Voices

“It appears to be a suicide mission.”

--John Stone, Jefferson County sheriff

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“At first we just thought they were firecrackers until we saw the guns come out of the trench coats.”

--Justin Woods, student

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“Access to guns is a critical variable in this situation. You can’t kill or wound 14 people with a knife.”

--Kevin Dwyer, president-elect of the National Assn. of School Psychologists

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“There is the perception that schools are terribly crime-ridden. The perception is unfounded.”

--William Modzeleski, Education Department’s safe-school chief

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“It’s Dec. 1, 1997, all over again. How many more times does this have to happen?”

--Sabrina Steger, mother of 15-year-old girl slain in Paducah, Ky., school shooting

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“They are jerks.... They are really strange, but I’ve never seen them do anything violent.”

--student Jason Greer, speaking of students known as Trench Coat Mafia

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“They walked down the stairs and they started shooting people. We didn’t think it was real and then we saw blood.”

--student who gave her name as Janine

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“You just instantly think back to what happened in your own life last year and you feel for the families and what they’re about to go through.”

--Mitchell Wright, whose wife, teacher Shannon Wright, was killed in March 1998 in Jonesboro, Ark., shooting

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“We heard the gunshots and we were running.”

--Kaley Boyle, a junior