Santa Fe gathers in show of solidarity
First anniversary of shooting marked by ‘Day of Resiliency’
SANTA FE — On a humid Saturday one year to the day after a mass shooting at Santa Fe High School changed the town forever, the community strived for normalcy.
At Runge Park, 2 miles from the campus, faculty members organized a kickball tournament. Country and pop music blared from underneath a pavilion as two dozen teams squared off in friendly competition — an event designed to give the community a distraction from 12 months of grieving.
“We wanted a general place where we could, most importantly, be with our students, the people that we were with on that day and that we’ve been with all year long,” said Danielle Hildebrand, a student activities coordinator at Santa Fe High School.
A city proclamation marks May 18 as “Resiliency Day” in Santa Fe — an official acknowledgment of the day a 17-year old student opened fire in two art classrooms, killing 10 people and wounding 13.
The last year has been a haze of tears, trauma and unwanted media attention, both locally and nationally. What was once a relatively anonymous semi-rural town
in Southeast Texas suddenly became synonymous with school shootings that are becoming increasingly more frequent. Just months prior to the Santa Fe shooting, a gunman rained bullets on students and faculty in Parkland, Fla. On Friday, a high school student in Oregon entered a classroom with a black trench coat and pulled out a shotgun, leading a football coach to wrestle him to the ground before he could harm anyone.
Rather than attempt to ignore the first anniversary of the Santa Fe shooting, the community faced it head on. An afternoon of activities was organized at the Galveston County fairgrounds in Hitchcock on Saturday, designed as a show of solidarity.
The Santa Fe Resiliency Center, a haven for the community since the shooting, recruited staff, alumni and local officials to give the community a space to heal.
“It wasn’t a shooting that affected one family, it affected thousands and thousands of people,” said Jason Tabor, the Santa Fe mayor. “The only way we can get through this is to come together and unite as one and just be helpful.”
In an enclosed pavilion, dozens of Santa Fe residents roamed from table to table, where they tried their hands at drumming for music therapy, making “stress balls” — balloons filled with flour — and painting rocks. Golden retrievers — comfort dogs — held court, splayed out on the floor for children to pet.
At one table, Annabelle O’Day sat in front of several people writing messages on index cards. O’Day, a freshman at the University of Houston, graduated from Santa Fe High School weeks after the May 18 shooting. Inspired to help grieving friends and family, she started Hearts United for Kindness, a nonprofit focused on spreading kindness and promoting mental health awareness.
O’Day said the index cards are for people to write notes to the 10 victims or to vent the whirlwind of emotions taking hold of the community.
“Some days it still doesn’t feel real even though, logically, I know that happens,” O’Day said. “Sometimes it can still hit you like it’s new. It’s not something that you will ever get over. We’re managing and we’re getting there.”
Across from O’Day’s table, Doug Hiser, an awardwinning artist and author who grew up in Santa Fe and teaches in Houston, worked with a handful of students on a mosaic of a butterfly with green and yellow wings, the high school’s colors.
“It represents (Santa Fe’s) metamorphosis and hope,” Hiser said.
Hiser painted a mural at Santa Fe City Hall of a Native American wearing a headdress on horseback, a tribute to the high school’s mascot, the Indians. He grew misty-eyed recounting how the idea for the painting came to him in a dream. Seeing the painting on T-shirts and car decals overwhelms him.
“It represents our city. It’s a thing of pride we can look at and never forget,” he said.
For families of shooting victims, remembrance is not optional nor reserved only for anniversaries. People like Shannan Claussen, whose son, Christian Riley Garcia, was killed, live with the reality that a part of them will always feel empty.
Claussen and her family members wore T-shirts emblazoned with Christian’s face, the words “Santa Fe Hero” underneath.
“It actually is harder to me as time goes on, the numbness starts to wear off,” Claussen said. “Now you realize it’s the closing of the ‘first’ of everything.”
For Rosie Y. Stone, whose son, Chris, was also killed, the anniversary marked the end of a major chapter in her grieving process. Stone would periodically visit the art classroom where Chris was killed, sometimes sitting in silence, sometimes holding conversations with Chris’ spirit, sometimes crying.
On Saturday, Stone and her daughters joined four other families of victims to visit the art classroom one last time. The room had changed dramatically since her first visits, now barren and painted completely white.
Stone said at one point while they were in the classroom, she placed her hand on the ground, imagining Chris sitting there, sharing the moment. She carries Chris’ ashes so she can always feel him next to her.
“It gives me peace, it really does,” Stone said. “Today was just really a closure day. We shared a lot of tears and we’re happy that part’s done.”