USA TODAY International Edition
Resilient Noblesville prepares for school
Just like every year, thousands of Noblesville families gathered on Friday to celebrate a new school year with sunshine, cheerleading and lemon shake-ups.
But this year, the crowd of 8,000 at the Back to School Bash showed the community’s resilience.
It was physical proof of families’ desire to give a traumatic event a positive outcome – a desire that has created a strong sense of unity despite differing ideas of what the next steps should be.
Students return to school Wednesday.
“We’re ready,” parents told IndyStar.
Just like every year. Even if it has only been two months since police say a 13-year-old opened fire in his seventh-grade science classroom at Noblesville West Middle School.
Jenny Sochocki said her teenage daughter’s summer started with being questioned by police. She was in Dennis Flak’s seventhgrade classroom during the shooting. Her friend Ella Whistler was shot seven times.
Sochocki’s priority was letting her daughter spend time with friends. It was therapeutic, she said. On Friday, her daughter’s summer ended with walking around the Federal Commons armin-arm with friends, wearing black T-shirts that read, “Meet N the middle #WeAreWest.” Ella Whistler smiled for a few pictures with friends, still wearing a large neck brace.
“I’m just so proud of how the community has come together around the students, around the parents, around the teachers,” said board president Kevin Kalstad.
In the weeks that followed the shooting, the community grappled with how to respond to the shooter and his family. The trial for the 13year-old accused of the shooting was postponed until September.
The district announced a list of changes this year, including doubling the number of officers in school, restricting the use of backpacks and limiting visitor access.
“We just want to have a great start to the school year,” said Mark Booth, the district’s part-time safety director. “We’re up and ready to go.” He handed out free gun safety locks to interested parents and gave candy to students during the bash.
Sochocki credits her daughter’s teacher, Flak, for helping the teen maintain a sense of safety.
“She told me, ‘He kept us safe, I knew he was in complete control,’ ” Sochocki said. “I think that just helped those kids.”