PJHS students in D.C., but not near shooting

Eighth-grade history students from Petaluma Junior High School are in Washington, D.C., this week, but they were not at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum where a gunman opened fire and killed a security guard on Wednesday.

The group was visiting George Washington's home at Mount Vernon when the shooting occurred.

“They were not scheduled to be at the Holocaust Museum, though their tour bus was literally just outside of it after it was all closed off,” said Frances Rivetti, whose son is part of the group.

An 88-year-old man, described as a white supremacist with a violent anti-Semitic past, stepped inside the crowded Holocaust museum on Wednesday, opened fire with a rifle and fatally wounded a security guard before being shot by other officers.

“I think this was a big lesson in history not necessarily being in the past tense,” Rivetti said.

She anticipated that the school staff and parents will spend some time talking to the students this evening about what occurred today.

The junior high group is traveling with USA Educational Adventures.