Springfield marks 28 years since Thurston High School shooting

Twenty-eight years after a 15-year-old Thurston High freshman opened fire in the school cafeteria, Springfield parents and students were again left weighing what has changed in local schools and what still feels missing.

Newtown Action Alliance and other gun-safety advocates marked the anniversary of the May 21, 1998, attack with calls for continued action to end gun violence. The Newtown-based grassroots group, formed after Sandy Hook, joined Oregon voices that have kept Thurston in the public memory as both a Springfield tragedy and a warning that still carries national weight.

Kipland “Kip” Kinkel, then a Thurston High freshman, killed his parents, Bill and Faith Kinkel, the night before the shooting at the family home in Springfield. The next day, he walked into Thurston High School and opened fire in the cafeteria. Two students, Ben Walker and Mikael Nickolauson, were killed. Twenty-five other people were wounded.

The shooting came nearly a year before Columbine and is remembered as one of the earliest modern school shootings in the United States. Kinkel later pleaded guilty and received a 111-year prison sentence without the possibility of parole.

Springfield has marked earlier anniversaries with vigils and memorial events, including a 25th-anniversary gathering in 2023 that drew gun-violence prevention advocates and survivors. Those remembrances have kept the names of Walker and Nickolauson in public view while also underscoring how long the attack has shaped life in Lane County.

The 28th anniversary arrived as Oregon gun-safety organizations including Moms Demand Action, Students Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety continued to press lawmakers for reforms. For Springfield, Thurston remains more than a chapter in the city’s history. It is still part of the conversation about school safety, community trauma and the cost of failing to prevent the next shooting.