helpers” greeted students at Sunny Sands Elementary School in this desert community, which has been rocked by the stabbing deaths of the school’s vice principal, her husband and their 6-year-old son in their home just blocks from the school.

The counselors used both candor and tact in answering questions from children asking if the tragedy was really sparked by a love affair between the principal and the husband of the vice principal.

Michael Schecter, 39, husband of Sunny Sands Principal Molly Schecter, was arrested Friday for the murders of vice principal Carrie Everhart, her husband, Mario Amicarella, and their son, John, a first-grader at Sunny Sands.

About a quarter of the student body was absent Monday, about twice the usual absentee rate, which school officials attributed to some children being too upset to attend classes and to some parents shielding children from reporters and photographers.

The superintendent and other school employees gave briefings to reporters but declined to allow them inside the school. At least one tabloid television show and one producer of made-for-television movies have expressed interest in the story.

School counselor Jane Mills, who oversaw the crisis response, said helpers were instructed to tell students, if asked, that, yes, there are allegations about an affair but that no one knows if they are true.

If asked what an affair is, helpers were told to reply matter-of-factly that an affair “is when you date someone who is married to someone else” and that affairs often make people angry and sad.

“We talked about the cycle of life,” said Neville Savage, 8. “Everybody has to die. There’s a time for everything. You die and someone else is born. That’s the way it is.”

One class was encouraged to write letters to the vice principal’s family to express their sorrow and to the vice principal “in heaven.”

“I still don’t understand it,” said Danielle Joven, 7. “But now I’m not afraid as much.”

The crisis effort was assembled amid talk in the neighborhood that some students were afraid the killer might return and attack them while they were sleeping. One mother said her children have not been able to sleep in their bedroom since the slayings.

Michael Schecter remains in jail in Indio and is to be arraigned today. When arrested, Schecter had cuts on his hands that required 18 stitches. He has retained Palm Springs attorney Gary Scherotter, one of the desert area’s most successful criminal defense attorneys.

Scherotter declined to say whether temporary insanity might be used as a defense for Schecter, a popular teacher and volleyball coach at Palm Desert Middle School. “I’ve used that when it’s appropriate,” he said.

Principal Schecter has taken vacation leave, and the school is being run by Palm Springs district’s chief psychologist, Dr. Craig Borba.

Supt. William E. Diedrich declined to say if the principal will return to her job. “That’s a personnel issue and we’re not going to get into it at this time,” he said.

Borba and others talked to students individually and in groups and encouraged them to ask questions and express their grief. School will be dismissed early Wednesday so students can attend a memorial service.

“The kids need a lot of hugs and they need a lot of reassurance,” counselor Mills said.

Carrie Everhart, 30, had been a teacher at Sunny Sands Elementary before becoming vice principal, at Molly Schecter’s recommendation, this school year.

Amicarella, 30, an immigrant from Venezuela, was known as quiet and athletic and worked out each morning at the Family Fitness Center. He was a computer technician and systems analyst at the College of the Desert in Palm Desert.

David A. George, president of the College of the Desert, issued a statement calling Amicarella “a quiet but powerful and facilitative person.”

Neighbors said Everhart and Amicarella had quarreled Thursday night and talked of divorce. Police speculate that in the early hours of Friday, Michael Schecter, having just learned of his wife’s alleged affair with Amicarella, entered the Amicarella house through an unlocked garage door and stabbed the three family members repeatedly.

Outside the home is Amicarella’s Toyota with the book, “The Divorce Handbook” sitting on the front seat.