Life after tragedy

Amid swirling speculation in the aftermath of a tragic Dec. 10 shooting, victims' families endured in silence

By Courtney Nelson | For the Juneau Empire

Chase Schneider didn't know he'd been shot until he was lying on the floor, unable to move. His whole body felt like it was asleep and his blood was on the wall near the kitchen counter where he'd been drinking juice. The shooter was Kevin Michaud, 15 at the time.

"I saw Kevin take the magnum out of his backpack on the way from the school bus to his house and put it in the front of his pants," Chase said, recalling the events of Dec. 10, 2008. There were five boys at the Michaud home the afternoon of the shooting, but only Kevin, 14-year-old Aidan Neary and Chase, then 14, were in the room when the gun went off.

Inside the Michaud home, Chase remembers Aidan, who'd had gun safety training, taking the bullets out of the gun because Kevin was acting irresponsibly and pointing it at people. Chase said Kevin put a single bullet back in the gun and began pointing it at different things again.

"I told him to knock it off, that he was being stupid - moments later the gun fired," Chase said, now 15. The bullet struck the side of Aidan's torso and continued on to strike Chase.

"No, I counted!" Chase remembers Kevin yelling. Hours later, Aidan died.

Dareen Puhlick, Chase's mom, said it was a miracle her son survived.

"Chase was hit in the back, in the spine. He could have died from his injuries or been paralyzed. It is just a miracle that Chase is doing OK. His doctors say it's a miraculous injury," she said.

The bullet itself will remain in Chase's body as a painful reminder.

"The bullet is lodged in his spine, but bullet and bone fragments are very close to the spine that are causing him most of his pain. These fragments are the most dangerous because they are not lodged so they can move around in the body and possibly cut into organs," Puhlick said. "He's on a seizure medication that helps to diffuse the spinal cord nerve from firing."

He's trying to be a normal teen but Puhlick says it has been difficult.

"He's not a typical teenager anymore - he can't do the things he used to do."

Virulent speculation

The police's initial public account said all five boys at the house were "playing a game with a single bullet." Many observers concluded incorrectly that they were playing Russian roulette, which conflicted with Chase's account.

Patrick and Mary Neary, whose son Aidan was killed, knew that as leukemia survivor who underwent years of painful treatments, the idea of Aidan playing a game with his life didn't fit. They found the initial reports distressing, but when Chase returned from a Seattle hospital, he told investigators his account.

"Really the only witnesses in the room were Chase and Kevin because Aidan and Chase were in the ambulance and the other two boys weren't in the room, so when the police came and asked what happened - it came from Kevin. That's what he said. I will never know from Aidan what happened and that's really difficult for me," said Mary Neary. "We knew people had misconceptions about what happened. They made comments to us and we were not really able to talk about it. We of course wanted our son to be remembered honorably."

Juvenile legal proceedings are closed and confidential, so during Michaud's adjudication the families were unable to refute the speculation or clarify the initial police and news reports.

The juvenile justice system doesn't mete out punishment in the traditional sense but deals with treatment and remediation programs. Kevin was ordered to two years in a lockdown juvenile treatment facility, the system's most severe response.

The Michauds declined to comment for this story. Puhlick and the Nearys said the Michauds expressed their regret in person right after the incident, but the families haven't spoken since. Both Puhlick and the Nearys are pursuing civil suits against the Michauds. Their lawyers advised them on what they could and could not legally discuss with the Empire.

Puhlick said the initial report of a "game" also created awkwardness in the community and she felt her son was judged and labeled as a bad kid.

"I wanted to stand up for his rights because he was a victim, not a participant," she said.

Warning signs

In retrospect, the warning signs were there.

After the shooting, Chase said he and Aidan were aware that Kevin had taken loaded guns to school at least twice. Chase spoke with Kevin about how much trouble he could get in.

"Kevin said the guns made him feel safe," Chase said.

The families believe the boys were protecting Kevin by not mentioning the guns.

"None of these boys talked about him having guns; we only heard that he was depressed," Puhlick said.

Chase told his mother that Kevin "would just go on and on about how sad he was, and I didn't know what to do."

"Just listen and be a friend; you don't have to say anything," was her response.

Gunplay was not on the parents' minds.

"I was concerned about a lot of things having to do with teenagers, but for some reason guns hadn't crossed my radar," Mary Neary said. "I thought, like many Alaskan families, there are guns in the house but they are under strict lock and key."

Aidan also had mentioned Kevin's demeanor to his parents.

