Scarred Students Try to Overcome Trauma, Return to Scene of Siege

COKEVILLE, Wyo. —  Burn-scarred students returned Wednesday to the elementary school held hostage last week by a man and woman armed with a bomb, and a teacher shot in the siege tried to ease their trauma by showing them his wounds.

“I feel sort of scared, but not that much, ‘cause I know for sure it won’t happen again,” said a fifth-grade student who returned with her classmates for a two-hour school day. Officials hoped the short session would ease students back into a daily routine at Cokeville Elementary School.

“I just remember the room turned black, then orange, then smoke filled the air,” said the girl, whose face was pink and puffy from the second-degree burns she received when the gasoline bomb held by Doris Young accidentally detonated Friday. Doris Young was killed in the blast, and her husband, David, shot himself.

‘I Survived the Bomb’

The couple had demanded $300 million in return for the release of the hostages at the school in this small, ranching community in southwestern Wyoming.

Among the students at school Wednesday was a boy who wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the message: “I survived the bomb.”

Also returning to the school was John Miller, 30, a music teacher who was shot in the shoulder by Young while trying to flee.

Miller went from classroom to classroom to show the students his wound, something psychologists hoped will help students overcome their fears since the teacher was the most seriously injured.