Nov 10, 2009 11:54 pm US/Eastern
Parents, Students Relieved After Hostage Scare
Stissing Mountain High School In Pine Plains Locked Down During Confrontation
42-Year-Old Christopher Craft Holds Principal Bob Hess Hostage
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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A Stissing Mountain High School student embraces a relative after a gunman entered the school on Nov. 10, 2009 and held a principal hostage.
CBS
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A gunman is holding a principal hostage at a school in Pine Plains, New York. Chopper 2 HD was live over the scene on Tuesday morning, November 9, 2009.
CBS
There were many anxious moments for parents of students at the Stissing Mountain campus on Tuesday morning as police moved in quickly, evacuating 800 students and faculty.
Children stayed close to one another while police herded them into a highway garage and out of harm's way. Just blocks away, hundreds of parents began to gather after hearing news of what was happening. They spent the hours together, until they were finally reunited with their sons and daughters in a day they will never forget.
"It's a relief. I'm just glad it's over. It was a long day," said Stissing Mountain student Amber Coker.
There was nothing, but overwhelming relief in the embraces between parents and their children after the terrifying morning at the Pine Plains campus. Cathleen Zeno was ecstatic after reuniting with her three children.
"Like something amazing. Like, 'Oh my God, I finally got my children!' They're safe, they're with me now. I don't want to let them go," she told CBS 2.
The sixth through twelfth grade students placed on lockdown in their classrooms shared their stories about what had been happening on the inside. Coker hid in a storage closet with her teacher and 13 students.
"I was trying to stay calm as much as I could because I had to be there for my friends, but it was hard," she said.
"We got called for the lockdown and we were in the cafeteria and we didn't really have a place to hide. So we ended up getting rushed into the kitchen, and that's when they told us," said Jenise Zeno, a student at the school.
Added her brother, Matthew: "At first I was just sitting there, I thought it was a joke because like how can this happen like Pine Plains, this little, small town?"
Moms, dads and grandparents who had waited hours with unbearable anxiety first stood in packs about a mile away from the school. Then state police escorted the crowd by foot onto the school grounds to get their children.
"I was just over there speaking to somebody else and I had to make sure she was still here," said an overwhelmed Nancy Burger, who embraced her daughter in tears.
The chain of events was a reality check for parents, students, and faculty alike – that even in such a tiny town where things seem so well kept together, at any moment they can fall apart.
"It was a relief to just see [my son], to touch him. It's just amazing," said Melissa Burdick. "Life is too short, and you can't take things for granted."
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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