Forest High School students returned to class this morning for the first time since a gunman opened fire at the facility Friday morning.
Amid a backdrop of heavy law enforcement presence, students made their way to different classes with the memory of Friday’s shooting that left a 17-year-old with an ankle wound still fresh on their minds.
Outside the school early this morning amid drizzling rain, Marion County Schools Superintendent Dr. Heidi Maier encouraged people across the Sunshine State and the nation to embrace the students who faced such a horrifying situation last week.
“Help us get them back to normal and also never let them forget that they are loved and they are safe,” she said, adding that this Friday everyone is encouraged to wear Forest green to show their support for the school. ‘Our teachers are heading that up. It is a message of love and caring.”
Maier said she can’t say enough about how the teachers and administrators handled Friday’s situation.
“They took care of 2,100 children,” she said. “They kept them safe.”
As for how teachers will handle today’s flow of classes and emotions, Maier said she isn’t concerned.
“They’re going to do what’s best for their kids,” she said. “We trust these teachers. Look what they did Friday. Look what they do every day. The teachers will take it minute by minute with our students.”
Maier also praised the way students stepped up to take care of each other during and after the shooting, including when they were transported by buses to a nearby church to be picked up by their parents.
“These students are to be commended,” she said. “They not only took care of themselves, but they showed class, professionalism and calmness. We are more than proud of these kids.”
Meanwhile, during several interviews at the Marion County Jail, 19-year-old Sky Bouche, who was arrested and identified by law enforcement as the shooter, said he was sorry that he wounded a student. The former Forest High student added that he opened fire at the school so that he would be arrested and put away, citing a childhood surrounded by mental illness, violence and neglect.
“This is what I wanted, was to be away from everyone else so I’m not hurting anyone else,” said Bouche, who is being held without bond and faces charges of terrorism, aggravated assault with a firearm, carrying a concealed firearm, possession of a short-barreled shotgun, possession of a firearm on school property, armed trespass on school property, interference in school function and culpable negligence. “That was my primary goal, because I knew if I didn’t snap now, it would have been later and it would have been 100 times worse.”
Sheriff Billy Woods, whose deputies responded to the incident with law enforcement personnel from throughout Central Florida, said this kind of senseless violence, including the murders of two deputies in Gilchrist County last week and the shots fired at a Marion County deputy and a crowd of bystanders outside a Citra bar early Sunday morning, must come to an end.
“Enough is enough,” Woods said. “I can tell you that all of my people are on edge. I’m angry. I’m sad and I want to do something. And we will do something and we are doing something.”