MARYSVILLE — It always had been such a bustling place where students wolfed down salads and chicken burgers amid the din of burgeoning friendships.
It won’t be anymore. At least not in its current form.
The Marysville Pilchuck High School cafeteria will not reopen when 1,200 students return next week — not after the horror of Friday’s gunfire that killed three classmates, left two others clinging to life and shattered the jaw of another.
“The kids are saying loud and clear they don’t want to go back there to the old cafeteria,” Marysville School District Superintendent Becky Berg said Monday. “… What to do with that space will take some time.”
It might be remodeled at some point, but not for now.
Zoe Raine Galasso and Gia Soriano, both 14, were fatally wounded Friday. The shooter, Jaylen Fryberg, 14, took his own life.
As of Monday evening, two students remained in critical condition with gunshot wounds to the head: Shaylee “Shay” Chuckulnaskit, 14, and Andrew Fryberg, 15. Nate Hatch, 14, is in satisfactory condition, and is awake and breathing.
Monday was a day of trying to move forward.
Several hundred people attended a “Paint the Town Red &White, Together We Unite” event at Comeford Park in downtown Marysville, unraveling rolls of plastic to fashion bows.
The message was to decorate throughout the city, to tie everyone together. Kids wrapped red ribbons around trees, swings and themselves as adults tackled the utility poles along busy streets.
Elaine Soriano, Gia’s grandmother, watched.
“I wasn’t going to come. I am so glad I did,” she said, between hugs. “To see all the kids united is nice. She would have been so pleased and so happy.”
A relative received one of Gia’s kidneys, she said.
Like many school districts, Marysville planned and trained with police on what to do in case of an attack similar to what happened Friday. What the district didn’t have was a tidy manual for the days and weeks afterward.
It has been getting help from other schools across the country that have endured tragedies of their own. Among those offering advice in a conference call Monday was Frank DeAngelis, the recently retired principal at Columbine High School in Colorado where, in April 1999, two students killed 13 classmates before shooting themselves.
“We now have his cellphone number in our hip pocket,” Berg said.
Statewide, the number of gun-related student expulsions and suspensions has been declining in recent years, according to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. A new report for the 2013-14 school year is expected soon.
Mike Donlin, program supervisor for the state agency’s School Safety Center, said close relationships with students is key, not installing metal detectors.
“In reality, it’s not good practice,” he said. “It’s not going to work.”
High schools typically have many buildings with numerous entrances and exits “that would make that totally undoable.” At the same time, heavy security does not promote academics or a feeling of a school community, he said.
Plans are fluid for when Marysville Pilchuck students return to school next week. Grief counselors and police will be there the first day “and probably for a while afterward,” Berg said.
Attendance was strong at Marysville’s other schools Monday. Every elementary, middle and high school campus made a grief counselor and a guidance counselor available.
“Each family will make a personal judgment about what their students needs to transition,” Berg said.
Marysville Getchell High School freshman Lydia Barnes stayed home from school on Monday.
“They were friends of mine. We went to middle school together,” she said of the victims. Joined by her parents, she took flowers and balloons to the south fence of Marysville Pilchuck. She planned to return to her school Tuesday. “You have to push through it,” she said. A steady stream of people, many wearing red, brought mementos to the chain-link fence. It was already festooned with balloons, notes, stuffed animals, pumpkins and hundreds of bouquets. People prayed, wiped tears and hugged. Voices were at a whisper.
At City Hall Monday, Mayor Jon Nehring kept close watch on developments. His focus remained on the kids in the hospitals, and the families of those injured and killed.
“We’re still in the grieving process, and I think it’s important to give people time to work through that,” he said.
“It’s beautiful to see the community come together and support one another under tragic circumstances like this. We will come through it,” Nehring said. “Ultimately Marysville will be defined by our response to this event, by everybody coming together and supporting and loving one another, not by the event itself.”
