Student in our community died yesterday afternoon

[JennyLynne]

Yesterday afternoon, just before the end of the school day, a senior at our high school shot herself in the head, in the cafeteria, in front of countless other students and staff.

My heart has been breaking in so many ways since I heard the news.

This young lady carried a loaded weapon all around school in her backpack all day long, knowing that she was going to take her life later on. Her social media accounts, which are not private, were very quickly found by internet sleuths and authorities. Apparently, she had been counting down the days and making it incredibly obvious that she intended to take her life, if not, possibly other lives. The red flags were there, public, for everyone to see for weeks, yet she was still able to leave her house with a weapon, prepared to end it all.

My heart breaks for the child who lost her life because no one paid attention to the signs that something was wrong.

My heart breaks for all of the students and staff who witnessed the incident, up close and personal.

And, for the students who were sure their lives were in danger and had to run to their safe meeting place (the college across the street).

My heart breaks for the family of this young lady, who are going to spend the rest of their lives wondering why and how they missed the signs.

My two oldest children don’t go to that school. They are both in middle school, which is just a few miles away. My oldest will be attending the high school next year. Of course, I also have those “what-if” feelings that I just can’t help but have as a parent. What if my kids were there? What if they saw this happen? What if they had been hurt? What if any other child had been hurt, or worse?

And what’s more - my kids knew the details of what happened before I did. Before they even got home. Different schools - they found out first. The second it happened, friends of friends, siblings of friends, parents of high schoolers & middle schoolers all contacted one another. My 12-year-old texted me from the middle school cafeteria to tell me that her bus would be late today (all buses would be late) because a young girl had shot herself in the head in the high school down the street.

What a message.

I’m just so sad about it all. I wish young people knew how much better it gets. And, I wish we didn’t live in a world where I have to worry about what might happen to my kids every time they go to school.

There are, of course, rumors that this girl intended to do worse, and the rumors have morphed into, ‘well, now this person or that person said they were going to carry out the rest of her mission’ (meaning hurting others) and that other schools are now in danger. Just rumors upon rumors, and honestly, it’s so hard to tell what’s not fake these days, because the unthinkable does happen.

I want to ask this community to please pray for everyone over here.

Pray for the family of this young lady.

And, pray for the students and staff at her school and the surrounding schools in our community.

It’s not right that a young person is gone.

And, it’s not right that all of our children are terrified.

[shalom]

Sending so many prayers to your community. There’s so much to navigate in the wake of this tragedy, and I pray for the Holy Spirit’s intervention in all of it; for the family, friends, students, teachers, parents, and overall community.

When my brother was in high school, another student attempted to take his own life in the middle of the school’s foyer. This student was a senior who had expressed the mounting pressure of AP exams and college rejections.

I remember that my brother was deeply impacted by witnessing this, but in reflection as an adult, I’m seeing how deeply this impacted my parents. It changed the way we all spoke about the future, but my mom and dad, especially, never put pressure on us about our next steps.

I’m so thankful that that’s how my parents handled this and that they opened up conversations about it with my brother and me. I’ll be praying that every student in your community has the opportunity to process this with trusted adults (and that the adults have this opportunity as well).

[BetterDays]

This type of thing is happening way to often and it is extremely tragic and saddening I feel like more should be done for kids and teens going through crisis.
I will be praying for your community and you aswell.

[DaughterOfEve24]

I don’t have any deep words of wisdom, but I’m glad you shared this and I will be praying.

[Shabridges]

So sorry that all had to be a witness to a sad and tragic event.. We Will put you on our prayer List..May you see God’s comfort in this situation.