Reports didn’t convey terror of gun at Oviedo dance

From the way Oviedo High School’s administrators tell it, the homecoming dance on Nov.

6 ended early because students decided to leave.

I am a senior at Oviedo. I attended the dance. The way the school, county, and police told the story is not how that night played out for students.

For about an hour, I was having a fun time dancing with my friends. Then my friend told me that someone at the dance had a gun. The statement didn’t fully register with me at first, and I continued on with my night.

Ten minutes later, I watched my two friends leave the dance circle and grab their shoes. I didn’t want to lose them, so I followed and took mine as well. They didn’t tell me where we were going; I assumed we were headed to the other dance floor. I turned around and saw people running. Groups of barefoot girls sprinted across the courtyard and then I quickly understood.

I ran too, expecting to hear gunshots within seconds. I found my friends outside of the school and called my mom. Frantically, I tried to explain to her what was going on, but in the commotion, my parents couldn’t hear anything I was saying or understand the situation.

We wanted to leave, but my friend who drove didn’t have her keys. We were stuck for a few frantic minutes until we could finally leave campus.

As we turned out of the school, I saw groups of panicked underclassmen running towards the Publix down the road.

In the midst of this disaster, I was weirdly calm. But as soon as I saw my parents, I broke down. I couldn’t believe what had just happened. I had been dancing with my friends and the next minute I was running off campus, anticipating a shootout.

I got home at around 10 p.m., and that’s when my parents received a message from principal Trent Daniel. Her message said that “no gun was found” at the dance, which was true, but not reassuring considering what had just happened.

The principal commended the students for knowing how to respond, but reading that statement felt like a punch in the throat. Of course we knew what to do — we’ve grown up in the time of school shootings; where monthly Code Red drills are necessary.

That night, there were many different rumors, and it was unclear what had really happened. Now that a police report has been released, the order of events is more clear.

However, the careful wording of the report tells a story that differs quite a bit from mine. The police report said that students were “evacuated” to the nearby church, implying that leaving campus was orderly.

After I read what the school posted on Facebook and the responses, I felt invalidated, as if I overreacted. They painted it out to be a big misunderstanding, which it was, but left out the part where hundreds of students feared for their lives at a school dance. Not to mention, a “misunderstanding ” should not be traumatic for dozens of teenagers.

The day before the dance, our principal announced that this homecoming had record attendance — over 1,600 tickets were sold. Despite this record, I was never submitted to a security check, and I didn’t see a single adult chaperone in the area of the main dance floor.

This school year, our administration has emphasized plenty of security increases — just not at the dance. It felt extremely unfair that students have been inconvenienced all year, but when it really matters, the measures to keep us safe just aren’t there.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time Oviedo’s administration has downplayed events in order to uphold their reputation — a reported locker-room assault and the arrest of a former janitor are other examples, both in 2019. The way they handled this situation is no surprise, but still disappointing.

No student deserves to have a fun school event disrupted the way our homecoming was. Even more so, the students’ experiences deserve to be heard and validated by the administration.

Emma Yost is a senior at Oviedo High School.