Students, schools lend support

Counseling available to students, staff and parents

By Julie Poppen
Camera Staff Writer

Across the region, students and teachers showed up for school Wednesday struggling to come to terms with the tragic slaughter of students and staff at a Littleton high school — just 25 miles away.

In a vain effort to fill the void growing in the pits of stomachs, students and school staff sported blue and silver ribbons, Columbine High School colors, pinned on their chests as a show of support. Others wore hearts and still others frantically organized fund-raisers and blood drives. Some students decided not to come to school at all.

But beneath the fervor to somehow mark the catastrophic occasion was a quiet fear, a dark cloud hovering in many school hallways. To address the questions and concerns of students and staff, many districts urged teachers to discuss the shooting, where 15 people died in the most deadly school shooting rampage in the nation's history.

"These kids that died are my age," said 19-year-old Boulder High School senior Erica Wenzel on her way into school. "It's hard to believe. I couldn't stop watching (news broadcasts). I wanted to know people were OK."

In the end, many students weren't OK, and grieving parents and families on Wednesday received the worst news imaginable about their beloved sons and daughters in Littleton. Schools across the nation, meanwhile, attempted to create some sense of normalcy — a goal which proved largely futile because of the magnitude of Tuesday's news.

Boulder Valley — unlike Denver and Jefferson County schools — decided to stay open the day after the shootings.

"The really scary thing is it upped the ante," said Luka Ruzic, a Fairview freshman, referring to past school shootings. "At first it was someone with a pistol who got tackled when he stopped to reload. Now it's a planned massacre with assault weapons. What's it going to escalate to next?"

Most schools also provided individual and small group counseling to students, staff and parents. Moments of silence were observed. Many flags flew at half-staff and various sporting events and practices were canceled. Extra police cars were stationed at Boulder Valley high schools in an effort to ease concerns. But a bomb scare, which proved false, and subsequent evacuation at Fairview and New Vista high schoolsrattled the tenuousgrip on a normal school day.

"I am having a difficult time," Fairview Principal Dennis Dee admitted as he greeted worried parents and students. "This is way too close to home. We look a lot like and walk a lot like Columbine. We have our subcultures of kids under different banners. They all have a right to be here. We love them all."

Fairview sophomore Geoff Strevey said one of his relatives was victimized by the assault at Columbine when a gunman waved a weapon at him. His parents didn't know he was OK until after 5 p.m. Tuesday.

As for himself, Strevey was under the impression — probably shared by many teens — that he wouldn't be a target in such an event.

"I'm nice to a lot of people," Strevey said.

On the other hand, Britt Clanton, 17, said he could imagine something similar happening at Fairview.

"I think there's people here who resemble what was described on the radio, the people wearing the trench coats who probably get teased a lot by athletes," Clanton said. "Kids get sad over a long time, and they start hurting people."

"I was just glad to see my mom," said 16-year-old Chelsea Lane-Miller, describing her behavior after learning of the shootings. "My dad just said that this teaches you not to make outcasts of people."

By 11 a.m. Wednesday, more than 40 feet of butcher paper was rolled out across several lunchroom tables, signed by Centaurus High School students and faculty with messages of support for the victims, friends and family of Tuesday's shooting victims.

Senior Emily Wilson jotted down her name and address with an invitation for any troubled students from the school to write her if they though it might help. Wilson said she lost a close friend two years ago and remembers how much having a pen pal helped her.

"All I know is it's sad and it needs to be talked about, and I'm there for anyone that needs to share," she said. "It's a time they'll never forget, and I don't want them to feel like they're alone."

Before classes started, a group of students organized a prayer in front of the school, while others waited for more news on the victims. Centaurus Dean of Students Mark Schmidt's first and second period history classes had no absences, though the typical fidgeting and talking before the bell rings wasn't there, he said.

"I walked in, and it was just quiet," he recalled.

"I haven't heard a level of fear," Assistant Principal Ginger Ramsey said. "I just think everyone's numb right now."

Marilyn Marinelli, executive director of secondary education in the Boulder Valley School District, urged students to come to school, but if parents chose to allow their kids to stay home, she said they should call to explain the absence. Marinelli also said schools must focus on making sure all groups are included. It was apparently the deep loathing of athletes and ethnic minorities that was at the root of the "trench coat mafia," a group that the two Columbine shooting suspects belonged to.

"We need to make sure no harassment is directed toward any students," Marinelli said.

Erie Middle/High School had two assemblies to discuss the attack and also to explain to students a few points of the St. Vrain Valley School District's recently adopted Crisis Incident Response Plan. Staff members have been familiarizing themselves with the plan over the last couple of months, including evacuation procedures, school lock-downs, safe places to go in event of an emergency and where to meet parents.

Principal Bill Davis said local SWAT teams and police also visited the school to learn the floor plan of the building.

"Our kids are in pretty good shape," Davis said. "They're sad and they're frightened, but I think they know they don't have to expect this kind of thing to happen. I think they also know there are some things they can do to make themselves safer."

Camera staff writers Jason Hickman , Margie McAllister, Nadia White and Christine Reid contributed to this report.