Evergreen students return to school surrounded by community support

By Sage Kelley | The Denver Gazette

Evergreen High School students returned to campus on Thursday morning, two weeks after a shooting shocked the small town.

Parents stood on the sideline, holding signs of support. More than 100 posters from Colorado cities, spanning from Telluride to Steamboat Springs, lined the school’s halls, sharing condolences and words of encouragement.

“It was difficult, for sure,” Tyler Guyton, a senior and one of two student body presidents, said. “For the past week, people have been trying to ignore it, but it’s hard to ignore it when you’re back in the school and see the posters on the wall, the new tiles and all that stuff.”

The staff had returned to the school Monday.

Thursday and Friday are “gradual” days for the students, with classes only running from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., including “connection” activities and lunch.

The school also plans to hold “gradual” days on Sept. 29-30 and resume full class schedules on Oct. 1.

“As we move forward together, there is one thing I am certain of — this school and this community hold the most incredible, the most courageous people I have ever known,” Principal Skyler Artes said in a video.

One of those group activities on Thursday, Guyton said, was discussing the new safety protocols put in place by the district.

When alleged shooter Desmond Holly, 16, entered the school with a revolver during lunch period on Sept. 10 — he critically injured two students and killed himself, authorities said — the full-time school resource officer (SRO) was on medical leave. Meanwhile, a deputy who assumed those policing duties on a part-time basis was working on a traffic crash nearby, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office had said.

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