DEXTER — Tuesday was a day of grieving at Ridge View Community School.
About 25 counselors were at the school for pre-K through eighth grade to help students and staff members cope with Monday’s deaths of kindergarten teacher Amy Lake and her children, Coty, an eighth-grader, and Monica, a sixth-grader.
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“Schools have lost staff before and schools have lost kids before, but this was a staff member and her children,” School Administrative District 46 Superintendent Kevin Jordan said.
Maine State Police Maj. Gary Wright said Steven Lake, 37, fatally shot his estranged wife and the couple’s children before killing himself Monday morning at Amy Lake’s home.
Amy Lake, 38, was a veteran teacher in Dexter, Jordan said. He estimated she taught 300 to 400 children during her career.
“Her impact branches out wide and far,” said Jordan, who described Amy Lake as energetic and bubbly.
“Her kids told me that her class was always fun,” he said.
Jordan described Coty and Monica as energetic, athletic and good students.
“As many teachers’ children do, they grew up in school. They hung out in Mom’s room after school and would run up and down the halls,” he said. “Everyone knew them. They were normal, happy, popular kids.”
Jordan said the district’s crisis team met at 5 p.m. Monday to prepare for Tuesday.
“Everybody grieves differently. Some need more structure and some need a little more freedom. We didn’t have any academic expectations today,” he said.
Jordan said counseling was done in one-on-one conversations and in small groups at the school, which has an enrollment of 715 and opened in August.
Students, he said, created memorials and left messages for Amy, Coty and Monica Lake on a large sheet of white paper.
Counselors from Care & Comfort, a home health and mental health care agency; Womancare Aegis, which helps victims of domestic abuse, and Mayo Regional Hospital, all in nearby Dover-Foxcroft, joined social workers, district guidance counselors and counselors from surrounding districts to help students and staff members deal with the tragedy.
Counseling will continue, said Jordan.
He said the crisis team planned to meet Tuesday to plan for the rest of this week and for when school ends June 22.
“It’s a tragic event and it is going to take time,” said Jordan.
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