by Bobbi Miller

&

Annette Nevins

RICHARDSON - A Richardson High School sophomore, described as a loner who

had been in counseling, fatally shot himself Tuesday in front of a classroom of

about 30 students.

Jeremy Wade Delle, 16, who had transferred from a Dallas school, died

instantly after firing a .357-caliber Magnum into his mouth about 9:45 a.m.

police said.

Because he had missed class, the teacher in his second-period English

class told Jeremy to get an admittance slip from the school office. Instead,

he returned with the gun, police said.

He walked directly to the front of the classroom.

"Miss, I got what I really went for," he said, then placed the barrel in

his mouth and fired, according to Sgt. Ray Pennington, a police spokesman.

The shooting occurred before the students or teacher Fay Barnett could

react, said school district spokeswoman Susan Dacus-Wilson.

It stunned students and faculty members throughout the school at 1250 W.

Belt Line Road.

Brian Jackson, 16, said he was working the combination on his locker just

outside Jeremy's English class when he heard a loud bang "like someone had just

slammed a book on a desk."

"I thought they were doing a play or something," he said. "But then I

heard a scream and a blond girl came running out of the classroom and she was

crying."

Frightened, but curious, Brian looked into the classroom and saw Jeremy

lying on the floor bleeding.

"The teacher was standing against the wall crying and shaking," Brian

said. "Some people were standing around her holding her as if to keep her from

falling."

Another student, Howard Perre Felman, and 11th-grader, was in government

class when he heard the shot. At first students joked about the noise,

thinking that someone was playing around, he said.

"But then we heard a girl running down the hall screaming," he said. "It

was a scream from the heart."

Sgt. Pennington said Jeremy apparently had given some thought to his

actions because he left a suicide note with a classmate. Investigators would

not disclose its contents.

Principal Jerry Bishop said Jeremy's class attendance had been sporadic.

Mr. Bishop said he had met with the boy and his father to discuss the problem.

Police said that Jeremy had been in counseling with his father, but they

did not know the specifics.

Sgt. Pennington said police did not know where the youth got the gun and

had no clue why he would kill himself in a crowded classroom.

The classmates who witnessed the shooting were immediately ushered to a

secluded room for counseling.

About 30 members of the school district's volunteer crisis team arrived to

counsel students.

Classes continued throughout the day. Some students were allowed to leave

early, but counselors encouraged them to stay at school and discuss their

feelings.

Few students knew Jeremy well because he had attended Bryan Adams High

School in Dallas last year and had enrolled in the Richardson school in

October. They described him as a loner.

"He was real quiet and he acted down at times. He acted sad," said Koury

Kashiem, 15.

Lisa Moore, 16, said she knew Jeremy from the in-school suspension

program.

"He and I would pass notes back and forth and he would talk about life and

stuff," she said.

She said Jeremy wanted to discuss the boy she was dating and also

mentioned that he was having trouble with one of his teachers. He signed all of

his notes, "Write back." But on Monday he wrote, "Later days."

"I didn't know what to make of it," she said. "But I never thought this

would happen."

However, Sean Forrester, 17, remembered Jeremy as friendly with no outward

signs of turmoil.

"He never looked like he had anything wrong with him. . .He always made a

joke over everything," Sean said.

Jeremy was the son of Joseph R. Delle of Richardson, with whom he lived,

and Wanda Crane. The couple divorced in 1979, according to Dallas County court

records.

Mr. Delle could not be reached for comment. Ms. Crane, through a

spokesman, declined to comment.

Tuesday's shooting was the first known teen suicide in a Richardson

school. It was the first by a Richardson student since 1988, when student

suicides prompted the creation of the crisis intervention program in May that

year.

Three Richardson students committed suicide during the first half of 1988.

They included a sixth-grader and two sophomores at J. J. Pearce High School.

One of the sophomores hanged himself from a tree behind Mohawk Elementary

School during a weekend.

In 1985, a 17-year-old Arlington student shot himself in front of four

fellow students in the drama classroom at Arlington High School.

Earlier, and outbreak of teen suicides in Plano, where eight youths killed

themselves in 1983 and 1984, helped focus national attention on the plight of

suicidal teen-agers.

Students and counselors agreed that the shock of Jeremy's public demise

would have a lingering effect on the Richardson students, particularly the

witnesses.

"They are going to go through a ton of sadness, anxiety and fear," said

Sheryl Pender, a counselor with Willow Park Hospital in Plano and former

director of the Suicide and Crisis Center in Dallas.

Staff writer Jeffrey Weiss contributed to this report.