On anniversary of Reynolds shooting, a call for gratefulness

TROUTDALE, Ore. -- A year to the day after a student died, the classmate who shot him took his own life, and a teacher was wounded at Reynolds High School, the district is expressing its gratitude to the community that helped the school heal.

The shooting started just after 8 a.m. on June 10, 2014. Police said the gunman, Jared Padgett, entered through the gym and shot Emilio Hoffman in the boys locker room. Both were freshmen. Padgett then shot teacher Todd Rispler, exchanged gunfire with police and took his own life.

The school year ended early.

Before the new school year began, Reynolds was completely transformed. Security upgrades were put in place, the lobby was renovated, along with the restrooms, hallways, and locker rooms, all in the hope of helping students move forward after last year's tragedy.

Now, as another school year comes to a quiet close, the school and the district are thanking all those who came together to help students, staff and their families work through it.

District superintendent Linda Florence issued the following statement Tuesday:

June 10, 2014. Our world changed.

One year ago today, two young lives, full of promise, were lost. We are heart-broken that such a tragedy happened.

We continue to extend our sympathy to the families who experienced the loss of their child.

We also continue to be grateful.

Grateful for our staff who intervened and called for help and

to the first responders who answered those calls.

We continue to be grateful for the Troutdale Police Department and Chief Scott Anderson for leading the emergency response;

We are grateful to all First Responders:

Multnomah County;

the Trauma Intervention Program;

the School Partnership Network;

and to the area churches and pastors

We are forever grateful for our staff, our students and our parents.

The strength of our school community is tremendous. I am so proud of the way we demonstrated our strength and expressed our gratitude each and every day since June 10th.

We are grateful to Deb France and Oh! Planning and Design for securing donations to transform the gymnasium complex over the summer last year, which allowed our students to return to something special and beautiful. We are especially pleased and grateful to our voters, who recently approved a $125 million bond to invest in upgrading our schools to be safe, secure, and sustainable.

We are grateful to Susan Bowker for organizing the hundreds of volunteers who sent messages of hope to our students who returned to school last fall; and for all Reynolds alumni: the Lancers, Chargers and Raiders who encouraged us, sent notes, and supported the school.

Thank you to Cat Burgess for organizing several expressions of support to Reynolds High School staff throughout the school year.

These gracious responses and acts of kindness gave us hope. Hope gave us strength. Those kind and generous acts, large and small, over the past 365 days are how I understand, "Reynolds Strong."

Reynolds Strong is a call to action. That call is still needed today as it was a year ago.

If Reynolds is in your thoughts, I invite you to pledge your commitment to do something to make the community Reynolds Strong. You can record your pledge on Facebook or twitter using the hashtag #ReynoldsStrong.

More: Reynolds HS students, staff get show of support