In paint ball shooting, a larger concern over violence

A Columbia Falls eighth grader was hit in the head with a paint ball while walking home after school along Talbott Road last Friday.

His father took him to the doctor to get checked out and the 14-year-old was OK. Police are investigating three high school students involved in the incident to find out who did the shooting, Columbia Falls Police Chief David Perry said. The suspect could face charges of assault with a weapon and discharging a weapon within the city. Police believe it was a random act of violence, Perry said.

A group of students was walking on the bike path near Ruder Elementary School at 3:36 p.m., when someone in a passing vehicle shot a paint ball gun into the group.

The mother of the boy who was hit, Amy Hanson, has been a first grade teacher at Ruder since 1999 and is a board member for the Campaign Against Violence. The campaign is an initiative of Flathead Valley organizations and schools to promote awareness of violence in the community.

Her daughter was walking on the same path, when her son was knocked to the ground by the paint ball. The daughter ran to tell Hanson, who was in her classroom at Ruder, that he was shot. 

“With a gun,” Hanson recalled thinking, before her daughter got out the rest of her words.

“He told me, ‘I don’t ever want to play paint ball,’ after it happened,” Hanson said. He told his mom he thought he had been hit with a baseball.

It was a violent act whether or not it was a prank and people need to know that a paint ball gun is still a gun, Hanson said. The shooting traumatized anyone who was walking on the path, she said. The incident with her son brought the issue of violence much closer to home.

“It was shocking and unexpected,” she said. “It inspired me more to help the community. “ 

She said that kids shouldn’t have to worry about walking home from school. 

“We don’t want it (violence) in our town,” she said.

The goal of the campaign is “opening windows so anyone can talk about violence and victims can feel safe to talk about it,” she said.

The campaign’s inaugural event for youth will be at The Lodge at Whitefish Lake Nov. 2, 1-3 p.m. The event will discuss the root causes of violence and focus on finding ways to prevent violence and conflict.

Speakers include Whitefish School District superintendent Heather Davis Schmidt, Flathead Valley Community College professor of psychology Ivan Lorentzen, FVCC sociologist Ami Megalav and national authority on bullying prevention Marlene Snyder. The public is invited to the free workshop and registration is required. For more information call 862-4942 or register at www.campaignagainstviolence.com.

They will discuss domestic violence at the next event, Hanson said.

 “Our mission is to promote awareness of violence in our community, to facilitate public conversations about the impact of violence, and to offer some field-tested strategies for making our community safer for everyone,” chairman Brian Muldoon said.