Red Lake hosting day of remembrance on the 20th anniversary of school shooting

Twenty years ago today, Starr Jourdain walked in the doors of Red Lake High School.

“I was a freshman that day,” she said. “I’m also a survivor of that day.”

Now she walks in as a 34-year-old paraprofessional.

“The kids keep me going. They lift my spirit.”

Friday marks the 20th anniversary of the Red Lake school shooting. It was the largest school shooting at the time since Columbine High School in Colorado six years earlier.

A day of remembrance ceremony will take place Friday afternoon in the high school gymnasium to honor the 10 people — including five students, a teacher and a school security guard — who died March 21, 2005.

The ceremony is hosted by the 3.21.05 Memorial Fund, a local organization formed by Jourdain and other survivors that has been raising money for a permanent memorial site to honor the victims and lives changed by the tragedy on Red Lake Nation.

Jourdain, a 2008 graduate, said she rallied classmates in 2022 to form the organization to build a permanent memorial near the tribal college.

“I’m just kind of the leader of getting all of us together and getting us in the right direction of having it built and being motivated and having perseverance to be strong and keep going,” she said.

Red Lake Superintendent Tim Lutz said he has witnessed so much growth in Jourdain over the years showing up for the school district and her community.

“She has risen to this point,” Lutz said. “We also have other staff members who are still here, and it’s important to honor them and elevate their experience … and validate their feelings that they may still be dealing with as survivors.”

He said when survivors seek an opportunity to be heard, it’s important to listen.

“That’s what we’re able to do when we have a memorial program like today or when we work on building a monument where we can remember and honor the survivors,” he said.

The public ceremony will begin at 3:45 p.m. Friday with guest speakers, a drumming circle, prayer and walk with students followed by refreshments.

Lutz said it’s a difficult day that needs to be remembered so that it may never happen again.

Twenty years ago, Jeff Weise, 16, shot his grandfather, Red Lake police officer Daryl Lussier, and Lussier’s partner, Michelle Sigana, before driving Lussier’s squad car to the high school.

Weise shot security guard Derrick Brun, teacher Neva Rogers and five ninth-graders: Chase Lussier, Thurlene Stillday, Chanelle Rosebear, Alicia Spike and Dewayne Lewis. Weise then turned the gun on himself.

Some survivors of the school shooting now work in the school district, law enforcement and tribal court.

In 2012, a group of them traveled to Connecticut to meet with Sandy Hook Elementary School teachers and families who had faced a similar tragedy.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.