BEND, Oregon (AP) — A special-needs teacher and student wounded in a deadly shooting at an Oregon elementary school remained hospitalized Saturday. But friends said their survival was a spot of hope in a community in mourning.
The youngest shooting survivor, 7-year-old Saylor Graham, is a feisty, vibrant fighter with a sweet nature whose story inspired other children, said Matt Sampson, executive director of Sparrow Clubs, where she was a member. She has a genetic disorder, usually uses a wheelchair and is non-verbal, but “she doesn’t even need words to connect with people,” he said.
“She’s just an amazing spirit who just immediately draws people to her and you just feel inspired by Saylor when you meet her,” Sampson said. “And she’s always wearing these iconic glasses, whether they’re pink or they’re red. She’s just such a cutie.”
Teacher Becky Drury, 54, is recovering in a Bend hospital with wounds to her arm and hand but hopes to go home soon, said Zack Hall, a family friend who is serving as her family’s spokesperson.
Three children — ages 5, 8 and 11 — and a teacher were killed at the Silver Rail Elementary school in Bend, Oregon, Thursday when a former student there, 16-year-old Griffin J. John II, entered a special needs classroom and began firing with a shotgun.
One teacher was grappling with John for the weapon when the father of two students came in and shot him to death. They were credited with stopping the rampage and saving many people’s lives.
While police continued to investigate John’s motive, distraught parents, teachers and others gathered outside the school Saturday to leave flowers, pray and cry.
Savannah Patton, a mother who has a 1st and 4th grader at the school, sat on the grass Saturday across from a memorial of flowers, stuffed animals and balloons, and wiped tears from her eyes.
She told an Associated Press reporter that the teacher who died, Megan Lambert, 25, had been a substitute for her daughter’s class last year.
Patton said she has struggled to explain what happened to her daughter, who asked her, “Mommy, why would someone want to take a gun and kill us at school?” Patton said it was a question she didn’t know how to answer.
Physical challenges won’t keep her from “living with joy”
For several years, Saylor worked with students from Bend High School through the Sparrow Clubs, a volunteer group whose mission is to empower “kids to help kids in medical need” through kindness and community service, according to their website.
In a video on the Sparrow Clubs page, Saylor introduces herself, saying she loves watching Bluey and being around other kids, especially her brother. She said that while she is challenged by physical and cognitive issues, she can communicate with her eyes and a computer tablet.
“I prove every day that I’m a fighter who doesn’t give up,” she wrote in the video. ”Living with CASK-related challenges is full of unknowns, which can be very hard and scary for my whole family,” she said, “But it doesn’t keep me from smiling, laughing and living with joy!”
Some of the high school students who worked with Saylor said helping her gave them hope that there is still humanity in this world.
After the shooting, she was taken to a hospital in Portland. A Go-Fund-Me for her family has raised almost $400,000.
“We will not let her name be forgotten”
Devon Johnson visited the memorial outside the school Saturday morning. Her husband teaches at Bend High School, and she is a volleyball coach at High Desert Middle School, so they are close with many of the staff at the elementary school.
“It’s just hard to take in,” she said. “I’m so glad to see that Bend is rallying and just wrapping their arms around this community, but it’s going to take a long time to get through this.”
Heidi Wood, the director of the Central Oregon Volleyball Club where Lambert coached, said in a social media post that she was “an amazing coach, ”an amazing teacher” and “an amazing person who would do anything” for her students.
“To the shooter, she would have given you the shirt off her back,” Wood said. “But you didn’t give her a chance.”
Wood said that Lambert wouldn’t take her volleyball coaching pay in her first year so the money could be used for scholarships for players who couldn’t afford to play instead.
“That was her, and that is her,” Wood said. “We will carry on her love, her passion and we will not let her name be forgotten.”
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