St. Agnes Stands With Bellaire High School

The first school shooting of the year happened in my neighborhood, at a school not far from my house.

I came home, hearing a helicopter flying over my neighborhood. I could hear sirens in the distance, and I wondered what was going on as I stepped off the metro, turning to walk home.   

The moment I opened the door to my house, my siblings ran up to me, pulling me inside. “You’re not supposed to go outside right now, it could be dangerous,” my sister started. “Did you hear about what happened? It’s crazy,” my brother continued, as they told me what they had heard. “Our school was on lockdown, I want to make sure my friends are ok,” my sister finished. 

My mind drifted and I felt a million different thoughts flood in. My sister and brother went to St. Thomas Episcopal, just down the street. I went there for middle school. Were my friends ok? I knew people at Bellaire. One of my friends lived within walking distance from the high school. Was it even safe to be in the neighborhood at this time? I felt like I was in a horror story. 

I reached for my phone, starting to text my friends about what had happened. I had only heard about school shootings on the news, never expecting something like this to happen in my neighborhood that I had grown up in. I drove by Bellaire High School every week. I took the metro bus, not far from the high school with my friends after school. Was anyone taking it now? Would they be ok? Did they even know what had happened? 

As the night went on, I constantly checked the news, hoping for an update on what happened. When I went back to school the next day, it was all I could think about, and I knew I wasn’t the only person at St Agnes feeling this way. 

Olivia Trask (‘22) said that when she heard about this, she felt sad and angry that this was happening so frequently in our country. “Bellaire is a major school in Houston, that a lot of us live close by to. Our country needs to make it a priority to stop this from happening, because too many innocent lives have been lost, and students should be able to feel safe at school.” Olivia said that though she doesn’t live close to the high school, she has friends from her middle school that go there, and she has been to Bellaire for debate tournaments as well. 

Later that week, we wore red ribbons to show support to the students at Bellaire High School. On VTV, the student broadcasting system, Student Body Presidents Izzie Agee (‘20) and Claire Nadira (‘20) explained the significance of the ribbons, honoring Cesar Cortes. 

Bellaire High School students Smriti Paudel (‘21), Vivian Dai (‘22), Chris Woodard (‘20) and Allen Dao (‘20) hold the poster outside a classroom.

The next morning, I sat in a classroom with Izzie and Claire, making a banner reading “St. Agnes stands with Bellaire” to let everyone sign. Making an announcement to the school about it on Thursday VTV, I explained that the poster would be in the student commons, for anyone to sign to show their support. We would drop it off at Bellaire early next week. 

Vittoria Ascione (‘22), thought that wearing ribbons was a necessary gesture, because it was important to show support to the school and show our respect. “Even though it won’t change what happened, it will help students realize that they’re not alone, and they have support from students around Houston.”

This past Wednesday, Claire and I delivered the poster to Bellaire. We met with Chris Woodard (‘20), the Student Body President of Bellaire High School. He believes that this poster will have a very positive effect on the students at Bellaire. “It will let students and teachers know that Bellaire isn’t alone in our stance towards the incident. Recently, several of us at Bellaire have felt a disconnection between the students and administration from Bellaire and HISD. Knowing that other schools are supporting our recovery is really reassuring.” Chris said that the poster would be put up in the main office, or maybe in the library where Cesar Cortez’ memorial is located. 

In times like this, we are all students. No matter what race, gender, no matter what school we go to, it is important for us to take a stand on something that impacted our community so much. Our hearts go out to the family of Cesar Cortez, as well as all of the students and teachers in Bellaire that were affected in this tragedy, as we remember you in our prayers. 

Editor's Note: Read more on the tragedy at Bellaire High School in these articles by students Olivia Baba and Mizuki Kai.