Faith
February 2, 1988 By Cliff Lewis, Associate Pastor of Worship and Music, Clayton Baptist Church
M
ost people reading this article will wonder to themselves, “What is so special about February 2, 1988?” Others will probably think it may have something to do with Groundhog Day. For me, and my elementary school friends, and the whole town in which I grew up, this day was an incredibly tense and terrifying day. It may be difficult for some to remember the days before school hostage situations and mass shootings like Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland, Uvalde, and this year’s tragedy in Nashville at the Covenant School, but there was a time when most schools didn’t have lock-down plans or metal detectors. It’s not that there were no incidents of violence in schools before that time, but it had not yet become a “normal” part of life.
For a 10-year-old 5th-grade student at West End Christian School in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, that rainy Tuesday morning seemed like just another day of school. The small elementary school annex building where my classroom was located was across the street from the main buildings of the K-12th grade private school. Soon after we had arrived in our classrooms, two men in ski masks, armed with pistols, a hunting rifle, and an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle, along with 2,000 rounds of ammunition, came to the front doors of the building. After forcing their way in, they quickly headed into the 3rd-grade classroom. That room was directly beside my 5th-grade room, and when the 3rd-grade teacher, Mary Alice Blanton, saw the men with rifles and pistols, she let out a blood-curdling scream. That scream caused our substitute teacher to run to the front of our classroom and lock the door. She then had me and my classmates move to the back of the classroom behind her desk. That was around 8:30am.
James Harvey, the main hostage taker, was a Vietnam-era veteran who had been dealing with mental illness for many years. He had spent countless hours watching national news sources like CNN and C-SPAN and had worked himself into a frenzy about the problems he believed were plaguing the country. Harvey had convinced himself that in order to make his case to a national audience about things that needed to change in America, his best option was to take us hostage to give himself that platform. The morning of the event, Harvey had gone to the unemployment office early and had spoken to another man, who he essentially forced to help him breach the school. Shortly after the two men had gotten inside, our school headmaster, Dan Carden, and a couple of other men from the school office came over to confront the intruders. They were immediately met by Harvey, as he pointed a gun at them and instructed them to leave. Dr. Carden quickly contacted the police, and when they arrived, it became clear that Harvey had taken over 70 people hostage, most of us were children.
Cliff Lewis is the Associate Pastor of Worship & Music at Clayton Baptist Church, located at 87 South Church Street in Clayton, Georgia. He leads God-centered music each week, preaches on occasion and is an all-around great guy. Cliff loves his wife and kids, is a fan of the Crimson Tide and Narnia is his favorite movie.
10 - www.laurelofnortheastgeorgia.com - November 2023
