incidents
Why?
30 July 2008 04:06 PM Filed in: Announcements
Alexandria Salinas, age 14
This post has been rolling around in my head for a couple of days now, and only really became verbalized today.
Today it was the day it became anger.
On Saturday night, Alexandria Salinas, a beautiful and talented young lady by the measure of those who knew her, was senselessly murdered by a family member last weekend. She was 14 and a newly enrolled freshman at Empire High School - a student in our extended Vail family.
As a teacher, I am saddened. As a parent, I am devastated.
I’ve lost three students during my time as a teacher, and I remember every one of them. It’s extraordinarily difficult to know that a blossoming young adult will never graduate from high school, will never make a lifelong commitment to someone, will never have children of her own - will never even have the chance to experience another moment in her life.
I hugged my children extra tightly on Sunday evening, the day that I learned of the tragedy. Rubbing the hair on the top of my older boy’s head and kissing the plump little cheek of my toddler, I could only imagine the wailing grief that must fill the home of Alexandria today. I would be lost - utterly lost - if I one of my children were to be taken from me in such a horrific way. The pain must be doubly bad in the case of Alexandria’s parents, since it was her half brother who took her life - shot her in the head at close range while she talked on the phone with a boy. How do you reconcile the love you have for your children with the knowledge that one of them brutally murdered the other? These parents are mourning the loss of not only one, but two children.
There were other children in the home at the time, younger than Alexandria. Scarred by the sound of the gunshot that took their sister’s life.
I wish I were filled with prayer - with sadness and nothing but good wishes for Alexandria’s family - to mourn and recover from the death of their daughter and to reconcile this with the knowledge that their son is the one responsible.
But I am filled with anger instead.
Click here to read EHS Principal Matt Donaldson’s letter home to parents regarding the incident.
Read the post below to see how to report things you see anonymously. Please - join with me in pledging to prevent another tragedy. Alexandria could have been an astronaut, or President, or a mechanic; a mother of children who had children who had still more children - but now she has no chance to choose which future would be hers. Don’t take a risk - the students who didn’t report this gun when he brought it to school on Friday are wracked with horrible guilt, and this incident will haunt them for years.
Thanks for reading. I hope you were paying attention.
**UPDATE**
I saw this posted on KOLD.com and thought I would share it:
In a statement released to KOLD News 13, Pruitt's father and stepmother say the boy had just recently come to stay with the family. They also say he brought with him a gun he took from his mother's house in colorado.
The parents call it a shocking event for the whole community.
The full statement, as we received it:
Our family is devastated by the senseless, tragic death of our daughter & sister Alexandria Salinas. "Alex" just started school, at Empire High School in Vail. She was in honors classes and she had just sung the national anthem in front of the whole student body. She was the kind of fourteen year old that everyone wanted to have, and kids wanted to be like. Alex attended her first high school dance and had shared her first real kiss with her boyfriend of many months the night before her untimely death.
We had gone to a movie to celebrate our wedding anniversary, and were shocked to receive the call that Alex had been shot. We frantically left the movies and sped home, to find that Alex had passed away. Andrew had just recently come to stay with our family. We opened our home and hearts to Andrew. We now know that Andrew brought with him a gun he took from his mother's house in Colorado. We are angry and in such pain. This was a tragic and shocking event for the whole community; it is intensely magnified for our family. Alex had a heart of gold, and went out of her way to help all. She will be deeply missed.
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