GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Ten years ago Wednesday, two Green Bay East High School students were arrested for planning a Columbine-style attack in order to die by suicide.
It was a shocking plot uncovered only because a friend, who had been clued-in to their plans the day before, felt he needed to do the right thing.
“I was told about it the day before at lunch and I went through the rest of the day with one ear and one eye on the class thinking is this something that’s gonna happen, is this someone being tough and talking stupid?” says Matt Atkinson, now an insurance agent in Green Bay. “I went home and talked with my mom about it, she told me you’re pretty much an adult now, and this is something that’s up to you. If you feel this is something that’s going to happen, then you need to do the right thing.”
A sleepless night followed for Atkinson, then 17, with his mind going through the process of laying out all the options as he struggled with his next move.
“The first thing I saw when I closed my eyes, with a school population of about 2,000, literally just me going to that many funerals,” recalls Atkinson. “That’s kind of what set it for me. I was told that if this was going to happen I’d be getting a phone call before school. I didn’t, and I literally ran to school that day.”
Atkinson’s first stop was an associate principal whom he felt he had a rapport with. He was in a meeting with a parent when he arrived, waited for a 5 to 10 minute stretch, before bursting into that conversation to tell him.
“When I told him, he literally went pale. Every color that was in his body drained,” Atkinson says.
From there, according to a September 15, 2006 release by the Green Bay Police Department, administrators notified school resource officers of the information provided by Atkinson.
The two students, identified as 17-year-old Shawn Ryan Sturtz and 17-year-old William Charles Cornell, were immediately detained and interviewed. Both were taken to the Green Bay Police Department shortly afterward for more questioning. A search of their lockers turned up nothing.
The release stated that Sturtz and Cornell hated school and had been depressed over the past couple of years. They felt they didn’t fit in with others, describing an obsession with pain and death.
Police indicated the pair had, “long been fascinated over the Columbine incident and began to collect items and experiment with explosives.” Two months before, Cornell made several improvised explosive devices and stored them at his home.
According to the criminal complaint, Cornell stashed more weapons at his home like a short-barreled shotgun, rifles, pistols and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a black leather trench coat and a book, “Bully: A True Story of High School Revenge.” At Sturtz’s home, two bandoliers of ammo and several knives were found.
“The realization that no place is immune from such things, that these things can happen anywhere and do happen anywhere,” Ed Dorff, Green Bay East High School principal at the time said when asked about looking back on those days. “I thought that this was some type of attention-seeking behavior, I was upset with them, I was angry that they would do such a thing.”
Dorff says he knew both Cornell and Sturtz dating back to elementary school. He was shocked at what was discovered, but soon Dorff knew that he had to look at the bigger picture.
“It went from looking at it where I was their principal and needed to attend to some of their emotional needs because I thought it was a cry for help,” says Dorff. “To the other 1,500 kids, 180 staff and all the families. What do we do to make sure that the kids in school, the families at home, that people are safe.”
A third teenager charged in the plot, Bradley Netwal, was a recent graduate. He had told police after his arrest the following day that he went along with the plan, “because he didn’t want his friends to think he was a coward.”
Cornell pled no contest to conspiracy to commit first-degree intentional homicide, possession of explosives for unlawful purposes and possession of a short-barreled shotgun. He was sentenced to 6 years in prison. Sturtz was sentenced to 3 years in prison after pleading no contest to conspiracy to commit first-degree intentional homicide. Netwal got 18 months in prison after pleading no contest to conspiracy to damage property with explosives.
SECURITY BECOMES PRIORITY
While this incident may have been the end of innocence with regards to schools in northeastern Wisconsin, it ushered in a new era that Columbine High School in Colorado went through seven years prior and that many other school districts in Wisconsin and nationwide would experience in the years to follow.
“Two of the big foundations of that work, whether that’s safety and security or worst-case scenario, is being alert to the situation,” says Dorff, now Executive Director of the Wisconsin School Safety Coordinators Association. “We’re not talking about people walking around thinking everything is going to be scary and dangerous. It is being aware of your surroundings, it’s knowing the people you associate with, and providing and sharing information.”
The importance of the “See Something, Say Something,” campaign has become quite the slogan used both by national and local law enforcement when it comes to crime prevention and terrorism protocols. But back in 2006, Atkinson says his motives were less about providing valuable intelligence rather than just doing what he thought was the right thing.
“Listen to your heart and if you feel something could be dangerous and you’re wrong, so be it. You did what you could, you tried and followed your instincts,” Atkinson says. “If you’re right, then all the better. To be honest, at that time, it was all instinct. I honestly didn’t even really think about it until after I started seeing the news. The boxes of munitions and reading what all they found, reading the affidavit, it just hit me like a ton of bricks at that time.”
Dorff says the belief at that time was there was a theory that young people wouldn’t rat on their friends. He’s found that to be a bit overblown.
“The kids are interested in being safe in, they’re interested in their friends being safe,” says Dorff. “While we didn’t have kids running and tattling with every little thing, we did have kids come forward with information about situations that might cause damage or harm people.”
The lessons from that day, accompanied by reminders every time there’s another mass shooting or school-related incident nationwide, keep securing our schools and communities on the forefront of our minds. Dorff says it’s something that parents and other community members will continue to push for because one aspect which binds us is being safe.
THE MEMORY REMAINS
Each time another Virginia Tech or Sandy Hook massacre takes place, Atkinson says that’s when he gets a call from some media member looking to rehash his history. He prefers it this way, rather than what the media swarm was like back in 2006.
“It was suffocating, it was crazy,” Atkinson says. “I remember waking up some days and literally seeing every news station I can think of, both local and national, outside.”
Atkinson says Green Bay police put him under an unofficial gag order pending the outcome of their investigation. He remained that way, Atkinson indicates, until his name inadvertently got put on a search warrant.
“They said if anybody asks you about it, play dumb, you don’t know anything more than they do,” says Atkinson. “I’m a straightforward guy so when someone talks to me and says ‘hey I know what’s going on and I heard it’s you,’ it was probably one of the hardest things for me.”
After the search warrant was obtained with his name on it, Atkinson was informed that the police department needed to break the silence.
“It was nice in the effect that at least people know this is it,” Atkinson says. “On the other hand, it also painted a target on my back. I had a lot of backlash from the family, not directly, but I remember in some news stories they had mentioned some things about it.”
Atkinson left Wisconsin for about a year afterward in order for things to cool down a bit from the attention. Nowadays he still gets remembered from time to time.
“I’ve had clients who kind of looked at me, or talk to me and say I know you from somewhere. I tell them I graduated from East. My kids were there and thank you for what you did,” states Atkinson. “Overall, I’d say it’s pretty well died down.”
The one piece of advice Atkinson offers to everyone else harkens back to his motto — do the right thing. He believes that you shouldn’t worry about what everyone else thinks, do what you in your heart feel you should do.
