Once again, East High School students laid dozens of bouquets of flowers on the giant “E” on our campus and mourned for our fellow Angel, Luis Garcia, as we marked the anniversary of his death on Friday, March 1. Garcia was shot only a few hundred feet from the iconic letter; nevertheless, his death wasn’t classified as a school shooting since it “wasn’t on school property.” But for many East students, it was.
At the first memorial a year ago, the sound of noses sniffling and quiet sobs filled the silence in front of the school, but the question on our minds was, who’s next? Who will we be laying down flowers for? Unfortunately, we found out soon after.
Two of our deans were shot and injured by a fellow student. Another lockdown took place, but this time it made national news.
From the inside, I was frantically trying to figure out what was going on through any form of social media, family, friends, or news outlet. Every 30 to 40 minutes I received emails from the school to stay and hide, that the threat was contained, and to wait until police came and escorted us out to the Esplanade. No words, however, can express the fear and gratitude of watching your teacher now act as the person who stands between your chance of life and death.
That 2022-23 school year was marked by lockouts, more commonly known as secure perimeters, which are when no person inside or outside the building can enter or exit. And it was a year full of emails from administrators informing parents and guardians about the many incidents at East. Students, teachers, and parents were getting tired of it. It eventually became a norm and a chore to undergo these procedures. The desensitization to these threats sprawled rapidly like a disease.
At East High School, the lockdown drills, emergency preparations, and added security have been welcome, but they come with a price. Students now live with perpetual reminders of violence past and of the unpreventable violence to come.
East’s Students Demand Action, a club devoted to ending gun violence, marched to the Capitol in 2023 to let politicians know how badly these events were affecting students.
We’ve received major upgrades thanks to the activism.
At East there are two permanent Student Resource Officers, or SROs: Officer Casey Staples and Officer Matt Wolfe, whom many students feel safe around and have built strong relations with. We’ve had zero lockdowns or lockouts this year, only drills. Finally, the adoption of Cherry Creek School District’s Red Bag.
The Red Bag is a resource that students and teachers can use at any point by simply scanning a QR code during a lockout or lockdown to get official information from the Denver Police Department or school administration. In addition, in the event that an active shooter is in the building and injuries are occurring, medical supplies like tourniquet kits and first aid kits, along with short — quick to the point — videos that show how to use these supplies are included with the bag. At East there is now a Red Bag in every classroom and bathroom.
While these bags have proven successful during drills, the added traits of fear and adrenaline haven’t been accounted for. In addition, the administration has asked students to turn off Wi-Fi and data during a lockdown to have a direct line of communication with the Denver Police Department without it slowing down due to a busy network. This would mean that students would have to turn off their cell phones during an actual event. Students would have very little communication with their families, affecting their ability to let them know if they’re safe or not.
While I understand that these kinds of events with little communication amongst parents and students may make some feel uneasy, it would be better to let them know you’re safe and turn off your phone, instead of riling them and yourself up. That way the situation can be handled efficiently and would allow DPD and the administration to communicate as needed.
I know that when the alarm “Locks, Lights, Out of Sight” sounds, my stomach still falls as if I were coming down from a roller coaster. The vivid memories of my peers in the corner laying their hands over their mouths to silence their sobs and the dread that surrounded us hearing unknown voices talk, are graphic memories I wished I never had.
As a student who experienced the loss of a fellow Angel and the leaving of two administrators due to gun violence, the Red Bag can’t truly prevent accidents like these from repeating themselves.
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But I personally have felt more at ease knowing I have the supplies and resources to have a direct form of communication with DPD and not get false information from social media or through the grapevine.
Although we, as a society, haven’t figured out how to handle the bigger issue at hand about Second Amendment rights and firearms, the Red Bag could save a life and allow students and teachers to receive factual information instead of the false facts that fuel emotions and fear.
In short, the question of “who’s next” still lingers in my mind, but at least now my classmates and I have SROs in the building and some tools at East High School to make us feel less powerless.
Mattison Nunez is a student at East High School who writes occasional columns for The Denver Post.
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