HIGH POINT, N.C. — How much do you remember 53 years later? The answer may depend on the event or situation. For Bob Branning, a day in 1968 is permanently etched in his memory.
“It was just a pleasant day, it was sunny,” Branning said.
High Point Central High 1968 Shooting
At the time Branning was a freshman at High Point Central High School. The wide-eyed teenager will admit he was still learning his way in the world and even the massive campus at Central High. On March 23, of that year, he would see something no one, much less a teenager, should ever see. One of his classmates, 15-year-old Gerald Locklear shot and killed another student, according to police.
“I just came around the corner and Gerald was firing his weapon,” Branning said.
The student he shot was 15-year-old David Walker. The two boys apparently had some bad blood between them going back a few weeks. Branning can remember almost every detail from that moment.
“I saw David fall, but I didn’t approach him, I didn’t know what to do,” Branning said.
Moments After School Shooting
A teacher showed up seconds later as Locklear was running away. Branning said he was in shock and just leaned up against the wall as emergency crews and police were called. Police arrived minutes later at the school and Branning said he can remember a police officer approaching him.
“He was like, 'what did you see?' I said, 'I saw Gerald (shoot) like that,'” Branning said.
Once questioned by police Branning was sent back to class. That is one of the more curious parts of this horrible incident that Branning shakes his head at more than a half-century later. Despite witnessing one of his fellow students shooting another classmate Branning was sent back to class. He said he remembers an announcement over the school intercom system, but it simply said there was an incident. There was no lockdown and no mention of the shooting, in fact, students were not released until the end of the day.
School Response to Shooting
“I don’t remember a thing about the shooting, I don’t remember hearing about it until the next day,” Teresa Holt said.
Also, a freshman at the time of the shooting Holt said it simply wasn’t a big deal like it would be now. She doesn’t remember any counselors being made available to talk with kids and said the school was not interrupted at all.
“We were not dismissed or lock downed, I don’t remember any of that,” Holt said.
Mt. Tabor High Deadly School Shooting
The reactions and events that took place in the minutes and days after that shooting are certainly much different from the recent shooting at Mt. Tabor High School. The school was immediately put in lockdown, students and teachers huddled under desks and in closets as police searched for the shooter. Students and teachers were eventually able to come out of their classrooms after several hours but were directed to the cafeteria before being loaded on buses and taken to a meetup spot several hours later.
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Classes at Mt. Tabor High were canceled for a few days to allow students and staff time to grieve and seek any counseling that was needed.
“We did not have therapy people come in and ask if we needed to talk, are you okay mentally, (we) did not have that,” Branning said.
Back then Branning can remember several students driving to school with hunting rifles in the back of their truck on a rack in the window. These days there are signs posted outside almost every school in America prohibiting any sort of gun on campus.
The suspect in the Mt. Tabor shooting will be charged as an adult and could spend the rest of his life behind bars. The teenager convicted in the shooting back in 1968 spent just a bit more than 10 years in custody before his release.
“From my personal standpoint, I found it a bit unfair to learn that because I think (that is) unfair to victims’ family,” Holt said.
Reflecting 53 Years Later
So much has changed in the past 53 years. It's hard to imagine a time when guns were brought on campus, a shooting would barely interrupt instruction, and kids could go more than 24 hours without knowing about a shooting at their school.
The incident at Mt. Tabor was all over social media within 24 minutes.
For Branning and Holt so much has changed through the years. School shootings were rare back then and certainly didn't draw the headlines they do now. More than 50 years later neither will ever forget they were on campus when a fellow student opened fire.