Five Students Maimed in Attack on Forks High School

By: Kyle Greening and Angela Anand

Forks WA. The small quaint high school of Forks was shaken to its core when, on May 23, 2014, an unidentified woman armed with explosives and knives entered the school and initiated a lock down. She walked into the main office, tied up the school staff present and locked them in a closet. She took 17-year-old Thiadora Martinez as a hostage and ordered all the students and teachers to not only stay in their classrooms but obey all orders she gave them. The students stayed in the school for seven uninterrupted hours.

While the students were trapped in their class rooms, the assailant went to the gym and blew up one of the walls. Three students who arrived at school late and a visiting student from a different school apparently stumbled upon her and confronted her. According to Thiadora the four students valiantly and simultaneously attacked the assailant to rescue her. Although they were overpowered by the weapons the woman brought with her, they were able to injure her to the point where she had to flee. She escaped before the authorities arrived leaving Thiadora, as well as her rescuers, unconscious on the gym floor.

At 3:30, students began to stream out of the school; exhausted, dehydrated and confused. A video interview with one student, Mia Chester, spread across social media, an artifact of a moment when children have become numb to violence in their schools.

"Was there a part of you that was like, 'This isn't real, this is — this could not happen in my school?'" the reporter asked.

The young girl looked confused: "No, I wasn't thinking anything. It was just happening, and I had to do what I was told."

"By the teachers?" The reporter asked.

"No. By her." She said. "I didn't want to, but she told me I had to."

Photo: damage to the side of the Forks High School gymnasium. Credit Mara Shimizu/Ethan Mason via Associated Press

The police are investigating every lead they can about this mysterious woman, but none of the students or faculty members can remember what she looked like. The school has been closed down during the investigation as she is still at large and the police don't know if she will attack again. Chief LeFleche has declared that he and the local police will be cooperating with the F.B.I. to apprehend this culprit.

"I thought she was going to kill me." Thiadora said. "She told me to hold a knife to my neck and, I don't know, it was like I was hypnotized. I can't remember what happened clearly." She was diagnosed with a mild concussion but still went to the hospital for further observation.

That morning, Kate Newton, a junior, headed to school thinking about the late work she was supposed to submit before the end of the school year, and settled into her English class to work on an essay. Class had just started when the announcement came on.

"All she said was, 'the school is now in lockdown. Everyone stay in your seats until I say otherwise.'" Miss Newton said in a phone interview. "I remember just sitting at my desk. She had (Thiadora) as a hostage, we had to do what she said!"

Many of the students' and teachers' details on what happened after what was supposed to be lunch break vary. "We went into the hall," Daniel Banner (the biology teacher) said. "We were supposed to hassle one of the students. I don't know what came over us. I think we hurt him."

"She didn't want us to actually hurt her." Miranda Lupin said. "She said that when she told us to rip her clothes off just to paw at her, him. I feel terrible!"

Other students reported that they were just supposed to stand in the hall and chant a name; they don't remember being told to rip anything off anyone.

"You'd think with how loud it was in my head, over and over and over again that I'd remember it." Kevin Breen said. "But I just don't. I must have said it over a million times. I was so scared. I wasn't in control of me."

Photo: Students lined up at Forks School in Forks, Wa. Credit FF71-TV

Everyone in the school was then instructed to go back to their class rooms and stay there until they were given permission to leave. Even when the building was being destroyed the students and faculty members were adamant that they would have stayed inside even if the entire school collapsed on them. Apparently just before the police showed up, they were all told they could leave.

"I heard a voice say, 'You can leave now. I don't need you.'" Eric Lupin said. "I'm not sure if it was her, though. A part of me still wants to sit at my desk."

The first responders on the scene (Dr. Cullen, Nurse Vetcher and Chief LeFleche) arrived just after the announcement and were horrified to find their children among the injured in the half-destroyed gym. Edward Cullen, Alexandria Vetcher, Jack LeFleche and Jacob Black are still at Forks Hospital receiving treatment for their multiple injuries.

"By the time I came in, Dr. Cullen and Nurse Vetcher were already working on the kids. It was hard to see." Chief LeFleche said when asked by a reporter. "My baby boy. He was broken and silent on the ground." He refused to comment further after that.

Photo: Staff members waiting to be transported away from the campus. Credit Hazel Voll via Associated Press.

Three weeks later, the family of the victims held an anxious vigil at the Forks Hospital.

"Edward is doing better." Dr. Cullen said. "He still needs regular blood transfusions, but I am confident that his injuries will heal." Dr. Cullen is in charge of the children's recovery and he also had this to say about Jacob. "Jacob had very mild injuries. He mostly had hairline fractures. He's making a speedy recovery and I'm going to discharge him soon."

Veronique Vetcher, Alexandria's sister, said that she was reckless and brave to attack the "whacko" like that.

"They said that her right shoulder is pretty much gone," Miss Vetcher said. "She's going to need a lot more surgery. Both her hips were busted. It'll be a miracle if she can walk again... if she even wakes up again."

Not much is known about Jack's condition. All that is known is that he is still in the intensive care unit and that he has been put in a medically induced coma.

"I don't know how something like this happened." Principal Jones said. "No one knew this woman and she just walked in. The worst part was that no one outside of the school knew what was going on until one of the students, (Alexandria) I think, called 9-1-1."