Amber Lee holds up a photo of her father, Edgar Scheer, receiving the Medal of Bravery from then Governor General Romeo LeBlanc. In her other hand is the medal he received. Scheer, the driver of a school bus that was hijacked in 1996, died recently. He is fondly remembered as a hero by those who were caught up in the incident 20 years ago. (Richard McGuire photo)
The Osoyoos man who was deemed a local – and national – hero for his role during a frightening school bus hijacking 20 years ago is being fondly remembered.
Edgar Scheer, 76, was the school bus driver who remained calm, cool and collected while two teenagers, armed with a loaded handgun and knife, hijacked a school bus in Osoyoos the morning of May 28, 1996.
The four-hour hostage drama ended with officers arresting the two teens after a lengthy standoff near Bridesville.
Scheer, who spent most of his life in Osoyoos, was laid to rest two weeks ago.
His daughter Amber Lee, who knew both of the teenagers involved in the frightening hijacking, said her father was a humble man who continued his career as a school bus driver for 10 years after the incident that everyone involved will never forget.
“My father was very modest and always said he was just doing his job, but everyone involved called him a hero for what he did on that terrible day,” said Lee, who lives in Central Washington with her husband and four children.
“He always remained modest and said that was his 15 minutes of fame.”
The school bus hijacking in Osoyoos made national headlines, including a front-page article in the Vancouver Sun newspaper.
Scheer was given this country’s highest honour for bravery as a result of his actions on that spring day 20 years ago.
He travelled to Ottawa and was given the Canada’s Medal of Bravery by then Governor-General Romeo Leblanc.
On the day in question, Scheer was driving a bus with 14 school-aged passengers when he stopped to drop several of them off at Osoyoos Secondary School (OSS).
Instead of getting off the bus, two teenagers, one armed with a loaded .357 Magnum handgun and the other with a large knife, jumped back on the bus and said they were hijacking the bus and wanted to go to Ontario.
The RCMP and parents praised Scheer for staying cool and remaining with the children, even though he was given more than one opportunity to escape.
Early in the ordeal, Scheer convinced the hijackers to let eight of the younger children go.
Later on, as police negotiators tried to end the standoff, Scheer remained calm and continued to talk to the hijackers despite the fact the gun was pointed as his head.
“I told them there wasn’t really any way out and it looked to me like it was a no-win situation,” Scheer was quoted in the Penticton Herald the day after the incident. “
Asked if he thought he was being heroic, Scheer responded, “No. I was just doing my job.”
Scheer said the teenage hijackers never threatened him or any of the children, but he knew they were desperate and he feared for his life.
“I felt I wasn’t going to come out of it alive,” he said. “It didn’t look good to me because they kept saying they had nothing to live for and nothing to lose.
“What really scared me later on as they were talking, they said they only had three options and two of them were unspeakable. It meant killing us or killing themselves.
Sgt. Peter Montague of the RCMP said despite Scheer’s modesty, he was crucial in ending the hostage crisis.
“I think what you’re hearing today is a very incredible story,” he said. “I don’t think there was any good luck involved. It was that everybody did the right thing, from Mr. Scheer who stayed cool throughout, to the action and support of the parents.”
One of the parents made it very clear she believed Scheer was indeed a hero.
“I was really proud of him for what he did,” said the woman, whose 13-year-old daughter was one of the kids on the bus throughout the four-hour incident. “I consider him a hero.”
Lee was a young teenager when the hijacking took place and even though she always had a very strong bond with her father, it became even closer.
“My dad was my world and I told him how glad I was that he wasn’t hurt,” she said. “I was always his little girl and we became even closer after what happened on that bus.
“My dad was always my hero, but he became the hero for all of Osoyoos that day.”
One of the proudest moments of her life was accompanying her father to Ottawa to receive the Medal of Bravery, she said.
“My dad invited me to go with him … it was something I will never forget,” she said. “I was so proud of him.”
Her father would never brag about what he did that day, but also wouldn’t shy away from discussing it either, she said.
“He didn’t like to bring it up, but if other people asked him about it, he would talk about it,” she said. “He never thought what he did was anything really special, but obviously everyone else disagreed.”
Being honoured with the Medal of Bravery was a very proud moment for her dad, but it wasn’t his proudest moment, she said.
“My dad used to just love the Super Dave Osborne show on TV and he got invited to appear on that show because of the hijacking incident,” she said. “Super Dave gave him a jacket and a small Super Dave medal and he was named Hero of the Week. My dad was always so proud of that.”
One of the two hijackers sent her a message on Facebook two years ago apologizing for his actions and she instantly forgave him, said Lee.
“He seemed very sincere and I told him we all make mistakes and that I hoped he had learned a valuable lesson and would never hurt anyone again,” she said. “It was very honourable of him to apologize and I accepted. I’ve never heard from him again.”
Tony Munday, best known as the executive director of the Oliver Osoyoos Wine Association, was one of the six children who were on the bus during the entire ordeal.
“I can still remember everything about that day,” said Munday. “It’s not one of those things you ever forget.”
Munday, who was in Grade 6 at the time, said he knew both teenage hijackers and was shocked by their actions.
“Both of them had been travelling on the same bus with us for years,” he said. “One of the kids was always a little odd, but the other one was a nice kid from a nice family and we couldn’t believe he was involved in something like this.”
They both shouted they were hijacking the bus and brandished their weapons, which was obviously frightening, said Munday.
Scheer remained calm and cool throughout and was definitely heroic from that second on, he said.
“At first he didn’t believe them and he tried to contact police,” he said. “Then the two kids started yelling and screaming at him and warned him if he tried that again they would kill him.”
What the hijackers didn’t know was Scheer had managed to keep the radio system on so police could hear everything that was being said on the bus and could easily trace its route through the town, said Munday.
“Even though they threatened to kill him, he kept the radio on and police were able to know where we were going,” he said
The hijackers ordered Scheer to stop the bus at an RV Centre in Osoyoos and were going to try and steal an RV, but changed their mind when surrounded by police and ordered Scheer to drive up Anarchist Mountain, he said.
Police had laid a spike belt on the highway near Bridesville and the bus pulled over to the side of the road, he said.
Negotiations with police continued for about 90 minutes before both teens surrendered and were placed under arrest, he said.
The ironic part is Scheer was never anything but ordinary until that memorable day, said Munday.
“We would walk on the bus in the morning and say hello and he would say hello back,” he said. “If you stood up on the bus, he would tell you to sit down. He did his job, but after that incident you could tell there was a different connection between Mr. Scheer and the kids on his bus.”
Munday said he would always consider Scheer a hero.
“He certainly deserved that medal for bravery,” he said. “He stayed with us when he had numerous chances to escape. I’m just so glad no one was hurt.”
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
Edgar Scheer. (Contributed photo)
