By Stephen Kindland
Staff writer
ORANGE PARK – St. Johns Country Day School students are wearing orange and blue today in honor of Kevin Whitelaw, a 16-year-old student whose father shot and killed him and his 11-year-old sister, Katie, as they slept in their beds before turning the gun on himself.
Meanwhile, 200 students at Grace Episcopal Day School, where Katie was a sixth-grader, are “enormously sad” but attending classes, according to Rector Kurt Dunkle, who led a “service of light” at a packed Grace Episcopal Church on Tuesday, Nov. 3.
Dunkle said he was surprised that Dana Whitelaw, the children’s mother and wife of 49-year-old Jerry Whitelaw, attended the Tuesday evening service. It was Dana who discovered the three bodies after she stepped out of the shower about 6 a.m. the same day.
“As she looked around, she said, ‘This is my family,’” Dunkle said. “It was remarkable that she was there, but of course, church is where you go when tragedy strikes.”
Funeral arrangements for the Whitelaws have not been finalized, Dunkle said.
The incident, which likely will be ruled as a double murder and suicide after autopsies are completed later this week, has sent more shockwaves through a community still reeling from the abduction and murder two weeks ago of 7-year-old Somer Thompson. Somer’s body was discovered by Clay County Sheriff’s Office detectives at a South Georgia landfill following a massive, two-day search that drew national attention.
‘Justice for Somer’ has become a rallying phrase for several Clay County-based advocacy and support groups that have organized fund-raisers for the Thompson family as a multi-agency investigation continues working the case around the clock.
Though the Whitelaw deaths haven’t drawn the same media attention, they are no less tragic.
St. Johns Country Day spokeswoman Carol Gay said on Wednesday that the school’s 700 students were having “about as healthy a day as you could expect” under the circumstances.
“Today they’re wearing orange and blue in Kevin’s honor,” she said. “He was a big Gator fan.
“For teen-agers, death is not something that’s brought home very often,” she added. “They cried, but things got better during the day. It was very shocking.”
She said the school’s football team – of which Kevin was a member -- plans to hold a special ceremony before Friday night’s home game against Lafayette High School. A private memorial service for students and faculty also is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. the same day at the school.
St. Johns Headmaster Greg Foster, who taught Kevin in an Advanced Placement history class, said a school-wide prayer service conducted Tuesday in the gym by Ken Herzog “lifted the burden off our shoulders” and helped restore a sense of normalcy on campus.
“He was a really, really nice kid -- well-mannered, respectful, and he thought before he spoke,” Foster said. “He got excited about class debates. He added zest to classroom discussions.”
Kevin was in his junior year, and virtually all of his classmates attended the service of light at Grace Episcopal, where Dunkle spoke about the three deaths.
“It was an opportunity for folks to come who needed to come,” Dunkle said. “Light is an important symbol … and it can remind people that you need to continue through life as normal as possible.”
He said grief counselors will remain on campus to help students, staff and faculty members as they mourn their loss.
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