A student’s message: Saugus High is ‘a strong school that stands together’
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Early Thursday morning, Amy Foster saw a gun pointed straight at her. She pushed her boyfriend off the table they were sitting on, and ran.
They ran fast and hard out of the Saugus High School quad area, where students from all the grades had gathered. The popular kids, the quiet kids, the choir kids and the jocks.
A bullet flew by her head, she thought, and someone she believes she knew — she didn’t look to see who — fell behind to the ground.
And Foster kept running until she was safe. That night she was still running out of that school quad, in her dreams.
“I wake up and I go to my friend’s house and I hug her so tight,” Foster said Saturday.
The quad at Saugus High School was always abuzz, a busy gathering spot.
“Meet me in the quad, we’ll get food, we’ll walk to class together.” That’s what students tell each other, said Amy’s sister Heather.
It was where everyone hung out in the mornings, for brunch and during lunch. It was where students had their Halloween fun. This year, someone dressed as a Spongebob Squarepants character — Patrick Star. A couple of years ago, someone walked around as Yoda, from Star Wars.
“It’s now going to be a heartbreaking place to return to,” Heather Foster said.
“I feel like we probably will just find somewhere else to go, far away from there,” said Saugus cheerleader Isabella Anselmo. “Like on the other side of school, maybe.”
When a fellow student pulled a .45-caliber gun out of his backpack on Nov. 14, on his birthday, two kids – Gracie Anne Muehlberger, 15, and Dominic Michael Blackwell, 14 – didn’t make it. Three other students were injured. The accused gunman, Nathaniel Berhow, then turned the gun on himself. He died on Friday.
“I’m just going to remember everything that happened there,” said Charity Dell, 15, who was in the quad when the 16-second storm of bullets began.
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Hart School District officials say they’re working to quell the students’ anxiety about returning to the campus.
School was canceled on Friday. On Saturday night, the district announced that classes for students at Saugus High School will not resume until Dec. 2, following their Thanksgiving break.
Classes for other schools in the district will resume Monday, Nov. 18 with an increased law enforcement presence, officials said.
The Saugus campus will gradually reopen beginning Tuesday, Nov. 19, with law enforcement and mental health professionals on hand.
“Students choosing to come back to campus will be surrounded by law enforcement officers, mental health professionals, community members and friends offering love and encouragement,” Deputy Superintendent Mike Kuhlman said in a statement.
While the Saugus campus will remain closed on Monday, officials said starting on Tuesday, students can retrieve their belongings from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. On Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., officials scheduled optional activities for students, all aimed at “helping them process, heal and move forward.” Similar activities would be provided on Thursday, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Officials welcome family members to participate in the week’s activities.
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Still, unavoidably, the shooter’s presence lingers. He’s even a part of some of the kids’ memories on social media.
“We used to make videos at lunch, and (now) I’d see the boy in the background of our videos,” said Anselmo, referring to Berhow.
Adding to their apprehension were random – though seemingly bogus – threats against schools that the students have spotted online since Thursday.
“That is really scary,” said Sophia Mollicone, 15, a member of the Saugus High cheer team.
A Sheriff’s Department spokesman said as of Saturday morning, there were no credible threats.
Mollicone and others, however, said they’ll stand strong against any attempts to break their spirit. She was part of a group on Saturday wearing shirts that read #SaugusStrong. The words served as armor.
Foster said she’s spent the last several days with classmates, building stronger bonds. She no longer will be running, she said.
When school reopens, Foster said, she will return to the quad and take up her usual spot.
“I will still be sitting there and not let this affect me and get to my head,” she said. “I do not want to fear every single day I’m going to get shot.”
And she wants to send a message.
Saugus should not be seen as “as the school of the killer,” she said. “We should be defined as a strong school that stands together.”