AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The community in Bend, Oregon, is grieving following a shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School on Thursday. We are still learning new details about the victims and the alleged shooter. That shooter fired into a special needs classroom. Three children and a teacher were killed. Those victims include a 5-year-old boy named Rhoam Summer, along with an 8-year-old and an 11-year-old who are still unidentified at the request of their families. Megan Lambert, a 25-year-old teacher, also died in the shooting. A statement from her family was read by a county public information officer during a press conference.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: She loved Silver Rail. This was her dream job. Megan was compassionate and had a huge heart. She always fought for the underdog and those with special needs.
CHANG: Joining us now is the mayor of Bend, Oregon, Melanie Kebler. Mayor Kebler, thank you very much for taking the time right now to speak to us.
MELANIE KEBLER: Thank you for having me.
CHANG: Can I just start with you personally? What went through your mind when you first heard about what had happened yesterday?
KEBLER: This is the call that no mayor ever wants to receive. And when our city manager called, I knew almost immediately - I was actually at a conference out of town - I needed to return to Bend right away. And I felt in the pit of the stomach what our community was about to go through, and it was just horrifying. So...
CHANG: Yeah. Have you been able to talk to the families of these victims?
KEBLER: No. At this point, trying to let them work with the folks at our police department and the school district and other supports that they have. They are probably feeling incredibly overwhelmed at the moment just from folks even reaching out. So I would love to talk with folks of the victim families, but trying to respect their privacy and a little bit of time here. It's been barely 24 hours since this happened.
CHANG: Absolutely. You know, I am struck by the number of bystanders who got involved, who saved lives yesterday. I'm talking not only about the man who shot the suspect, but also the teacher in the classroom, whom I - I'm hearing now through her phone and then tackled the shooter. Also a man driving by who had made the 911 call so quickly - have you met with any of these people yet or heard anything from them?
KEBLER: No. I have not met with anyone, but I share the same respect and admiration that the rest of our community has for those folks right now. People are reaching out already on, how can we support and memorialize the folks who were in the classroom and who intervened? And it is just a testament to their character and their courage that they did what they did, and they saved lives.
CHANG: Yeah. Of course, a kind of tragedy like this affects an entire community. I mean, the entire country is talking about this right now. What are some of the concerns right now that you are hearing from families in Bend?
KEBLER: It is just an incredible and profound moment of grief and overwhelm for people. It's hard to process these kind of things. It's unfathomable that people would lose their children in this manner when schools are supposed to be a place where people can teach our children, and they can feel safe, and they can learn and play and make friends together. They should never be a place where something like this happens.
So I think right now the community is still grappling, but there is an outpouring of people that want to help. They want to give money. They want to provide food. They want to do what they can for our community. And that is something that we can all take some comfort in right now.
CHANG: Also every time there is a shooting like this, people want to stop it from happening again, right? The conversation becomes so familiar. What do we do? How do we prevent this? So I apologize for presenting the same question to you, Mayor. What do you think you and your office can do to keep something as horrific as this from happening again in a community like Bend?
KEBLER: If you go in the archives of the Bend Bulletin, our local paper here, you will find me being quoted as a high schooler to my reaction of the Columbine shooting. It is unconscionable that this goes on in our country at the rate that it does. It is completely unacceptable, and it is surreal for me to be receiving information from Sandy Hook Promise - an organization formed after the horrific Sandy Hook tragedy - now telling me how to deal with this sort of thing in my community and offering support.
We have to stop this, and it is going to take our state and federal partners to work with us, along with, you know, schools and cities. But really, we need to have reasonable regulations and change our culture so that this does not happen again.
CHANG: In terms of just strengthening the safety of schools in Bend, was there anything that came to mind in the last 24 hours that you think should be a priority?
KEBLER: I'm not going to speak to what our schools should and shouldn't do differently. I know that they take this incredibly seriously, and they're going to be fully looking into this particular situation. But what we have is people with access to weapons like these. It is very difficult to create a place of learning and safety and welcoming inclusive schools for our children while having to think about this type of thing and how to deal with it. So I have every confidence in our school district to take every measure they can, and we'll look to them for more answers on how we can help them.
CHANG: Well, for people who are only hearing about Bend, Oregon, for the first time, what do you want them to know about your city?
KEBLER: Bend is a beautiful place. We're a fast-growing city. We have folks from all over who move here, and we have folks like Megan Lambert who grew up here and stay. And we want people to know and I think to see right now how strong we are, how interconnected and supportive of each other we are.
I've been receiving messages about folks who have been touched, you know, by having connection to some of the children that were in that classroom. We are still a small enough community and a tight-knit community, and that is what's serving us well right now. But I hope people will see Bend's strength in the weeks to come.
CHANG: Mayor of Bend, Oregon, Melanie Kebler, thank you so much for your time, and I am so sorry for what you and your entire city is going through right now.
KEBLER: Thank you so much, Ailsa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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