The Golden family disagree. They blame Mitchell for dragging Andrew into a vengeful plot that culminated in Tuesdays shooting at the Arkansas school. The Johnson family blame television. Neither can quite connect the children who loved bowling, computer games and music with the camouflaged riflemen who hid in the woods and then gunned down four of their classmates and one of their teachers in cold blood.
Westside Middle School is closed again Friday, as what was supposed to be a teacher-training day is devoted to the funerals of two of the 12-year-old victims of the attack. On Thursday, the pupils wrote a letter to Monty Woodard, Mitchells stepbrother, saying they still liked him and wanted him to return to school. But his father Terry refused. Ive been around this town, he said. These people dont forgive.