Bainbridge Student Threatens Teacher With Knife

"You think I'm crazy? I'll be the one you remember!"

That's what shocked Bainbridge Island High School students said they heard Aaron Heppler shout yesterday after a knife was taken away from him at the school's annual year-end "moving-up day" and awards assembly.

It was out of character for the quiet 18-year-old senior, classmates said.

And so was his act of forcing Julia Thomas, a young history teacher, to the podium at knifepoint, they said. Thomas, completing her first year of teaching at the school, was frightened but unharmed.

Bainbridge High principal David Ellick suffered a cut finger, and a senior student, Dave Prout, a forearm cut, when they wrestled the pocketknife away from Heppler. They were treated by medics for superficial wounds.

Bainbridge Superintendent William Bleakney said the student was expelled and turned over to Bainbridge Island police for criminal investigation.

Bleakney said he did not know what caused the outburst.

"He has been a good student," he said.

Students characterized Heppler as a quiet bookworm and science-fiction fan who wasn't much into student activities.

There are only two references to him in the 1993 yearbook - his senior picture and a photo of him in a colorful tuxedo jacket before the homecoming dance.

Many of the school's 900 students thought the incident was part of a skit, when it began about 9:20 a.m. near the end of the assembly in the gymnasium.

Chris McLaughlin, another 16-year-old sophomore, said "He walked up to her (Thomas) and put his arm around her shoulder," then shoved her forward.

Michael Yund, a 17-year-old junior, said that, from his place as a trumpet player in the school jazz band, positioned at the back wall, he saw the student forcing the teacher to the podium with the knife at her throat "most of the time."

A fellow senior, who asked that her name be withheld, said Heppler "reads nonstop," often getting into trouble for reading other than textbooks in class.

"He was the last person you'd expect to do anything like that," she said - and only a little more than a week from graduation.