Two of the mayor’s children attend Marysville Getchell. He spent a lot of his time Monday at schools talking to kids. Getchell had counselors posted throughout, and grief rooms set aside for those who are struggling.
He was glad those students could be with their friends, teachers and counselors, and not alone.
Nehring, Marysville police Cmdr. Robb Lamoureux and others all wore red ribbons Monday on their shirts and jackets. Red is one of the Marysville Pilchuck school colors. Similar ribbons hung from trees along Grove Street and other thoroughfares.
Signs at drug stores, real estate offices and mattress shops shared words of love, respect, peace and comfort. Flags flew at half-staff, including at Grove Elementary, where the sound of children playing outside was accompanied by grown-ups in orange safety vests.
At The Grove Church, about 40 Marysville Pilchuck students and their parents sat talking quietly at tables, drinking coffee and playing ping-pong. They were decked out in school colors. Church staff asked reporters to give the kids the space.
One girl inside the church had painted a portrait of one of the shooting victims. A luminescent rainbow — a symbol of hope — arced across the page.
Tulalip Tribes representatives stopped by, offering help and cases of water. They prayed with a Grove pastor, all together, before they left.
For now, students aren’t asking a lot of questions, said worship pastor Jammie Bigbey, 37. Instead, they are “seeking comfort and community,” he said. “It’s less about answers and more about just being with somebody.”
Many in the community observed a moment of silence at 10:39 a.m. Monday. The shootings occurred during first lunch on Friday about the same time.
Ryan Brown, a pastor at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Marysville, is working with Young Life and Hillside Church to keep the Living Room Coffee House open. He said the aim is to offer a place that feels normal.
“The tendency is for people to feel like they have to wrap themselves around a kid and be super emotional with them. That can be a put-off more than anything else,” he said. “They need to feel some normalcy and know the world is still turning, the sun is going to set and rise and everything is OK, that there are still safe places.”
Marysville Pilchuck sophomore Jordan Reynolds, who was in the cafeteria during the shooting, is the daughter of the pastors who own Living Room Coffee Shop run by Hillside Church. She was one of the students there on Monday and she hoped to see more of her classmates.
“It’s only the first day,” she said.
The Tulalip Boys and Girls Club has become another gathering place .
“We got a lot of calls to see if we were still open last Friday, which we were,” director Chick Thacker said. “People were so grateful that children still had a safe place to go after school as the community had to deal with this tragedy.”
Tulalip Tribes Chairman Herman Williams Sr. said the city and tribes are “united in sorrow but determined to bring healing to our communities.”
Reporter Andrew Gobin contributed to this story.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com
Meetings
Mayor Jon Nehring plans a coffee meeting at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Fire Station 62, 10701 Shoultes Road. He and other city directors will be available to answer questions.
The school district plans an all-parents meeting, just for adults, at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Marysville Pilchuck High School gym. Information will be provided about how to support kids. The content will be similar to what was shared Sunday.
Places for student activity options include:
- Marysville Pilchuck High School gymnasium, 5611 108th St. NE.
- The Grove Church, 4705 Grove St. A Wednesday prayer vigil is planned for 7 p.m. Wednesday for high-school kids only.
- Plans also include a Halloween carnival from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday for family-friendly fun.
- Marysville YMCA, 6420 60th Dr. NE.
- The Living Room Coffee House, 1212 State Ave., open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Free breakfast and lunch provided daily. Free movies and popcorn at 5 p.m. daily.
- Marysville Regal Cinemas, 9811 State Ave. Tuesday at 2 p.m. “St. Vincent,” first 100 people get in free.
- Marysville Skate Inn, 7313 44th Ave. NE., Wednesday from 1 to 3 p.m., free.
- Strawberry Lanes, 1067 Columbia Ave., Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., free.
- Alfy’s Pizza, 9330 State Ave., Friday from noon to 2 p.m., free.
- The Tulalip Boys and Girls Club has extended hours, opening doors at 6 a.m.
The district has posted additional resources for kids at http://tinyurl.com/MPHSdistrictresources.
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