'I Don't Know What To Think': Mother Of Teen Shot At Hinkley High School Emotional After Shooting
AURORA, Colo. (CBS4)- Three students were shot outside Hinkley High School in Aurora on Friday afternoon, just days after 6 Aurora Central High School students were shot at Nome Park.
Late Friday night, Aurora police tweeted out that they made an arrest in the shooting at the high school parking lot, a 16-year-old male who will be charged with attempted murder.
"Right now, I'm so hurt that I don't know what to think," said the mother of a 17-year-old girl shot Friday at Hinkley High School in Aurora.
She was at Children's Hospital with her daughter, who was shot in the leg.
"I'm scared of what can happen to my kids," she said.
In parts of Aurora, the fear of shootings is reaching in to interfere with education.
"I have to call her. Like text her every couple of hours just to let her know that I'm OK," said Kiara A. Padilla, a sophomore at Aurora Central High, which was affected by the shootings of six students early this week. "I feel like there's nowhere's safe anymore, because of all the gun violence."
In the afternoon, parents and volunteers and community activists met at Kenton Elementary to talk about how they could change things. Parents collected their grade school children as people discussed what could be done.
"It's time for us to pay closer attention to our youth, whether they are our kids, our neighbors, our family members," said Christina Amparan, Aurora youth violence prevention program manager.
Aurora is working with Denver on youth violence, but there's simply not enough accomplished.
Aurora NAACP President Omar Montgomery talked first about parental responsibility, "Do you know where your kid is this evening? Although that happened on their social media. Do you know what they're carrying in their backpack? Do you know if they're angry or upset and they need some assistance?"
There aren't enough options for young people he added, "Same way we have food deserts, we have youth center deserts. There are certain communities that don't have a place for our youth to go to receive mentoring and to be in a place where they can release that energy."
There may be fear among those who are victimized, but even among potential perpetrators.
"We may snoop into our kid's drawer and look at their social media and look under their bed and look in their backpacks to see if they are living in fear to where they feel like they have to carry a gun. And then let's begin to address that fear and figure out what we need to do so that kid can feel safe and not feel like they have to carry a gun to protect themselves."
Montgomery says he's received calls from police officers who want to do more and feels people have to realize, they too are part of the community and community effort. In the end, it is not only violence and fear that are created, but there is education lost.
"Our kids should be able to go to school, study algebra, study science, do the things that kids do."
