Overview:
In the days following the Evergreen High School shooting, we asked students and community members how they were feeling.
The week following the school shooting at Evergreen High School (EHS) on Sept. 10, 2025, the serene mountain town was muted. The quiet was no longer peaceful; it was heavy with shock.
“Nobody ever thinks that this can happen to their community,” said EHS student body co-president Tyler Guyton. “There are a lot of students and a lot of staff members that are not doing very well, so I feel a responsibility to step up.”
Guyton wasn’t alone in seeking ways to steady himself and his classmates. Across Evergreen, students began gravitating back to familiar spaces, practices, clubs and even casual hangouts that offered a sense of normalcy.
On Thursday afternoon, just eight days after the shooting, a small group of EHS students stopped for dessert at Muddy Buck Coffee House in downtown Evergreen. Juniors Sarah Jennings and Ethan Kelly, both tennis players, walked alongside their friend Gavin Reece, a junior football player, fresh from their after-school activities. What once were routine commitments had suddenly become the community’s first sanctuaries outside the home.
“I thought football would feel weird,” Reece said. “But when we got to the field, they just talked about being there as a team. When we started running, it was the only time all week I wasn’t just thinking about the hallway. Going back to practice helped me feel like I was taking back a routine.”
Students were allowed to return to practice or club meetings if they felt comfortable, and coaches and advisors took things slower than usual, ensuring the emphasis was on being present for one another.
“It was nice going back to practice,” Kelly said. “I think whatever activity or club at school you’re in, it’s like a second family that’s there whenever you’re ready to come back. They didn’t push us to perform; they just let us breathe together.”
Evergreen High School’s “phased approach”
Following the shooting at Evergreen High School, the Jefferson County School District and Evergreen High administrators coordinated recovery assistance, improved security and created a phased plan for students to gradually return to campus. The district delayed a full academic return, prioritizing emotional stability and safety over curriculum.
EHS started this process with the teachers and staff, who returned to the school alone for three days, Monday, Sept. 22, to Wednesday, Sept. 24, to ensure they were prepared and regulated enough to model calm for the students. Following that, the community was invited to a voluntary open house on Wednesday evening, allowing families to walk through the building together and reclaim the space on their own terms.
On Thursday, Sept. 25, and Friday, Sept. 26, students attended half-days dedicated solely to non-academic activities, with a focus on peer connection and social support rather than assignments. The students’ self-directed recovery required an immediate return to predictable activities, such as practice schedules or club meetings, to provide psychological stability.
“For teens reeling from trauma, the consistency of routine—like a practice schedule or a club meeting—acts as a vital psychological stabilizer, reducing feelings of uncertainty and anxiety,” said Erica M. Carswell, a consultant to the National School Safety and Security Services. “Activities involving rhythmic movement, such as running in football practice or controlled breathing, help the central nervous system downregulate the stress response, providing a necessary break from the trauma-induced cycle of hypervigilance.”
Maintaining routines during stressful situations can help students avoid exacerbating long-term post-traumatic stress symptoms. This approach was supported by key community partners, including the local nonprofit, Resilience1220, which provides free counseling to youth ages 12-20 in mountain communities.
“In this first phase, where people are struggling from shock and acute stress, it’s really about finding a place where kids, teens, parents and others can express the range of emotions they’re feeling,” said Resilience1220 executive director Lindsey Breslin. “These are opportunities for community members to drop in for immediate support and the chance to share their feelings with a trained counselor who will listen. I think we’ll see a greater need as the weeks progress. As the impact is felt in the coming weeks and the long-term impact sets in, we’re going to be focusing our services to support these kids.”
While maintenance crews worked on immediate repairs, such as replacing floor tiles and carpeting in affected areas, school administrators took decisive action to address the crisis’s visual trauma. The classroom doors that had been marked by law enforcement during the Sept. 10 shooting were covered and replaced with large EHS Cougar signs.
“These subtle acts of institutional restoration symbolically re-established the school as a place of achievement and belonging, rather than one defined by crisis,” Carswell said. “Schools are meant to be a launching pad for the future. By removing the visual reminders of the law enforcement operation, the school signaled to students that their everyday life, their school, was safe and back in their hands.”
“It was weird at first,” Jennings said. “You walk in and you tense up, remembering, but then you see your teachers in the hallways, same as always, and you think, ‘Okay, we’re still here. This is still our school.’”
“I didn’t want to come,” Kelly added. “But once I sat at my desk and the bell rang, and class started, I wasn’t defined by what happened; I was just a student worrying about a new test. That felt normal. That felt good.”
The community’s support
The return of Evergreen High students was not facilitated by the school district alone; it was supported by the entire mountain community, which rallied to convert feelings of powerlessness into productive action.
Downtown Evergreen businesses immediately pivoted from commerce to compassion, becoming essential “third spaces” for the community. The local coffee and ice cream shops became places where residents could simply sit, breathe and ground themselves in the predictable routine of daily life.
“In the immediate aftermath, we really wanted to hold a space where no one had to feel alone in their shock,” shared Ava Hedges, an employee at Muddy Buck, an Evergreen ice cream shop. “We opened our doors, and the community walked in, not as separate, but as a community. That immediate gathering was the first powerful act of healing.”
Ming Boyle, whose son attends EHS, shared that just being out in Evergreen’s downtown made him feel more at ease. “I didn’t have to talk to anyone, but just seeing the community out was enough,” Boyle said. “We were all sharing the same quiet worry. It made me feel like I wasn’t just me.”
For Jennings, Kelly and Reece, the community’s backing created a safe space where they could finally look forward instead of back. This collective effort was a quiet foundation that allowed them to redirect their energy away from the trauma and toward the small, manageable steps of putting their lives back into a routine.
“Everyone’s being really nice, and you can feel it,” Kelly shared. “But the biggest help is just being allowed to go back to being a normal high school kid.”
Now, they are no longer focused on the confusion of the shooting but on the certainty of their commitments: the next tennis match, the coming football game and their classes. The three students mentioned that instead of replaying the event in their minds, they were talking about other things, like their Halloween plans and their futures.
“We’re all moving forward by doing the same things we always did,” Reece said. “It’s not moving past it. It’s just choosing to focus on the next right step.”
