Bend Mourns 3 Children and Teacher Killed at School

Megan Lambert was 25 and had just started her first teaching job. She joined Bend-La Pine Schools this fall. On Friday, a gunman killed the special education teacher and three children at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon.

“Our hearts are broken,” the district said in a statement. It remembered Lambert as a bright light for her “students, family, and our community,” and added, “She will be missed beyond words can express.”

Who Was Lost

The children who died included 5-year-old Rhoam Summer and two others, ages 8 and 11. Their families asked that their names not be made public. Police said a 7-year-old girl was also wounded and is recovering. Becky Drury, an inclusion educational assistant injured in the attack, is recovering too.

“We continue to wrap our arms around Becky Drury,” the district said in a social media post.

On Saturday, residents gathered near the school to grieve. They left flowers, prayed and wrote messages of support in chalk on a sidewalk memorial outside the building. Bend sits about 170 miles south of Portland.

The Educators Who Ran Toward Danger

The district praised school staff who confronted the attack. “They responded to an attack on their school in a way for which we are forever grateful,” it said. It singled out an unnamed learning specialist, saying she “responded with extraordinary courage and engaged directly with the shooter. We are so thankful for her safety and forever in her debt.”

Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz described another teacher’s actions on Friday. Krantz said the unnamed teacher confronted the gunman by throwing a cellphone and tackling him. “The teacher... was willing to stand and fight for her children,” Krantz said. “I think we all recognize that that is true heroism. She almost certainly helped avoid more bloodshed.”

The account leaves a stark picture. Teachers and support staff, hired to educate and care for kids, stood physically between a teenage gunman with a shotgun and their students.

A Parent Intervenes

Community members and authorities also praised Kaylub Giamanco, 36, a father of two Silver Rail students. On his lunch break, he saw the teenage gunman enter the building with a shotgun. He retrieved a legally secured .40-caliber pistol from his car, pursued the shooter into the school and fatally shot him. Krantz praised the rapid response of citizens and staff alike.

The gunman was a teenager. He entered an elementary school with a shotgun, and four people died, including a young educator at the start of her career.

Why This Matters:

The heroism described in Bend is real, and it’s worth honoring. But the day’s facts show who carries the burden when a gunman reaches a classroom: a 25-year-old first-year teacher, an educational assistant, a learning specialist and children as young as 5. Staff used their bodies to respond because little else stood between the shooter and the students. A teenager with a shotgun got inside a building full of kindergartners and elementary students, and three children and a teacher are dead. Communities like Bend must heal, while public officials and lawmakers face questions about how a young person got access to a weapon and how schools can be made safer. Those questions deserve answers, not just vigils.