English teacher Stacey Lippel is one of the teachers who was directly affected by the tragedy on Valentine’s Day. She lost two students on that day and was grazed by a bullet as well.
“I remember feeling a sting on my arm. I had a big bruise on my arm,” Lippel said.
Nearly three weeks later, the bruise was gone. Although physically she is healed, mentally she is scarred. She does not remember a lot of the event, but she was able to describe the sound, which “echoed in body.”
“They echoed down the hall. It was like someone was setting off fireworks in the hallways,” Lippel said.
In her eyes, the school has changed forever. The “movie-like” events left her without a classroom to call her own and all of her teaching supplies that she has collected over the years to improve her workflow.
However, if given the chance, she believes she would have the mental strength to go back in the building to pack her belongings.
“Everytime I see the building, I get less emotional toward it,” Lippel said. “One of my classes is now in the 1300 building so I’m forced to see it everyday, whether I like it or not. But it is getting easier to see it.”
She misses her “hall buddies” and working with them everyday.
“The process to get back into the normal routine is going well. I’m glad it is a slow process,” Lippel said.
Despite her traumatic experience with this tragedy, Lippel is determined to continue providing a valuable education to her students.
![(left to right) Seniors Stephanie Bilsky and Gracyn Haynes sport the DECA symbol, a triangle, at their first career fair, hosted on Dec. 6, 2023. The career fair had 12 business for students to explore and ask questions about. What we wanted to do is just take what weve learned [in DECA] and expand it to those students who arent enrolled in this class and dont have access and then just kind of take it to the community and allow students to discover their future as well, Haynes said.](https://eagleeye.news/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/9n9MEiC72JCfrptYKrZhoKhKscuboBiEju33GYeA-1200x800.jpg)
Matt Henkes • Apr 4, 2018 at 2:07 am
why do all these comments sound like they are written by the same person .. and all within a couple minutes of each other?
Daryasia Wingo • Mar 21, 2018 at 2:43 am
I think she is a strong teacher because didn’t leave the school and she still wants to teach after everthing that happened.
Braxton French • Mar 21, 2018 at 2:34 am
This is a good article, but it also is a little sad because two of her students got shot and she also got grazed by the bullet. She has a hard time seeing the school but she is forced to just because of the building she got moved into.
Alex Humphrey • Mar 21, 2018 at 2:31 am
It’s sad because someone is so messed up that they would shoot up the school. I feel like we need to watch the kids more than we do.
paxton jenkins • Mar 21, 2018 at 2:30 am
This was a very awful experience that this school and teacher are dealing with. They lost two of their students and are all emotionally affected forever. I’m glad people are writing and speaking about this and spreading awareness.
julius eberhart • Mar 19, 2018 at 6:08 am
i think this is a good article but it’s sad that she lost two of her students from the shooting and its sad people would shoot up a school full of kids because that else’s child, and they lost their kid because someone wanted to bring and shoot a gun at school.