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Private reflection at Westfield
As Westfield High School's administrators led their students in remembering the one-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech tragedy on April 16, they kept events small and private.Tim Thomas, principal of the school, declined a request for an interview that day.
“We are trying to downplay the whole thing,” said Paul Regnier, a spokesman for Fairfax County Public Schools. The shootings didn't “happen here and the students are just trying to move on.”
In two consecutive years, graduates of Westfield High School have shocked their community by carrying out acts of gun violence.
The Sully District first dealt with a communitywide tragedy when Michael Kennedy, an 18-year-old graduate of Westfield High School, fatally shot Detective Vicky Armel and Master Police Officer Michael Garbarino at the police station on May 8, 2006, before police officers shot and killed him.
Nearly a year later, on April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho carried out the worst school shooting in U.S. history, killing 32 people on the campus of Virginia Tech. Cho, as well as Reema Samaha and Erin Peterson, two of his victims, were Westfield High School graduates.
Yet Thomas continues to lead the school through hard times to be among the best in the county, said Michael Frey (R), a Fairfax County supervisor for the Centreville area.
On the one-year anniversary of the Tech shootings, Thomas delivered a private speech to Westfield students and led them in a moment of silence at 7:30 a.m. to remember the victims, according to Regnier.
Staff and students wore commemorative orange ribbons throughout the day and displayed a Hokie stone at the front office that will become part of a memorial for Samaha and Peterson.
But administrators declined many requests for interviews from national and international media because the school is trying to stay out of the limelight, Regnier said.
After the Tech shootings, people around Fairfax County and the world began to wonder if something was wrong with students at Westfield, a school built in 2000 that is among the highest ranked in the Washington, D.C., region.
Ted Troscianecki, a Westfield High School parent and president of the Western Fairfax County Citizens Association, called on community leaders to organize meetings about ending violence.
The Centreville Community Foundation, a nonprofit that advances the community, asked local and national organizations for help with forming scholarships to improve the character of the students in the western part of the county.
Yet a panel formed by Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D) to review the Tech tragedy concluded that Cho, a mentally disturbed student, got sufficient help for his struggles while in high school.
When Cho graduated from Westfield in 2003 his “multi-faceted support system then disappeared leaving a huge void,” the panel concluded in its report.
In the midst of all the tragedy and scrutiny, “it would be easy for the school's students to bow their heads and go through life defeated after the tragedy,” Frey said. Instead, the students continue to succeed.
Westfield High School is a prime example of the Centreville community's ability to make something positive out of tragedy, Frey said.
Memorable drama performances, a state championship title for its football team and a Concord District title for the boys basketball team went a long way toward boosting the Westfield community's spirits last year, Frey said.
The Westfield High School PTSA organized a public forum for the public with police officers, parents of Virginia Tech victims and policy experts about ending gun violence.
“Reform and healing just takes time,” Frey said.
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