The Chardon High School Shooting

This morning at 7:50 a.m. I was driving through Chardon Square; about a quarter of a mile away, a student (alleged to be T.J. Lane) was running away after shooting 5 classmates in the Chardon High School cafeteria; one boy, Daniel Parmertor, lay mortally wounded on the cafeteria floor; two other boys, Russell King and Demetrius Hewlin, were critically wounded, and a couple other students had less serious wounds (Nate Mueller was the name of a boy grazed on his right ear; Nickolas Walczak has spinal cord trauma--his life was saved by math teacher Joseph Ricci; a girl was also wounded and has now been released from the hospital). The 911 call went to the police at 7:38 a.m. and shortly after that reports were on the radio stations. I listened to 100.7 FM as I drove to work as someone described ambulances coming to the local Walmart store and as a medical helicopter landed to evacuate seriously wounded kids to Metro Hospital in Cleveland. That's when I knew it was bad--Metro has a trauma ER unit that sees the most serious cases in the area. As it happened, one student died at Metro; two others are in very serious condition--and we pray that they survive. [We learned the next day that these two boys, Russell King and Demetrius Hewlin, died from their wounds].

My nephew Dillon Coughlin was in the cafeteria when the shooting took place. If I heard the story right, Dillon led classmates into an adjacent room, where they barricaded the door with a piano. There were many courageous and even heroic actions at the high school. I hear that a teacher (it might have been Coach Frank Hall) was involved in chasing after the shooter and comforting the severely wounded students. Other teachers (Mr. Joseph Ricci is one), janitors, and students acted heroically--we may never know all their names. Teachers and other school workers have the instincts of parents--they will risk their own lives to save their students.

From everything I have heard, it seems that teachers, administrators, and police handled this terrible situation correctly. Now all adults in the area must help the children, teachers, police, rescue workers and others involved process this tragedy. There can be a delayed reaction and PTSD in situations like this.

Everyone who lives in the Chardon area will know someone involved in this shooting. My daughter was friends with the aunt of the alleged shooter. The dead boy lived in my brother Jim's neighborhood. This is a small and tight community. We all share in the tragedy. We will pray for everyone tomorrow evening at 7 p.m. at St. Mary's Church.