Articles:
Autopsy: Teen's death suicide
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Police investigate high school shooting death
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School will continue to provide counseling after student's death
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McGuffey senior's death ruled
suicide
By Joe Grata
December 17, 2006
The .22-caliber rifle shot that
killed a 17-year-old McGuffey High School senior was self-
inflicted, the Allegheny County medical examiner's office has
determined.
It issued the suicide ruling
yesterday after conducting an autopsy into Chad Huggins' death,
further stunning the small, rural Washington County school district.
The shooting took place around 5
p.m. Thursday in the stadium locker room during rifle team practice.
Mr. Huggins, a member of the school's rifle team, died overnight at
UPMC Presbyterian of a single gunshot wound to the head. The bullet
was fired from his own weapon. He was alone when the shooting
occurred.
At the time, state police did not
immediately determine the cause of death. There was speculation he
may have been adjusting the rifle scope or cleaning the gun.
State police said yesterday that
the teenager left a note but they declined to comment about its
contents.
Mr. Huggins lived in South Franklin
near Claysville with his parents, Ronald and Loretta Huggins, and
his older sister, Trisha.
Many McGuffey students expressed
shock over their classmate's death. They held a candlelight vigil at
the high school in Buffalo Friday night, sharing recollections of
the classmate they described as quick-witted and funny.
"The kids are appalled by this, but
everybody agrees that he was a comedian," parent Kim Carnahan said
last night. Her family lives next to the Huggins' home on Alame Lake
Road.
Her twin sons, T.D. and Callan,
seniors at McGuffey High, grew up with Mr. Huggins from infancy.
"He was a great neighbor who was
always willing to help with anything and everything, from
extricating a stuck lawn tractor to chasing a runaway puppy," the
Carnahan teens said. "His constant good nature and ready smile will
be missed, along with his friendship.
"Chad was cheerful, helpful,
generous and well-liked throughout the community," they said,
calling attention to his work with senior citizens and participation
in Christian youth fellowship groups.
Friends will be received from 7 to
9 p.m. tomorrow and from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at the
Hummell and Barnhill Funeral Home, Washington. A funeral service
will be at Church of Christ in Washington at 11 a.m. Wednesday.
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Autopsy: Teen's death suicide
December 17, 2006
 The
Allegheny County Medical Examiner's office ruled Saturday that the
death of a 17-year-old McGuffey senior, who was found shot Thursday
during a high school rifle practice, was suicide.
Chad Huggins, of South Franklin
Township, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, a
spokesman at the medical examiner's office said following an autopsy
on Saturday. The shooting occurred at 5 p.m. Thursday during a team
practice while Huggins was alone in the stadium locker room. The
team was practicing at the adjacent rifle range.
Huggins was flown to UPMC-Presbyterian
hospital in Pittsburgh, where he died Friday morning.
Huggins' friends and classmates
held a vigil for him at the high school Friday night.
On Tuesday, in Montgomery County,
outside Philadelphia, a junior at Springfield High School killed
himself with a rifle he took to school that morning.
That student, Shane Joseph Halligan,
16, an Eagle Scout and a junior volunteer fireman, was said to be
despondent over falling grades and his parents' efforts to curb his
after-school activities.
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Student's death troubles police,
his classmates
Was shooting an accident or suicide?
December 16, 2006
By Tim Grant and Maria Sciullo
A member of the McGuffey High
School rifle team died yesterday from a bullet fired from his own
weapon, leaving authorities to wrestle with the question of whether
it was an accident or suicide.
Chad Huggins, a 17-year-old senior,
was found in the school's stadium locker room about 5 p.m. Thursday
with a gunshot wound to the head.
The rifle team was practicing at
the time at its range in the football stadium on school grounds in
Buffalo, Washington County. Students and faculty told police Mr.
Huggins was alone in the locker room at the time of the shooting.
He died overnight at UPMC
Presbyterian. State police investigators would not comment on the
case yesterday. The Allegheny County medical examiner's office was
to conduct an autopsy.
Grief counselors were made
available to students and staff yesterday at the middle school and
high school, where the students wondered whether Mr. Huggins may
have been adjusting the scope on the rifle or cleaning it when it
fired, or whether he committed suicide.
Some students said they heard that
there were other people in the locker room when Mr. Huggins entered
and asked for privacy because he had to call his mother. They left
and heard a shot, said one student who didn't want to give her name.
Other students described their
classmate as a good student who was polite and seemed happy.
McGuffey athletic director Michael
Malesic said that guns brought for team practice are "checked into
the office, first thing in the morning. We have a lot of [locked]
storage."
