On the morning of February 2, 1996, an algebra classroom at Frontier Junior High School in Moses Lake, Washington, was transformed into a scene of deadly violence. Fourteen-year-old Arnold Edward Arnie Fritz, a White eighth-grade student, was among those fatally shot when a fellow 14-year-old student entered the room armed with weapons taken from his father. The teacher, Leona Caires, and another student, Manuel Vela Jr., were also killed; Natalie Hintz was critically wounded and survived.

A gym teacher, Jon Lane, confronted and subdued the shooter, who was taken into custody that day. The attacker was tried as an adult; a jury convicted him in 1997 on multiple counts including murder, attempted murder, and kidnapping. Sentencing initially amounted to two life terms plus 205 years and was later recalculated following a Supreme Court ruling on juvenile sentencing.

What memories or pieces of information might help preserve Arnie Fritz’s story for the community?