Parents of 3 Slain at School Feel Forsaken

Sympathy poured in from around the world, but in McCracken County, Ky., where three students were killed and five wounded when a ninth-grader opened fire at a high school prayer meeting last Dec. 1, parents of the victims feel forsaken. Even their closest friends “don’t know how to deal with it,” said Joe James, who lost a daughter, 17-year-old Jessica. The killer, Michael Carneal, 15, pleaded guilty but mentally ill Oct. 5 to charges of murder and attempted murder. He will get the maximum punishment--life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 25 years--when he’s sentenced Dec. 16 in McCracken Circuit Court in Paducah.