Father of slain student brings powerful message

By Marlene J. Bohr
mbohr@steelcountrybee.com
 
Instead of curling  up in a ball of hurt, hate and resentment, John-Michael Keyes and his wife Ellen have gone forward since the death of their child in a school shooting to bring many messages to others. Mr. Keyes spoke at Region 8 Service Center to a room full of educators, law enforcement and first responders to tell the journey of his life since Sept. 27, 2006, when his daughter was killed by a gunman who had invaded Platte Canyon High School.
Emily had just turned 16 prior to the shooting and was in her high school English class when the gunman burst in. He released all the boys and some of the girls, keeping seven girls in the room, one of them Emily. Later when SWAT went in the building, he used Emily as a human shield and shot her in the back of the head just before he was taken down.
From this tragedy, the “I Love You Guys” foundation was formed. With the desire to turn their loss into urging school safety for other children, the Keyes travel and speak of studies they have made on school safety.
“Peace – it means to be in a place of trouble and still have calm in your heart,” Mr. Keyes said. “My objective is when I am done with my story, your story begins. We talk to our kids about fire and give them multiple strategies in case of fire. How many kids have we lost to a fire in a school in 50 years?  None. How many have we lost to active violence in the last few years? Hundreds. It is time we talk to our kids. We can stop violence and continue to stop it.”
Mr. Keyes talked about Safe 2 Tell, which is an intervention tool so students can learn about violence before it happens.
“In 81 percent of the cases, someone knew in advance,” Mr. Keyes said. “There is violence in bullying, weapons in schools, suicide interventions and interventions where they found planned school attacks that started out small and were caught.”
Mr. Keyes recalled Sept. 27, 2006.
“That day it was Emily’s turn to drive,” he said. “She has a twin brother, Casey. It was off to school like any other day. The resource officer left the school, and a stranger was in the parking lot and walked into the school. He fired a round into a wall and asked the male students and some female students to leave the room, including the teacher. A 52-year-old stranger held seven girls hostage.”
Mr. Keyes did not know how to text in 2006, and since he knew Emily had a cell phone with that capability, he yelled if anyone outside the school in his vicinity was under 30 and could text. A reporter helped and texted Emily asking how she was. She texted back, “I Love You Guys.” They texted her, asking her where she was, but they never received a reply.
After the Keyes lost their daughter, they were amazed at the outpouring of love from the local people.
“We started the ‘I Love You Guys’ foundation,” Mr. Keyes said. “Our mission statement is ‘to restore and protect the joy of youth through educational programs and positive actions in collaboration with families, schools, communities, organizations and government entities.’”
Emily’s Parade was founded a year after her death and is held yearly to raise money for the foundation’s work. There is also a 5K run for emergency responders and anyone else who wants to run.
“We went to conferences after Emily died and tried to figure out who was doing what,” Mr. Keyes said. “Teachers and staff are the first ones to own the threat and the ones who are left to cope with the after effect. In studying school plans, we found out there was no common language that the schools used. Schools in the same area used different codes. We looked at federal and state levels to see if there was a common level. We found it closer to home in Broomfield, Colo. That school has put together a school safety plan. From that, the foundation has developed the Standard Response Protocol for schools and law enforcement to follow. There is a demand for clearer information. We need to tell our kids what is going on when it is going on. Direct and honest communication is important.”
Mr. Keyes talked about lockouts, lockdowns, evacuations and shelter.
“Create a time barrier so law enforcement can get there,” he said.
Mr. Keyes said there is a lot of information schools can download at no charge from the foundation web site at https://Iluvyouguys.org.  
“Our information outlines how you can do this at your school,” he said.