"Aidan told me earlier that Kevin was depressed, and in my mind I thought, that's too bad, because most teenagers do go through depression at some point - we all know that - it just never occurred to me that there was anything dangerous," Mary Neary said.

Accident vs. mistake

The police reported the incident as an "accidental shooting," which Patrick Neary thinks is a mischaracterization.

"Accidents are unforeseen occurrences with adverse outcomes, and mistakes are choices that are made that have adverse outcomes. People like to dispel their responsibility by labeling things as accidents when in reality, if you look at things that could have been a different choice, we realize that it was a mistake," he said.

The Nearys and Puhlick know this is a tragedy for all the families involved but they try to stay positive. Patrick Neary hopes Kevin won't be "inhibited by a stupid mistake he made in his teens - that he is truly transformed and takes responsibility for his actions. We don't want to minimize the seriousness of what he did, and have it seem in any way that it was a small thing."

Puhlick and the Nearys said they want Kevin to get the help he needs and make something of his life.

"I'm sure they are suffering and they know their son in a way that no one else does, I know they want to protect him and they love him and in a way they've lost him - I feel for them," said Mary Neary. "We don't know what the best possible thing is in the long term, it is what we had hoped for - I hope that it is good for him and his family in the end of this, I know that it is very empty for us."

Lessons

Both Puhlick and the Nearys kept close tabs on their kids, and yet the tragedy raised the question if they could have done more to avert it.

"Listen to your kids and take them seriously with everything - their friends and what is going on in their lives," Puhlick said. "I knew where Chase was going after school. I knew who he was with. We knew the parents; we would go to the house and check to see if they were there."

Mary Neary also kept close tabs on her son.

"We were always checking up with the Michaud family and the status of the boys. I had gone to their house; I had gone there to check on the boys and see what they were up to. When they would spend the night, I would always go over to give him his toothbrush but also to check and make sure the parents were home. Aidan had given us no reason not to give him a little freedom, which was what he really wanted as a young boy. I'm not saying that was a mistake. I'm not sure what we could have done differently."

Patrick Neary said everyone should remember to treat each other well.

"I think it is important for people to treat each other with love and respect at each and every moment because you never know if that will be the last time you see them," he said.

Aidan was a blossoming writer and a musician, his parents said. The day before he died, he and a friend recorded a music track.

"The recording got interrupted because his friend's mom came to pick him up," Patrick Neary recalled. They planned to continue the next day.

• Courtney Nelson is a writer living in Juneau and a five-year friend of Dareen Puhlick.

Princess Farhana a Pleasant surprise

Renowned dancer to put on workshops, perform

By Courtney Nelson | For the Juneau Empire

Internationally known dancer Princess Farhana will make her first trip to Juneau to perform and teach workshops in belly dance and burlesque this weekend. Some of her moves have never been taught here before, such as her abdominal and fan dance techniques.

Princess Farhana, born Pleasant Gehman, has many talents, but it was her published writing, not her dancing, that first captured the attention of Juneau resident and dance workshop coordinator Shawn Damerval. Damerval picked up a copy of Gehman’s first book of short stories, “Escape from Houdini Mountain,” in a bookstore. Damerval was intrigued.

“The stories were so amazingly outrageous I figured that, despite the ‘fiction’ listing, no one could possibly have made this stuff up,” Damerval said. A few years later, Damerval searched for instructional sword dancing videos and pulled up two of Gehman’s nine instructional videos, “Raks al Sayf” and “Twin Blades,” and introduced herself to Gehman online.

Damerval contacted Gehman again after watching director Steve Balderson’s documentary film starring Gehman called “Underbelly.” They became friends and hatched a plan to bring Gehman to Juneau.

“She tells me about life as a glamorous globetrotting Hollywood babe, and I tell her about what it’s like to live at the foot of a glacier and hike and fly airplanes around the most beautiful place in the world,” Damerval said.

Gehman’s roots were far from Hollywood, but she says they were her early influences.

“I loved ballet dancers, The Rockettes, the Miss America Pageants, and all the 1940s-era Sinbad and Ali Baba movies I saw on television,” Gehman said. She was raised on a Revolutionary War era farm in New York with seven other siblings born to her entertainment writer father, and her ex-Broadway singer and dancer mother. She was supposed to be a boy.

“My name was supposed to be Andrew, but I was a girl and the first thing my father said was, ‘Oh what a pleasant surprise!’ So after about a week, with no decision on a name, and because of my Pennsylvania Dutch heritage they named me Pleasant,” Gehman said. All but one of her siblings are working in the entertainment industry.

