• Font Size    
E-mail

Close Window E-mail This Page

Family Teaches Slain Student's Son About Him

Required fields are marked with an asterisk(*)



The information you provide will be used only to send the requested e-mail and will not be used to send any other e-mail communications. Read more in our Privacy Policy

Send E-mail

   Print     Share +   

Family Teaches Slain Student's Son About Him

Red Lake, Minn. (AP) ― Little Ayden Chase Lussier made his grandmother laugh when he took a drumstick and began banging on the living room floor, practicing his American Indian drumming and singing.

"Sing some more," his grandmother Sue Roy said, as the 14-month-old managed to keep his balance while singing and whacking the carpet with all his might.

But those funny moments are also veiled with sadness: a year ago Ayden's father, 15-year-old Chase Lussier, was killed in a school shooting on the Red Lake Band of Chippewa's reservation. Ayden's mother, Alex Roy, spent the past year watching her boy take his first steps and have his first birthday -- without Chase to share it.

"It was a happy time to see her son do things like that, but then at times it was hard for her because every time she knew" Chase wouldn't be there, said Sue Roy, Alex's mother.

Chase was one of 10 people who died last March 21 when 16-year-old Jeff Weise went on a shooting rampage on the reservation. Weise killed his grandfather and his grandfather's girlfriend before heading to Red Lake High School, where he killed five students, a security guard and a teacher before shooting himself. It was the worst school shooting in the United States since Columbine.

"A year has already gone by and to me, it's still unbelievable yet," said Sue Roy.

The tribe has declared Tuesday a Day of Remembrance, and all tribal services will be closed. Red Lake High School will be open, at the request of students and staff. There will be a meal and counselors will be on hand, but no regular classes will be held. A moment of silence will be held in the morning, and school will be dismissed at 2:30 p.m., with no after-school activities.

"We know that everyone is going to observe the day in their way," said Willie Larson, school district accountant.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty said there would be a moment of silence at 2 p.m. to mark the tragedy.

No community-wide memorial was planned by the tribe. Instead, several family members on this reservation in northwestern Minnesota are holding memorial dinners to honor their loved ones. At Red Lake Foods, a combination grocery store, gas station and laundry, the front door carried notices Monday of services for four of the victims: Chanelle Rosebear and Chase Lussier, both 15, Michelle Sigana, 31, and Daryl Lussier, 58. Notices were also posted at the post office, tribal council office and other public buildings.

The dinners are customary to people in Red Lake, and are traditionally held a year after a death to mark the end of a period of mourning, said Lee Cook, a tribal member and director of the American Indian Resource Center at nearby Bemidji State University.

"It's just meant to sort of honor the person and remind us of the life we had together," Cook said. "It's sort of a happy moment as opposed to a sad time."

The dinners are intended to help people move on, but "I think it's still going to take another year or two to really get over the events of last March 21st," Cook said.

Alex Roy, 15, is among the many who will need more time.

Chase Lussier was her boyfriend. In middle school, Chase played basketball and Alex was a cheerleader. The couple had Ayden and planned to eventually get married. Chase often talked about how they would have a big family -- enough boys to make their own basketball team.

When asked what she would miss most about Chase, Alex said, "Everything." She answered just a few questions from a reporter, then said she was done talking.

"Now that we're getting closer to the 21st, it's getting a little bit harder," said Sue Roy. "When she does talk about Chase she starts crying. ... I knew these upcoming days were going to get hard for her."

Sue and Alex Roy planned to spend Tuesday visiting Chase's grave and the graves of other shooting victims, including 14-year-old Alicia White.

A dinner for Alicia is planned for Saturday, and her younger sister, 11-year-old Andrea White, put together a memory book filled with pictures. The memorial will include a buffet dinner and music.

Andrea said she misses her older sister, and she wears Alicia's navy blue hooded Snoopy sweat shirt to help feel close to her. She also posted a message in The Red Lake Nation, a community newspaper on the reservation.

"If I had a wish I would wish you were still alive. I love you always in my heart," the message said. It was among several memorial notes, poems and pictures that took up three and a half pages in the March 17 edition of the newspaper.

Theresa Spike, Alicia's mother, said in an interview that she misses her daughter, who was the oldest of seven kids and had dreams of going into the Army and eventually becoming an FBI agent.

"There's not a day that goes by without us wishing that she was here and just remembering all the crazy things that we did and said together," said Spike, 32. "It's been a year and I still sit there at 3:30 and wait for her to get off the bus. ... Every day I watch the kids come in and it hits me."

Other families also planned memorial dinners for their loved ones. On Tuesday, a memorial Mass was planned for Derrick Brun, the 28-year-old security guard who died in the shooting. A dinner was to follow the service. Memorial dinners were also planned Tuesday for Neva Rogers, 62, the teacher who was killed, and for Chanelle Rosebear, 15.

(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)