Twenty-eight years ago, national headlines captured — in stark black and white — the shootings at McCracken County’s Heath High School on December 1, 1997. Jessica Lanier, a tenth grader at the Paducah school, still has the daily planner she kept that year. Notes about writing assignments, geometry pages to study, and upcoming quizzes are documented in the haphazard hand of a teen in a hurry.
The inscription for December 1 is marked, “Shootings at Heath.” Further down the page is a note about funerals. “One p.m. at Bible Baptist,” according to the scrawl.
“Missy’s Room – 529 – Lourdes” is noted on the front page of the planner, accompanied by a fat red heart, outlined in purple.
Jessica had been friends with Missy Jenkins since sixth grade. Three of their schoolmates died in the gunfire that Monday. Six were wounded, including Missy. Paralyzed from the chest down, she survived the fusillade and deals with the aftermath every day, in a wheelchair.
“I brought her a Happy Meal in the hospital,” Jessica recalls with a sigh, a reaction to her youthful bravado.
Memories of the tragedy stalk her on the anniversary, but other occasions spark emotions. She mentions the incarcerated shooter’s parole hearing, attempts to withdraw his plea claiming mental illness, and a final sentence of “life without parole.”
Today, Jessica Lanier is a veteran teacher, with a slew of graduate degrees, including a doctorate in Literature. The trauma of that day in December lingers in both her professional and personal life.
“I don’t like to be in crowds,” she says, admitting anxiety to people standing behind her. She describes going to the movies as scary and adds that high school football games now have the same effect, due to a recent incident where she teaches.
“I always know where the exits are,” she confesses.
With teaching comes a regular round of Safety Training that Lanier finds difficult. Lockdown drills, sometimes accompanied by state troopers shooting blanks, bring back lingering jitters.
Jessica was late for the prayer circle that day in the school lobby, when three girls were killed and the others injured. The sounds she heard were unmistakable and unforgettable.
“I remember saying, ‘Those are gunshots.'”
Now she feels some of the same emotions during school safety drills, where her job demands calm leadership. The sound of gunshots can trigger challenging emotions, including crying and hyperventilating. Explaining her aversion in advance to administrators helps, although she describes these conversations as awkward.
She follows the protocol and emphasizes with her students, “We don’t joke about this.”
She is quick to explain that her reactions are hers alone. “I can only speak for myself. I wasn’t injured.”
Reflecting on the past, she realizes that not as much was known about how to handle the aftermath of these emergencies. “They didn’t know what to do with us,” she says, referring to 1997.
“Hindsight.” She repeats the word twice. “I think everyone did the best they could. If I could change one thing,” she continues, “it would be to listen. If one person had said a word…”
She breaks off, resisting the urge to assess blame.
“Now that I’m an adult and a parent,” she concludes, “I understand the reasoning and the decisions made. They didn’t know any better back then.”
Years later, Lanier and her high school classmates keep in touch. “It’s a small community, after all,” she remarks. “The friendships today are deeper than they were in high school.”
Both Jessica Lanier and Missy Jenkins (now Smith) live in Murray. “I see her here and there,” Lanier says. “She has always been the person she was in her book, ‘I Choose to be Happy.’ She has always moved with that kind of grace.”
Missy Jenkins Smith, now a social worker and mother of two, has authored two books, I Choose to Be Happy: A School Shooting Survivor’s Triumph Over Tragedy, and Lessons From a School Shooting Survivor.
For additional insights, a 2024 article by a researcher in developmental and educational psychology about active shooter training asks the question, “Might there be a better way to protect children in the post-Columbine era?”
An oral history project about the Heath High School shootings from the Kentucky Historical Society documents memories of the December 1, 1997 shooting in Paducah, Kentucky and highlights how the events of that day continue to influence individuals and the community years later.
