MARYSVILLE — Bryan Soriano fondly remembers the day. It was a little more than a year ago. His daughter, Gia, asked him to help her find a dress for her homecoming dance.
They went from store to store looking for just the right one.
Soriano didn’t mind that he seemed to be the only dad tagging along on the clothes-shopping mission.
On Friday, Soriano glanced down at a framed photo of his daughter in the flowing white dress they bought that day. She is kissing his cheek as he smiles toward the camera. She is beautiful.
“It is hard to believe it was her first dance and her last dance,” he said.
Gia and her friends Zoe Galasso, Shaylee Chuckulnaskit, Andrew Fryberg and Nate Hatch were shot in the Marysville Pilchuck High School cafeteria Oct. 24. 2014. Only Nate survived.
Soriano and four other members of the victims’ families attended a press conference Friday held by their attorney, Ann Deutscher of Seattle. The families made clear they still are looking for more information about what was happening at the school last fall. Deutscher has filed a public records request with the district seeking complaints and policies related to “bullying, harassment, intimidation and/or retaliation for the last 10 years within the Marysville School District,” documents show.
The request was made in March. Deutscher said Friday the district has been slow to turn over anything meaningful and she may file a lawsuit to speed up the process.
The school district said the sheer volume of the request makes it impossible to quickly provide the documents. The district wrote a letter in May saying it could take a year. To comply with the request would require going through more than 9.6 million district emails and redacting the ones that are relevant, said Pat Buchanan, an attorney representing the school district.
At this point, no decision has been made on whether a lawsuit will be filed in connection with the deaths, Deutscher said.
“We want to know what the facts are,” she said.
The families also want to know more about the circumstances of shooter Jaylen Fryberg being suspended the week before he invited his victims to sit with him at the lunch table. He was involved in a fight at a football practice with a fellow player the week of the homecoming dance. Jaylen was suspended for three days, Oct. 15-17, but was allowed to attend homecoming festivities. The suspension ended one week before the shootings.
The victims’ families wondered if the suspension should have been longer, and if a risk assessment was completed before Jaylen was allowed to return to the classroom, Deutscher said. There were several signs that the boy was in a downward spiral, including poor attendance, sleeping in school and failing classes.
“I think there is an issue in this case whether this could have been prevented,” Deutscher said.
She also questioned whether the district has made meaningful safety changes at the school.
Soriano, Gia’s father, said it is difficult to wait for facts that may or may not provide answers.
“It doesn’t help me in the healing process,” he said. “That’s for sure.”
Soriano also expressed frustration with Jaylen’s family, wondering how he had ready access to the gun he used in the shootings. The boy pulled the gun from his father’s truck.
One year after the murders, Soriano said he, like the other families, has not received an apology from Jaylen’s family. “Just to do nothing, it’s like spitting in your face,” he said.
Jaylen’s father, Raymond Fryberg, in September was found guilty of illegally possessing firearms, including the gun Jaylen used.
Raymond Fryberg, 42, was the subject of a 2002 protection order in Tulalip Tribal Court that forbade him from owning guns. His sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 11.
“The gun is really a sore spot with me,” Soriano said.
Deutscher said the families want more information about how Raymond Fryberg could have purchased the guns.
Denise Hatch was among the parents at Friday’s press conference.
Her son, Nate, is attending another high school this fall and recently was cleared to participate in sports. Last year he spent nearly two weeks at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle after being shot in the jaw and left for dead.
“He is a strong young man,” his mother said. “He grieves for his friends every day.”
Nate doesn’t want people to forget his friends, she said.
He will need more surgeries after he has had a chance to grow some more, Deutscher said. For now, Nate is reminded of what happened every time he looks in the mirror and sees the scars.
He is trying to move forward.
“He doesn’t let it define him,” Hatch said.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com.
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