After a bit of research, I found that the first school shooting occurred in 1760. There have been close to 100 attacks on various institutes since that occasion. However, there is one school shooting that occurred in 1986 that has a bizarre, almost happy ending.
In May 1986, the small town of Cokeville, WY, reported 500 residents. Unlike most townships, Cokeville has no hospitals or police departments in town.
The year before the incident, the only officer available was David Young, an intelligent and philosophical cop who lost his job after six months for misconduct. Newly remarried to Doris, he became a recluse and spent all his time reading and writing The Zero Equals Infinity manifesto, which took him several years to complete.
Young desired to become God and start a new society with children. With that mindset, Young convinces his wife and daughter (from his first marriage) to join him in what he calls a “get rich quick” scheme. Young created a makeshift bomb and placed the parts in a two-wheel grocery cart. He also placed a jug of gasoline on the top. All items were attached to a board and a wire to detonate the explosives.
At first, David tried to convince two friends to help him with the scheme, but on the event day, his friends and his daughter bailed on the plan and refused to participate. But that did not stop David and Doris from entering the school with the cart of ammunition.
With little coercion, Doris convinced the school clerk and other workers to join her husband in a first-grade classroom where he had laid out all of his weapons on the blackboard shelf. From there, Doris persuaded the other teachers and children to join them for a school assembly.
When they arrived, they found Young attached to the bomb and standing next to his explosive cart. The classroom, which held 30 children, now contained 154 people, including adults. Young then demanded that the local authorities patch him through to President Ronald Regan (to whom he sent a copy of his manifesto) and proceeded to demand two million dollars per child. Young said he would wait up to ten days for them to gather the large sum of money.
But that time would prove disastrous for him. The kids cried, whined, and were nervous. Some stepped too close to the cart, and Young became angry. The teachers created an eight-foot “magic square” around the cart and told the kids not to step near that area.
Nearing the end of the day, fumes from the gasoline started to permeate the air, making everyone in the room sick. The teachers begged Young to allow them to open two windows and doors to let the air circulate, and he agreed. The kids formed groups and sat as close to the openings as possible.
The adults also convinced Young to let them retrieve a TV, games, and coloring books from adjacent classrooms to keep the kids occupied. Some kids played, some watched TV, and some sat praying with their teacher in a corner.
Around four o’clock, Young untied the wire from his wrist and placed it on his wife’s arm. He told her to keep watch as he used the bathroom. But the fumes were getting to Doris. Some witnesses say they saw her fiddling with the wires, but others were unsure. Either way, Doris lifted her hand to her forehead and detonated the bomb.
When Young exited the restroom, he noticed his wife engulfed in flames and killed her. Crawling on his hands and knees, Young shot the music teacher as he ran into the hallway. Realizing that his plan had failed, Young returned to the bathroom and killed himself.
It’s hard not to look at these details and shudder. However, the story doesn’t end there. When the smoke cleared, the authorities scanned the entire school and found only the bodies of the Youngs. Out of the 130+ children, only a handful of injuries occurred, but no one died! The music teacher eventually recovered and also survived.
Many people call the Cokeville School Shooting the Cokeville Miracle. Why? Here are the unusual facts:
- The opened windows and doors created a vent, reducing the blast’s effects.
- The magic square also created enough distance from the children to minimize the likelihood of death from an explosion. Likewise, the forensics experts also report that the ventilation caused the flames to shoot straight up into the ceiling and not expand toward the walls.
- The authorities also found a few of the wires cut. Although people noticed Doris picking at the lines, none reported she had a wire cutter in her hand.
- The milk jug holding the gasoline had a small hole that no one noticed before the explosion. However, the leak moistened the gunpowder under the jug and disabled it from igniting.
- Likewise, at least one of the blasting caps failed to explode. Most experts confirm that blasting caps have a rate of effectiveness of 100 percent. So, the odds of a cap not working are nil.
- The school had several fire alarms malfunctioning in the weeks before the incident. After each alarm, the Fire Department investigated the system but could not determine the cause of the warnings. The staff and children underwent several fire drills in those weeks. A teacher then realized the children were familiar with drills in their classrooms but had no idea how to exit the building if they were all together in one room. Thus, a few days before the explosion, all the children underwent a drill from the school lunchroom. Authorities noted that the training aided in emptying the packed classroom that day in 45 seconds.
- As stated before, there are no hospitals in Cokeville. However, that week, the town held an emergency personnel training near the school. The responders were at the scene within moments.
- Finally, after the incident, some people reported seeing a bright light before the explosion. Several children came forward and claimed that angels directed them out of the smoke-filled room. Later, parents reported thumbing through a photo album and their children recognizing relatives who had passed decades before as their guardian angels. No one can confirm or deny this claim. Yet, one of the walls inside the classroom has an image seared onto the wall that looks like an angel.
The Cokeville Miracle is truly a mysterious event. No matter how you look at it, I can say that it ended well since everyone—except the perpetrators, survived.
Until next month,
Harper
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