The Saugus High School Tragedy

“And then all of a sudden it’s life or death, within a matter of minutes.”
– Lauren Farmer, Saugus High School Student

Content Warning: For readers who are sensitive to topics of gun violence, discretion is advised while reading the following article. This piece will cover the tragic events of a high school shooting that took place on November 14th, 2019.

For the better portion of second block on Thursday, students participated in an active shooter drill. The drill itself was brief, ranging in time depending on one’s classroom and designated teacher. An open conversation between faculty and the students is what occupied the majority of this run through. However, just around an hour after this procedure, the news of a school shooting broke. This tragic event took place at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California. The timing of such an event is particularly chilling for our student body; the conversations and procedures that had only just taken place had been animated into real people, real situations.

The shooter opened fire on the day of his sixteenth birthday, killing two of his peers and wounding three others. He then turned the gun on himself. He now remains in critical condition at the local hospital. According to this Eyewitness News report, the shooting itself only happened over the course of sixteen seconds. That window of time was all it took for tragedy to strike before off-duty law enforcement officers arrived on the scene, having just dropped their own children off at school. First responders were able to administer first aid to the wounded students. The story is still developing on this incredibly disturbing turn of events.

The gun violence issue is a pervasive one for our generation; to me, a student having just gone through the motions of an active shooter drill, there is something seemingly dystopian about discussing barricades and gunshots in an educational environment. This is our unfortunate reality, but that does not necessarily mean we must remain complacent with it. The victims of the Saugus High School shooting should remain fresh in the minds of our generation as we fight to make the world a safer place for our peers.