School shooting at Chardon High School, near Cleveland

[MarkL]

Just saw this on CNN. There was a shooting earlier today at Chardon High School, a bit east of Cleveland. Five students were shot I believe, no fatalities reported as of now on CNN. Gunman in custody.

Prayers for all involved, and I hope no AZZers and family of AZZers are affected by this.

[gmartin]

I posted a similar thought in the women's basketball forum for Dustin. He says security is too high at BGSU and nothing bad would ever happen at BG. You can never be to safe. My wife graduated from Chardon. Her parents still live there and her sister is an elementary teacher in the school district. I was shocked. A very quiet and safe towns. Back in middle 2000s Chandon was listed as one of the top 20 safest communities in the US. Tragic events can occur anywhere. Just need one person to cause harm.

[Globetrotter]

Apparently the football teams Offensive Coordinator chased the gun man out of the building. Mitch Hewitt is their Head Coach I think.

[BillyLP]

For those not aware, one of the victims passed away shortly after getting to the hospital.

[Rightupinthere]

Mitch Hewitt is the football coach and a high school teacher in Chardon.

My daughter attends the elementary school located right next door to the high school [Maple].
I've been in Chardon for a long time and went to high school there. As the day has wore on, this has hit closer and closer to home [including knowing the family of the shooter.] The shooter was also apprehended on the road I live on. I know the track the shooter ran and he probably turned himself in because he was exhausted, wet, and cold. He ran through dence woods which had about 6" of snow on the ground, through creeks, hills, and soft marsh.

Couple of observations.
The school system training and response was AMAZING. I was kept up to date with the information I needed by phone and email. They stopped the elementary school bussing and rerouted dropping off those already picked up. Classes were cancellled. High school students were moved to the neighboring elementary school by fives and awaited pickup from their parents. ONLY parents or guardians could pick the kids up.

The emergency response was explory. We had an army of enforcement within an hour.

This all was drilled last year and I remember telling my daughter about the drill and "why" there was a drill.

If anyone politicizes this, I will light you up. Don't pull that B.S. Don't you dare.

[Falcon Fanatic]

RUIT, I'm so glad your daughter is safe and my prayers go out to everyone who has been touched by this tragedy.

[Falcon Fanatic]

nm

[h2oville rocket]

Mitch Hewitt is the football coach and a high school teacher in Chardon.

My daughter attends the elementary school located right next door to the high school [Maple].
I've been in Chardon for a long time and went to high school there. As the day has wore on, this has hit closer and closer to home [including knowing the family of the shooter.] The shooter was also apprehended on the road I live on. I know the track the shooter ran and he probably turned himself in because he was exhausted, wet, and cold. He ran through dence woods which had about 6" of snow on the ground, through creeks, hills, and soft marsh.

Couple of observations.
The school system training and response was AMAZING. I was kept up to date with the information I needed by phone and email. They stopped the elementary school bussing and rerouted dropping off those already picked up. Classes were cancellled. High school students were moved to the neighboring elementary school by fives and awaited pickup from their parents. ONLY parents or guardians could pick the kids up.

The emergency response was explory. We had an army of enforcement within an hour.

This all was drilled last year and I remember telling my daughter about the drill and "why" there was a drill.

If anyone politicizes this, I will light you up. Don't pull that B.S. Don't you dare.

Terrifying for all of us but obviously much closer to home for you. Terrible thing-not sure what else to say. Glad your family is safe-

[hammb]

So sad to hear Glad your daughter is safe RUIT.

[Rightupinthere]

Thanks all. It's been a surreal 21 hours [including my misspelling "dense"]. The degrees of separation continue to lower. Neighbor girl was in the cafeteria and was one of the kids hiding in the teacher's lounge. She grew up a lot yesterday, sadly.

My daughter is spooked but taking things in stride. She's more worried about bad things happening to people she's close to. I explained that good people do good things, bad people do bad things and there are time with good people do bad things. That might be the case this time around. We can't fear it, but we can prepare for it and if/when it happens, we learn.

We're going to learn a lot from this. Chardon is a very tight knit community; those reports are absolutely true. My alumni base [just my year of 87] are beginning to form to raise funds for the family and possibly a memorial for the school.

Finally, there is a lot of talk about the bullying program at the schools. It's very good and my daughter was had to pull the alarm on some "best friend bullying" that she was having to deal with. The response was quick, professional, and effective. But it has limitations in that the victim has to be a part of it. I can't tell you what steps - if any - the schools took, but I'm not even close to throwing them under the bus for this instance.

[nwofalconfan]

From what I have read/heard the Chardon community/school district responded exceptionally well to this tragic circumstance. I have been so impressed by everyone. My daughter is a teacher in another part of Ohio, and she was telling me that what Chardon had in place is not the norm elsewhere. It is something all parents might want to look into, to determine if their child's school/community would be able to respond in such an exemplorary manner.

Prayers to everyone affected by this tragedy.

[Falcon Fanatic]

RUIT, It sounds like your school system and community are an extraordinary place to live in. Because of it, your daughter, other students, teachers and the community will be able to recover (if that is even possible) from this horrible tragedy. You and your community continue to be in my thoughts and prayers.

[tiznow]

This is so sad. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families. A fellow Falcon friend I graduated with has a nephew that is still in the hospital recovering. He has been in my thoughts and prayers as well as the whole Chardon community.

[Falcon Fanatic]

Great article on the Chardon's "One Heartbeat"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/connie-di ... 26793.html

[Class of 61]

Great article on the Chardon's "One Heartbeat"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/connie-di ... 26793.html

For anyone's information who might not know, Connie Dieken, the author of this fine article, is/was the wife of Doug Dieken, retired Browns OT, and current "color man" on Brown's broadcasts. I'm not sure if they're still married or not...Connie was also a newscaster on Ch.3 in Cleve. for many yrs.

Chardon has shown a LOT to the rest of the U.S. and the world for that matter.