Red Lake Shooting Survivors Head to Tragedy in Connecticut - Valley News Live - KVLY/KXJB - Fargo/Grand Forks

Red Lake Shooting Survivors Head to Tragedy in Connecticut

  Student survivors and others from Red Lake, Minnesota, who lived to tell about a school shooting 7 years ago in their town are on their way to Connecticut.

  The group will off their support to families  of the shooting in Newtown.

  The shooting at Red Lake High School happened on March 21, 2005. In less than ten minutes, the 16-year old shooter, armed with 2 pistols and a 12-gauge shotgun killed 7 people in this school, before killing himself.

  Now, students who survived the shooting and others from the Community are driving to Newtown, Connecticut to offer words of healing… that come from their own, tragic experience.

Nathan Hurlburt, School Administrator: "That was the big thing in talking to Whitney Spears, one of my former students that's going out there. She said we just want to let them know they're not alone. That we're here and we feel their pain and we want to do anything we can to help them out." 

  So, while shooting survivors offer their support and the national debate on gun control and security gets under way, students at Red Lake have already learned to live with a very tight security system.

  No one gets in the building without being buzzed in and passing through a metal detector to a security checkpoint. All students are even patted down in the morning.

  Security guard, Donald Brun's cousin, was shot and killed in the 2005 incident.

Donald Brun, Security guard: "I've had kids that have thanked us for being here. They feel more safe that we are here."

  The School also has 5 unarmed security officers in the building during school hours and an extensive, video surveillance system.

  It's now just the way things are at a school that knows full well the horror of what can happen.

  Red Lake students also took several items to present to victims in Connecticut, including a healing dream catcher, healing blankets, teddy bears and a flag signed by all Red Lake students.

  That group of Red Lake students is expected to arrive in Connecticut Thursday.