90 years ago today, the most deadly act of school violence in US history happened in Mid-Michigan in Bath Township.
Disgruntled school board member and local farmer Andrew Kehoe dynamited the school on May 18, 1927, killing 44 people including 38 children. He was angry about having to pay higher taxes. He detonated an explosion at Bath Consolidated School before blowing his truck up and killing himself.
Nearly 3 years ago, the final victim of the bombing finally received a grave marker. For 86 years, Richard Fritz was buried in an unmarked grave. The boy died in 1928 almost a year after the bombing from complications he suffered on the day of the attack which was also his 8th birthday. Thanks to an anonymous donor, his grave was officially marked in September of 2014.
"There are still of course relatives in the area, there are still of course people in the Bath community who have ties to people who were injured or killed in the bombing," says President of Friends of Lansing's Historic Cemeteries Loretta S. Stanaway.
"I think we owe it to the people who were so severely impacted...who lost their lives, to remember them, to remember the cause of their death so we can do everything in our power to prevent anything like that from ever happening again," says Stanaway.
Even with all the deadly attacks at schools nationwide, including Columbine and the Sandy Hook massacare, the disaster in Bath is still the most deadly school attack.
A 90 year Commemoration program will be held today at Bath Middle School from 4-8 p.m. and will include a screening of a documentary about the Bath School Disaster, tours of the Bath School Museum, and a reading of the names of the victims who died.
FREE PROGRAM TONIGHT:
The event is free and open to the public at Bath Middle School Museum & Auditorium located at 13675 Webster Road, Bath Township. From 4-6, one-on-one tours of the Bath School Museum will be available by members of the Bath School Museum Committee. A presentation is scheduled at 6 p.m. and at 7:15 p.m., there will be a panel discussion with second-generation survivors Michelle Allen, Jim Church, & Sue Hagerman.
