One Heartbeat Remains

For my Magazine Feature Writing class, I had to write an article about any disaster or tragic event. © 2012 Kathryn Fetheroff All Rights Reserved

On February 27, 2012, the shrill ringing of my cell phone abruptly ripped me from dead sleep, too harsh for my ears at 7:51 a.m., slicing through the silence that had once been comforting.

I didn’t know in that moment that this same silence would follow others into their homes long after this day was over, that it would mock them, haunt them, despite their pleas for those familiar voices. I didn’t know that this day would change countless lives forever. I didn’t know a lot in that moment.

I reached for my phone, still groggy and half-asleep, groaning as I glanced at the red numbers glowing on my alarm clock.

“Hello…,” I said, slightly annoyed that my mom was calling me so early.

There was a pause on the other end of the phone. Before she even spoke, I knew something was wrong.

“Katie… There’s " there’s been a shooting at Chardon High School,” she cried. “Someone brought a gun to school. Students were shot. They were shot!”

A wave of panic shot through my body. I flung myself out of bed, my vision blurring. As I struggled to force out the words, I felt the vomit rising in my throat. “Wh-what?? What do you mean there’s been a shooting? You can’t be serious… Chardon?!”

“Yes!” she wailed, her heaving sobs piercing my ears. “It just happened, right after school started. Someone shot students in the cafeteria. How could this happen in Chardon, of all places?!”

That’s the same question everyone asked themselves that day. How could this happen in Chardon, the small, semi-rural town that, prior to the shooting, only made the news for its maple syrup and harsh winters that birthed its recognition as the snow capital of Ohio?

*

Only minutes after the first bell rang, a gunman opened fire in the high school cafeteria, targeting a group of students sitting at one table.

Nate Mueller, a Chardon High School junior, witnessed the event as he sat eating breakfast with the victims. One friend was slumped “over the table in a pool of blood,” face down, and the other was “on the floor in a puddle of blood next to him,” he described. As Mueller dove to the ground, a bullet grazed his ear, hitting yet another victim, who was behind him, in the lower back.

“It was terror. Everything had just gone tunnel vision, like, I need to get out of here," Mueller said. "You see glances of your friends laying all over the place. There's blood, there's people screaming, everybody's just running in different directions and you're just trying to get out. That's all you can do " get out of the school and not look back, even though your friends are back there.”

We would later learn that a total of 10 shots had been fired, leaving three students dead and three others wounded.

The first 9-1-1 call was made at 7:38 a.m. “We just had a shooting at our school. We need to get out of here. Oh, my god!” one female student cried frantically. Another call was made shortly after by Doug Snyder, a former English and Journalism teacher and current athletic director. “This is Chardon High School calling,” he informed the dispatcher, his voice cracking. “We got shots fired. Gunshots. Multiple gunshots. We need help. We need help badly.”

Before further damage could be done, alleged gunman Thomas “TJ” Lane was chased out of the building by Frank Hall, known at Chardon as the “Gentle Giant.”

“To the families of Danny, Demetrius, and Russell: I want you to know I was with them. I prayed with them, I wiped their tears, and I know God was with them,” Hall said in a news release. “I’m not a hero, just a football coach and a study hall teacher. The law enforcement, first responders that came to our aid that day; they are the heroes.” He also expressed his apologies to the victims’ families, humbly saying that he wished he could have done more.

Joseph Ricci, a math teacher, pulled victim Nick Walczak, 17"who was left paralyzed from the waist down after being shot four times in the neck, arm, and back"into his classroom and administered first aid until paramedics arrived.

By 7:57 a.m., the entire school was on lockdown, with word of what had happened traveling quickly from classroom to classroom, students to parents. Sirens ignited the air, followed by the choppy, muffled roar of helicopters overhead.

“A prompt entry was made into the school. They went into the school and located the victims,” said Geauga County Sheriff Daniel McClelland. “It became readily apparent that the shooter had fled already.”

At 8:12 a.m., Lane was captured off of Woodin Road, a short distance away from the high school.

According to authorities, Lane grew up in a broken home, his mother barely present and his father having served time in jail on assault and other charges. He is described by students as a quiet kid who kept to himself.

Lane has been charged with three counts of aggravated murder, two counts of attempted aggravated murder, and one count of felonious assault. His motive behind the shooting is still unclear.

The other victims include Joy Rickers, Daniel Parmertor, Russell King, Jr., and Demetrius Hewlin. Rickers, 18, was released shortly after being treated for a gunshot wound to the lower back. Parmertor, 16; King, 17; and Hewlin, 17, all died from their wounds within days from one another. Both Hewlin’s and King’s organs were donated.

*

On Friday, March 2, the first day back to school four days after the shooting, the students, sporting Chardon colors, marched together hand-in-hand from the town square to Chardon High School. There, they were greeted by faculty members and Superintendent Joseph Bergant II, who gave every single student a hug before they entered the high school.

Following the shooting, students and faculty decorated every surface of the high school with “cards, letters, banners, other gifts, artwork, even origami strung from the ceiling,” said Bergant, as he walked through the hallways of Chardon High.

Chardon High School also received support from countless people throughout the world, including numerous U.S. high schools, which sent condolence letters and posted photos of students dressed in red and holding signs with various phrases, such as “Chardon is in our hearts” and “One Heartbeat.”

Even today, Chardon is still adorned with red ribbons, signs reading “One Heartbeat,” “We are Chardon,” and “Forever in our hearts,” and a memorial containing notes, teddy bears, and other sentimental objects left for the victims.

It is often said that there is strength in numbers. In Chardon, this most certainly rings true. Lane may have taken three special people from us before their time was up, but he will never steal the spirit, pride, and love deeply embedded within the Chardon community.

Despite this horrific tragedy, One Heartbeat still remains, flourishing more than ever " the collective heartbeat of Chardon.