Guess What Happened at School Today? A School Shooting Story

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Guess What Happened at School Today? A School Shooting Story

by Isabella Barberis


A Heath High School student at the scene of a shooting at the school on December 1, 1997.


When someone brings up schools, many things will come to mind. Whether that be sports, arts, or education, kids are sent to school to learn. Imagine how traumatizing it must be for children between the ages of 4 and 18 to learn how to stop an active shooter if they get into the classroom or cover themselves in your friend's blood and play dead.  According to EducationWeek, there have been 133 school shootings in the U.S. alone with 122 people killed or injured during these instances since 2018. 


Students and law enforcement during active shooter drill at Deering High School


Written over 200 years ago, the Second Amendment in the United States Constitution does give U.S. Citizens the right to bear arms. However, this document was written in the late 1700s were they didn’t have guns like they do today. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the U.S. Has 46 percent of the world’s civilian-owned guns. How is it that people use these deadly weapons to harm and murder innocent children?

Terrified children run from Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, during Tuesday's shooting

Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children and young adults in the United States.


Mia Page-Tretta describes her life after the Santa Clarita shooting as being  “a lot better than I was on November 14th, 2019 but I’m not the same as I was before and I don’t think I’ll ever be. It’s just getting to a point where the hard days aren’t that hard.” Mia was shot in the stomach while her best friend was killed beside her. The amount of trauma that was left after the incident, she is still recovering from. She partnered with the Sandy Hook Promise and made a video about her story. Mia missed out on a lot of her high school experience due to the shooting and then advocating for gun reforms and meeting with politicians, retelling and reliving her retelling of that horrifying day.


Another student, Chase Yarbrough of the Sante Fe shooting in 2018, was shot six times: one in arm, one in his back, one still in his head, one hit his neck and traveled down his bloodstream and is still in his heart. He has PTSD and doesn’t like being in big crowds. His future was to play football but now he can’t even attend sporting events due to being surrounded by big crowds. Although physically he is healed, mentally he is still recovering. Also on the Sandy Hook Promise website, he made a video about his experience in the shooting. 

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