At about 9:40 p.m. on Friday April 24, 1998, an armed 8th grade student with a.25-caliber handgun registered to his father, shot science teacher John Gillette, 48, on the patio of a restaurant where a school dance was being held for 240 students. He then walked inside and fired several shots, fleeing the scene through a rear exit, police say.

Gillette, who was shot in the head, died at the scene. Two 14-year-old boys were wounded by gunfire and treated and released from a local hospital. A female teacher was grazed by a bullet but did not require hospital treatment.

Girls in satin dresses and boys in ties huddled together after the shooting, many sobbing. The theme of the dance had been “I’ve Had the Time of My Life.”

To help honor John Gillette