S8 Ep296: School’s Out…Forever: The Frontier Middle School Shooting

Once Upon A Crime | True Crime

Esther Ludlow

True Crime, Crime, Truecrime, Criminology, History, Criminals

4.6 • 5K Ratings

🗓️ 18 September 2023

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this month’s series, I detail crimes that happened on school campuses. In 1996, a 14-year-old walked into his 8th-grade math class and opened fire. This early school shooting would shock his community and spark a nationwide debate about violence in the media, school bullying, mental health, and gun control. But what was the real reason Barry Loukaitis brought terror to his classroom?

Sources:
State v. Loukaitis, Appeal from the Superior Court for Grant County, Decided July 2, 1996.
https://casetext.com/case/state-v-loukaitis

Teacher Tells Court Of Classroom Horror Witness Describes Negotiating With An Armed Loukaitis, Finally Subduing Him, The Spokesman-Review, Sept. 5, 1997.
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/sep/05/teacher-tells-court-of-classroom-horror-witness/

A teacher and two students die in shooting rampage at Frontier Junior High School in Moses Lake on February 2, 1996, HistoryLink.org, 2/7/2020
https://www.historylink.org/File/20965

Full letter from Jon Lane, the teacher who tackled Moses Lake school shooter, KIRO7.com News, 2/28/2018
https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/full-letter-from-jon-lane-teacher-whotackled-moses-lake-school-shooter/708789938/

Scarred By Killings, Moses Lake Asks: ''What Has This Town Become?'' | The Seattle Times

Media Links:
Natural Born Killers - Trailer
https://youtu.be/XpLKNclOtLg?si=XAJxF31AkCcRJTWN

Natural Born Killers - Copycat crimes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Born_Killers_copycat_crimes

Rage by Richard Bachman/Stephen King:
https://archive.org/stream/standthe/Rage_djvu.txt

Stephen King: Why the U.S. must introduce limited gun controls, Feb 7, 2013
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/feb/01/stephen-king-pulled-book-gun-controls

Links:
Once Upon a Crime on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@OnceUponACrimePodcast

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This podcast details true crime cases.
0:03.0	It contains adult themes and may contain descriptions of violence.
0:07.0	It is not intended for children.
0:09.0	Listener discretion is advised.
0:19.0	Thank you for joining me for today's episode of Once Upon a Crime.
0:23.0	For this month's series titled,
0:25.0	Schools Out Forever,
0:27.0	I'll detail crimes that occurred on school campuses,
0:30.0	one at a high school campus,
0:32.0	one at a middle school,
0:34.0	and one connected to a college campus.
0:37.0	In the second episode in the series,
0:39.0	a middle school in Washington State
0:41.0	becomes the unlikely setting
0:43.0	for a horrendous act of violence.
0:45.0	In 1996, school shootings were still rare,
0:49.0	even in the United States.
0:51.0	The infamous school massacre
0:53.0	that would happen at Columbine High School
0:55.0	was still three years in the future.
0:57.0	So, in 14-year-old Barry Lucidus
1:00.0	entered his eighth-grade math class in open fire.
	...

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