The one room schools where I live (Victoria, Australia) were shut down in the 1970s after some men kidnapped an entire school - teacher and pupils and tried to hold them to ransom for a million dollars. The plan failed because the teacher - herself only twenty years old - managed to lead the children in a successful escape. She was decorated for her bravery.
The state’s (conservative) Education Minister was seen as a hero as well. He agreed to meet with the kidnappers personally with the intention of offering himself as a hostage in exchange for the children - but the kidnappers had already fled at that point when they’d realised they no longer had their prisoners.
Great story.
That would be pretty hard to pull off on a Maine island with several miles of open water on one side and some really angry lobstermen on the other.