SPRINGFIELD – As May 21 creeps closer on the calendar, it comes as a reminder of the tragic events at Thurston High School in 1998. Without renewed financial support, a scholarship created in memory of two teachers who lost their lives will be lost, too.
This year’s anniversary marks 27 years since the Thurston High School shooting, where freshman Kip Kinkel opened fire at THS, killing two classmates and injuring 25 others.
He was armed with a semi-automatic rifle, two hunting knives, and two pistols when he set foot on campus with 300 other students. The incident grabbed the attention of national news as “more monstrous” than previous shootings. It preceded the slightly more infamous Columbine High School massacre by almost a year, and President Bill Clinton even came to THS to talk about the incident.
The day before shooting his classmates, on May 20, Kip murdered his parents in their home. Bill and Faith Kinkel were Spanish teachers in Springfield.
In 1999, Kip pled guilty and was sentenced to four counts of murder in the first-degree and 26 counts of attempted murder. The judge’s ruling makes Kip the first adolescent to serve a life sentence in the state of Oregon. He is incarcerated at the Oregon State Correctional Institution in Salem, serving 112 years.
“Bill and Faith were really, really good people, and they really loved their community, and they really loved teaching,” said Dionne Hasforth, THS Spanish teacher. Hasforth knew Bill from Lane Community College, where he also taught Spanish classes.
Faith and Bill Kinkel profoundly impacted their community, and after they passed, friends and colleagues organized the Bill and Faith Kinkel Memorial Scholarship.
Although it’s unclear how initial funds were generated, whether through fundraising auctions or community donations, it is assumed that, “the scholarship was set up in partnership with the Springfield Education Foundation (SAF), as they currently manage the financial accounting,” said Jonathan Gault, Springfield Education Association (SEA) President.
“I imagine that a collection of donations from generous and thoughtful school and community donors led to colleagues of the Kinkels working together to create a committee and spread the word about the fund, gathering both single and ongoing, monthly donations,” Gault said.
“My understanding is, initially, a lot of the people who helped start the scholarship were school employees,” said Mary Jo Sanders, mother to THS students during the accident. “They had sort of payroll deduction plans for teachers that wanted to contribute,” she said, adding that most of those folks have since retired.
“We were touched that out of tragedy came a plan to help generations of future students,” Sanders said, “and very sad to learn it is at risk of ending soon.”
Last November, the SEF posted a flyer on their social media page, “An S.O.S. from the SEA – a call to save our scholarship.” After over 20 years of preservation, the scholarship is losing its funding.
“Generally, those who were career-long contributors (and colleagues of the Kinkels) have mostly, if not all, retired,” said Gault. “Monthly contributions were done as payroll deductions, so once district paychecks stopped, so did contributions by and large,” he said.
With original contributors retired and funds dwindling, this might be the last year Springfield students can apply for the memorable scholarship.
The application is open to any graduating senior in Springfield Public Schools. Up to four $500 scholarships are awarded annually to eligible students. Applicants must have completed two years of a second language and be committed to further studying a second language in college. One of the four scholarships will be awarded explicitly to a Latino student in the Springfield School District’s high school English language development (ELD) program. According to the SEA, scholarship recipients are notified within the first three weeks of May.
“The threat of losing the scholarship not only impacts graduating seniors with plans to continue language studies in college,” said Gault. “But also those who have been connected to the Springfield and Thurston community long enough to want to keep the legacy of Bill and Faith alive.
“Many of those directly impacted by the tragic events of 1998 still live and work in the area. This scholarship is not only an important and valuable resource for our students, but for many, it’s also a connection to the memory of beloved colleagues and community members,” he said.
“As long as we can keep it going, I think it’s beneficial to students. … As long as we can do that in (Faith and Bill Kinkel’s) honor, I think they’d be pleased about that,” said Hasforth.
To keep their memory alive and donate to the Kinkel Scholarship, visit SEFLane.org/Donate and write “Kinkel Scholarship” in the comment section.
This reporting is supported by the Catalyst Journalism Project at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication.
