14 people dead and 17 injured in the Inland Regional center on Waterman in San Bernardino, just four miles from CHS.

News of  mass shootings somewhere on the other side of the country or maybe even the other side of the world is so common, that we don’t really stop to think about the tragedy. We feel for the victims, maybe change our status profile pic on the internet to a flag overlay. And life goes on.

With the Paris shooting happening in little under a month ago, who would’ve ever thought that we would be trading in #PrayforParis for #PrayforSanbernardino?

On a day that seemed like any other for Inland Empire residents, vague fears soon became our worst nightmare. Two fully armed domestic terrorists woke up that day with a plan to shoot up the Center. The two suspects have been identified by law enforcement as Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, a married couple that just returned from a visit to Saudi Arabia. After their trip they got serious about their plan. Residents that lived around Farook stated that he would be up all night working on something in his garage which now we can assume was one of the two bombs he had taken the day of the shooting. They armed themselves with an AR-15 and an M-16 and we can’t forget about the two bombs and full bulletproof suits.

Colton is only 10 minutes away from where the incident took place, and we all took precaution. The students and staff members at Colton High were on what’s called a “soft lockdown” and as we huddled there in our classes, we were full of different emotions: disbelief, sympathy, and fear. Class consisted of watching the news or talking about the tragedy with others that felt the same.

Our heart goes out to all the victims of this tragic incident but there was one victim that hit home for Colton, 57 year old Nicholas Thalasinos. His wife, Jennifer Thalasinos, is a teacher at Colton Middle School and she comforts herself by keeping faith that her husband is in Heaven because he was, in her words,  a “very devout believer” and was born again a couple years ago and that he wanted to “serve the Lord and bring more people to the Lord.”

We can only learn from this horrible situation, Never take anyone or anything  you love for granted because one day you can be sitting in class, work, or at home and never realize that your small comforting hometown is in danger.