After years in the 1980’s-era L.A. punk scene as lead singer of the “Screamin’ Sirens,” and creator of the underground paper “Lobotomy,” from 1977-1981, Gehman became a professional belly dancer in 1991. A chance encounter with a woman who asked her if she was a belly dancer after watching her on a rock club dance floor led to lessons and a passion for the dance. She was recognized as “Oriental Dancer Of The Year 2006” by Zaghareet Magazine, and in 2007 was nominated for “Best Instructor” and “Best Interpretive Artist.”

She added burlesque to her repertoire in 1995, joining the troupe “The Velvet Hammer,” which Gehman described as a traveling circus.

“The Velvet Hammer was not only my sister burlesque dancers, but also a full band, comedians, magicians, puppeteers, aerialists plus all of our costumes and large props — it was nuts. We did some shows where we rented a huge bus and it was just insane — champagne popping, people dancing on top of the seats, practical jokes, yelling and screaming and constant laughing.”

She is currently working on a collection of short stories about her experiences on the road.

“Since my all-girl punk band the 'Screamin’ Sirens,' I have been on the road constantly for thirty years. Believe me, I have some wild stories,” said Gehman, who also judges burlesque competitions such as The Miss Exotic World Pageant.

Pleasant soon layered belly dance with sword balancing.

“All my life, just for fun, I balanced things on my head — stacks of books while running up the stairs — for no reason. The first time I saw a belly dancer performing with a sword, I said, ‘I can do that!’ My husband at the time gave me an antique sword for my birthday, and in the middle of my party, tipsy on margaritas, I put it on my head and danced around for 45 minutes straight, to the amazement of everyone, including myself. After that, there was no turning back,” Gehman said.

She recently coached jazz dancer Tracey Phillips in sword work and belly dance technique and choreographed her sword-dancing scene in “Charlie Wilson's War.”

Living in the ‘underbelly’ of Hollywood wasn’t always glamorous and Gehman struggled with self-esteem issues, but she directed that energy into being an activist for positive body images.

“I think in our society, women are held to a very unrealistic and almost impossible-to-attain commercialized body standard, and the result is that many women do not appreciate their own natural and individual beauty,” Gehman said. “Images that are manipulated through photo-shopping, air-brushing, great lighting and professional hair and make-up teams are an unrealistic standard of perfection, but when we see them, we think we don't “live-up” to that impossible standard, and feel low self-esteem.”

Gehman thinks belly dancing can help.

“Belly dancing looks beautiful on women of all ages, weights, shapes and sizes. One of the things I adore about going to Egypt is that all the women seem so comfortable in their own skin. Actually, in most countries outside of the USA and Western Europe, having curves and little jiggly bits is considered beautiful,” Gehman said.

Gehman recently went to Egypt for the Ahlan Wa Sahlan Festival and had her most memorable dance moment to date.

“I danced in Cairo to a full Arabic band playing Om Kalthoum ... I got chills the moment my music started.”

With the success of “Underbelly”, director Steve Balderson asked Gehman to star in his new upcoming movie “Stuck!,” a tribute to 1950s noir black and white women-in-prison films. “Stuck” will be released in 2010.

Damerval is looking forward to Gehman’s visit, made possible by sponsors.

“After the success of the Dolphina workshops and shows last year, we thought it might be fun to have Plez come up this year. I approached VivaVoom Brrrrlesque in Anchorage about co-sponsoring her trip, and they were very excited at the prospect. Then Noodle of Doum agreed to host her workshops as a sponsored group of JAHC, so everything really started falling into place to make it happen. Everyone I’ve talked to who has taken a workshop with her says she's just fabulous, and I’m really excited to have her come here,” Damerval said.

Her performance will be at 9:30 p.m. Friday at the Rendezvous with Noodle of Doum and Patshiva. Tickets are available at the Rendezvous or Hearthside Books. Her workshops start at 11 a.m. Saturday, running until 7 p.m. Private or small group lessons will be available Sunday at the University of Alaska Recreation Center Dance Studio. These are sponsored by UAS and, while the lessons are open to anyone, UAS students and faculty (with ID) will receive a discounted rate. Registration information (including online registration) and detailed class descriptions at http://www.pierglass.com/noodle/events.html.

Damerval said the classes will be meaty enough for experienced dancers but good for beginners as well.

“We’re also gearing these workshops towards people who are not necessarily experienced dancers but who think it would be fun to try — in fact, one of the reasons behind having a discount for groups of four is we wanted to encourage people to get together and bring their friends to try something new and exciting.”