Platte Canyon High School Girl Murdered

On Wednesday a small town was shocked by the murder of a young 16 year old high school student. A 53 year old drifter, named Duane Morrison, entered the Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colorado. He took six female students into a classroom for nearly four hours. It is reported that he sexually abused some of them and he did not want to negotiate with police. Mr. Morrison claimed he had a bomb in his backpack, so the SWAT team was sent into the room. As the police came in, Emily Keyes attempted to flee to them and Mr. Morrison shot her in the back of the head before killing himself. The family of Emily Keyes has begun to distribute pictures of her in hopes that people will perform "random acts of kindness" in her memory. Governor Bill Owens visited the school Thursday and stated that improvements made to the school after the 1999 attacks at Columbine High School prevented Wednesday's attack from being worse.

The death of Emily Keyes has changed the view of many Platte Canyon High School students, and other town members on personal security. Many American's feel safe in a small town, but the completely random act of Mr. Morrison proves that even small close-knit communities are not safe from attack. No matter what size a school is, safety should be an important issue. Many feel that schools should teach students and teachers procedures in case of an attack, so that they will be able to evacuate quickly. Every school should learn from attacks on other schools in the past so that they will be able to defend themselves.