COKEVILLE - Twenty years ago, Kliss Sparks was finishing reading a chapter of "Tom Sawyer" to her fourth-graders when she heard a knock at the door. It was a woman. She asked the class to come to a room down the hall, then left.

Sparks was not done with the chapter. She kept on reading. After about a minute, she decided to go out into the hall and see what the woman was talking about. She thought it was a safety exercise. There was no one in the hallway - not even in the gym. Sparks thought she was late.

So instead, she took her students outside, and they sat on the lawn, finishing reading two or three pages.

This moment on the lawn would be one Sparks would regret.

She wonders now, at 78, if she should have taken the children and left the school. But how could she have known? How could she have known that the woman, now known as Doris Young, would come out to the group's reading circle with a gun, and order them back inside?

That is what happened with Sparks and her fourth-grade class. They were some of the 154 people held hostage in Cokeville May 16, 1986, by a madman claiming he was going to heaven and was taking all the children with him. It was among the first school-terror incidents in the country, a scenario now all too familiar.

The children who were held hostage that day - all of whom survived, in spite of the detonation of a bomb - are now adults, and many have children of their own.

"I can't even fathom the thought of them being in a building and we are out there," said Angie Nostaja Weston, a fifth-grade hostage, now 31. She lives in Montpelier, Idaho, close to Cokeville, and her kids have "survival packets" in school containing items including food, handi-wipes, clothing and contact information in case of emergencies.

"Some parents might think it's a hassle," she said. "But I'm quite aware of how things can happen out of the school."

While much has changed in the two decades since the bombing, memories are vivid for many of those involved in the incident. And to make sure they don't fade, people in this small western Wyoming community have organized "Remembrance Day" events Tuesday to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the bombing.

An organization called the Cokeville Miracle Foundation also has published a new book with nearly 200 accounts from teachers, students, emergency personnel and investigators involved in the incident.

Lasting impressions

For Weston, the feeling of being fortunate, even "blessed," to survive the ordeal has grown over the years.

"I've always known since the minute after," she said. "But you realize how different it could have been as the years go by."

The incident, of course, changed her life. As an adult, she sometimes has pangs of anxiety with simple tasks such as plugging in the vacuum cleaner or hooking up a propane tank for fear it might explode. She also has anxiety about going on trips away from home.

Fellow former-student Jamie King agreed, saying she doesn't "trust people," and also has anxiety about going on trips.

"I was still being held hostage," she said.

Celeste Jackman, a sixth-grader 20 years ago, said when she goes into a new room, she always looks for a seat so she is facing the door, in case she needs to get out.

For Sparks, the incident made her grateful.

"I knew I had to pay the Lord back as much as I can," she said.

Still there

A few teachers and staff members who worked at the elementary school that fateful day in May 1986 are still holding their posts today.

Janel Dayton taught first grade in 1986, and now teaches kindergarten.

"I think life kind of goes on," she said. "We remember the day with respect and thanksgiving, but life has kind of gone on. It was a hard time, a very hard time. But I think that it was an indication that goodness prevails over evil, because the perpetrator had evil designs and good overcame."

Tina Cook was the first hostage taken in 1986, and still works as a school secretary today. For her, every year is a "personal struggle" as the anniversary approaches.

"The thing I really want to always take out of it is the miracle that I'm still alive," she said. "The day that it happened, we knew there was no way we would ever come out of it alive. Now it's 20 years later; I'm still alive. I got to raise my children and enjoy my grandchildren."

For Cook, who still becomes emotional when talking about the incident, life changed on that day.

"You learn to appreciate life a whole lot more because you realize how fragile it is," she said. "You cannot go through anything like that and not respect life more, and be grateful."

Reporter Whitney Royster can be reached at (307) 734-0260 or at royster@tribcsp.com.