The rifle team coach, Howard
Ashbrook, is also director of transportation for the school
district. He could not be reached yesterday, but in an interview
last week for an article on rifle teams, Mr. Ashbrook said school
rifles are locked in a gun room at the Highlanders' range.
Although schools supply the
.22-caliber rifles used in competition, at least five of the
McGuffey High School team members have their own guns.
The high school built a new rifle
range two years ago as part of the football stadium renovation.
While a number of school districts
across the country still recognize rifle as an interscholastic
sport, rifle programs have steadily declined in recent years because
they often contradict school policies that prohibit guns on campus.
"According to NRA statistics, there
were over 20,000 [teams] in the 1960s," said Plum coach Bob Eikey,
who was a competitive shooter in the U.S. Coast Guard and at Ohio
State University.
"Now there are less than 500. But
Pennsylvania still has a disproportianate share, about one-fifth."
In Western Pennsylvania, 11 school
districts have rifle teams that compete in twice-a-week WPIAL-sanctioned
matches, with a 12th district, Hempfield Area, participating as a
club.
In Allegheny County, Bethel Park,
Mt. Lebanon, Plum, Upper St. Clair and Woodland Hills still field
teams. Others with teams in the WPIAL are Butler, Avella, Indiana,
McGuffey, Trinity and Washington.
The Pennsylvania Interscholastic
Athletic Association, which governs the majority of high school
athletics in the state, does not sanction rifle.
Thirty years ago, just about every
good-size school in Western Pennsylvania fielded rifle teams. By
training, equipment and travel comparisons, it was a fairly
inexpensive sport that allowed males and female to compete equally
on the range.
The decrease in rifle popularity
can probably be traced to Vietnam War-era sentiment, stoked also by
growing debate over firearms legislation.
"Political correctness probably has
its least grip here," said McGuffey High School junior Joel Nuzum,
who was interviewed last week for a future Post-Gazette feature on
school rifle teams. "My [grandfather] hunted, and my dad hunted."
Joel, who won the state individual
title last year, said he "can't remember what age I was when I shot
my first high-powered rifle ... maybe 5 years old? I only know it
was that [young] because we have it on tape."
Scholastic rifle competition
involves a roster of 10 shooters, although only the top eight scores
are counted. Competitors aim for the x-ring, the bulls-eye on the
target 50 feet downrange.
As in Olympic competition, the
shooters are prone -- lying on their stomachs.
"You don't have to be a 6-4,
250-pound muscle-man, so boys and girls are on equal footing,"
Bethel Park coach Dean Baumgardner said. "That's one of the really
great things about rifle shooting."
The trigger squeeze -- pressure
required to fire -- is about 2 ounces, compared to six pounds on a
deer rifle.
All of the coaches interviewed said
gun safety is always addressed before the actual training begins.
"It's the first thing we do," Mr.
Baumgardner said. "The rules, and how to treat guns in a safe
manner. They need to know the commands involved with loading and
shooting."
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KTAE-TV 4
School will continue to provide
counseling after student's death
December 16, 2006
Grief counselors will be available
for students at McGuffey High School again on Monday, following the
shooting death of a student on the rifle team.
The medical examiner's office ruled
that 17-year-old Chad Huggins died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound
to the head.
He was found in the locker room at
the school's stadium.
There was some question as to
whether the shooting was an accident.
State police said the boy had left
a note.
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Police investigate high school
shooting death
December 16, 2006
The Associated Press CLAYSVILLE
A 17-year-old member of a
Washington County high school rifle team who shot himself in a
locker room after school died early Friday, and authorities were
investigating whether his death was an accident or a suicide.
Grief counselors were made
available to students Friday as they arrived at McGuffey High
School.
The student, a senior, was found
with a self-inflicted gunshot wound late Thursday afternoon in the
locker room at the school's stadium. He was flown to UPMC
Presbyterian Hospital, where he later died.
The student was alone at the time
of the shooting, which happened at about 5 p.m. No other student was
in danger, Superintendent Joseph Stefka said.
An autopsy was to be conducted late
Friday or today, according to officials with the Allegheny County
Medical Examiner's office.
"The loss has affected not only the
students and staff of the McGuffey High School, but the entire
McGuffey community," Stefka said in a statement Friday.
The student was a member of
McGuffey's rifle team, which outshot area rival Trinity High School
last year to win the state team championship.
The shooting happened two days
after a student in suburban Philadelphia committed suicide inside
his school.
Shane Halligan, who had been
despondent over his falling grades and his parents' limiting of his
extracurricular activities, shot himself Tuesday in a hallway during
school at Springfield Township High School with a rifle he brought
in a duffel bag. No one else was hurt.
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