At 10:00 a.m. on April 10, Cedric Anderson, the husband of Karen Smith, walked into North Park Elementary and shot his wife, along with two other students who were standing behind Smith. According to the San Bernardino police, they do not believe that the two students shot were targets, but happened to be in the line of fire. At the time of the shooting, Smith was teaching her class of special needs students from grade one to four. Shortly after Smith was shot, Anderson shot himself.

“I can’t believe someone would do something like that, especially at an elementary school,” senior Vickie Schultz said. “It is devastating, and we need to take action to stop it from happening again.”

Anderson signed in at the front desk as a visitor, stating he needed to drop something off with his wife. Because Anderson signed in, he was not breaking any rules with the school regarding security.

Following the shooting, North Park Elementary was immediately put into lockdown, along with two other schools nearby. After the police investigated the situation and deemed the school as safe, the students were relocated by bus to Cajon High School.

This is not the first incident involving gun violence in San Bernardino. In December of 2015, 14 people were killed, along with 22 injured, in a mass shooting related to terrorism. San Bernardino is described by NBC as having “violent crimes, particularly homicide” in recent years.

Senior Sommer Spencer expresses her concern for the increase of school shootings recently.

“I think mental illness has a lot to do with shootings like this one,” Spencer said. “It shouldn’t be taken lightly in today’s society.”

San Bernardino police are taking extra precautions to make sure schools in the area are safe from violence in the future.