Middle school student shares words of encouragement for classmates returning after shooting

RICHMOND, Ind. (WISH) – One student has shared a message of strength to her classmates nearly a month after a gunman entered their school. Avery Bohn says she was struggling with the nervousness of going back to Dennis Middle School after a 14-year-old shot and killed himself in the hallways. That was Dec. 13, 2018, nearly a month ago.

Monday the school reopened and has been patched up, now the students are working on getting back to normal too. 

Parents and teachers flanked the sidewalks as about 500 students returned, everyone offering words of encouragement. Sunday night, Bohn was dealing with her own nervousness and decided to post a video, which has over 12,000 views on Facebook. Bohn says she hopes everyone can work together to overcome this tragedy. 

“He came in there wanting to hurt us and we can’t let him continue to hurt us every day,” said Bohn. “We all sat really quietly and heard the shots and didn’t know what it was and we just kind of held each other’s hand and said we are all going to be fine. We were all there for each other and I feel like people need that. I just want to share the inspiration for people having a rough time because I know there are kids that don’t have the same positive outlook as I did. So, I just want to help kids look at it a different way.” 

There will be therapy dogs and counselors on hand this week to support the students as they transition back. The Richmond Schools superintendent says teachers are doing all they can to bring back normalcy and he will reach out to other communities dealing with such issues.