The tragic and forgotten Boucherville high school shooting of 1972

Authorities inspect the body of Lionel Barbeau

    Lionel Barbeau, 15, and a schoolmate friend of the same age and background engineered a horribly sad Montreal-era school shooting before such events were familiar to anybody.
   Barbeau died, a teacher was seriously injured and another boy involved in the shooting-suicide-pact, whose name cannot be revealed, survived bullet wounds.
   The two concocted a scheme to shoot a teacher at their school and then kill themselves near a little brook behind their school at the Mortagne High School in Boucherville around 9 a.m. on 21 November 1972.
   The two boys took a rifle belonging to Barbeau's father in the aim of shooting teacher Madeleine Saint Louis, but Barbeau instead eventually settled on shooting Geography teacher Jacqueline Goode, 31, instead.
   Goode was hit in the head and badly injured but appears to have survived her wounds, although her subsequent fate remains unclear. The victim Goode would be about 77 if alive today. The surviving student would be 61.
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    The two got the idea walking home from school on Nov 20 along with a third boy who didn't participate. The two then practiced their plan in the garage. Barbeau penned letters to his mom, brother and father in anticipation of his own death the next day.
  On November 20 Barbeau came over to his friend's house and they watched a movie together but didn't discuss the plan.
  "We didn't want to talk about it. He knew we wouldn't do it if we thought about it any longer," the friend told a coroner's inquest later. 
   The name of the 15-year-old participant cannot be published apparently, although it's not hard to find in some published news stories online.

Teacher Jacqueline Goode survived

He said:

"
  We wanted to shoot people and decided on a teacher. her name was Madeleine St. Louis. We set a meeting spot for the morning and it was decided I would shoot the teacher first then Barbeau would take the gun and shoot her too. Then we would run to the stream behind the school where Barbeau was to shoot me twice and then shoot himself in the heart. The rifle belonged to his father. We tried it to see if it was all right. Lionel took the rifle and tried to see if it was possible to shoot himself with it. He held it out with his arm and pulled the trigger to make sure. 

 Lionel made a will leaving his tape recorder to his sister and other belongings to other people in his family. He wrote a letter in my room to his parent. It twas very short and I read it after he finished.

  We watched out for Miss St. Louis. It took a long time. We waited 45 minutes. Lionel had the rifle all the time. When we saw her car dive up Lionel handed me the rifle. The safety lock was on. I tried to shoot but it wouldn't work. Lionel got angry with me and grabbed the gun from me. But by this time she had disappeared from sight.
   Then I was leaning up against the concrete wall. I was all mixed up and didn't know what was really happening. I heard something that sounded like footsteps and started to run by Lionel warned me he would shoot so I came back I didn't want anyone to get hurt so I put the safety lock on the gun again. Lionel was getting impatient and said the next person he saw he would shoot.
   I said shoot out the lights instead. But then Ms. Goode came by.  At that point we saw a green car coming into the parking lot. I saw him aim the rifle and turned my back to him. He fired several time but the bullets didn't fire. It made funny noises. I wasn't watching but he pulled the trigger. I heard a noise and saw Ms. Goode fall. He panicked and gave me the rifle."

  The two ran to the stream behind the school and Barbeau took the rifle.

   "He pointed in my direction and pulled the trigger. I was hit. He asked me if I wanted another. I said I had enough."\

    Barbeau then tried shooting himself but the bullets fell from the rifle into the snow underfoot. He picked them up and then shot himself.

   "He fell to my right. I started feeling bad. He had was suffering. He had a hand on his chest. I was talking to him but he didn't answer. His boot started moving then it stopped. I thought I was going to die but said no and then walked to the school."

   Goode told the hearings from her stretcher:

 I got out of the car and headed for the school door when I felt something like an electric shock on my neck. I tried to scream but couldn't. When I attempted to scream something grey was in my mouth. I spit it out and thought at first it was a tooth. Then I felt a pain in my side and I fell down. I saw a number of students boarding a bus and waved to them for help. They saw me and came to my aid.

   Coroner Alban Flamand, who oversaw the hearings into the affair said "I've never heard something so painful. I've never found myself in such a painful situation. what we herd should make everybody think."