San Bernardino responds to school shooting: ‘We’re more than our problems’

SAN BERNARDINO >> “We’ve been here before.”

When tragedy struck at North Park Elementary School Monday, community members expressed heartbreak, fear, anger – but not shock.

Instead, they drew on their experience from Dec. 2, 2015, when San Bernardino experienced a terrorist attack that left 14 people dead at the Inland Regional Center.

Almost immediately after Monday’s shooting, food, water and other donations poured in for the teachers, students and first responders, as did clergy.

Experience and reflection since the terrorist attack – as well as street crime – prepared pastors and others to spring into action, said Raymond Turner, senior pastor at Temple Missionary Baptist Church in San Bernardino.

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“We know what was needed, and you saw many people volunteering to help in a well-coordinated way,” Turner said. “… San Bernardino rolls out in a tragedy.”

But there’s another side to that experience.

Before turning the gun on himself, Cedric Anderson took the lives of his estranged wife Karen Elaine Smith, 53, and Jonathan Martinez, 8, and he sent 9-year-old Nolan Brandy to the hospital for five days.

It also provoked anxiety in those who survived the terrorist attack at the Inland Regional Center, only nine miles and 16 months removed.

And it reawakened familiar fears that this would cement San Bernardino’s reputation as just a site of tragedy.

‘We’re more than our problems’

Isabel Cholbi, 15, is a junior at Cajon High School, which was placed on lock down Monday and later was flooded with parents told to pick up their North Park Elementary students at the high school.

She said the uncertainty was frightening, and the knowledge that multiple people were shot was distressing.

It reminded her of Dec. 2, and of the days and weeks that followed.

“One of my first thoughts – after being completely horrified – is we’re going to be in the news again for something terrible,” she said.

Cholbi said she knows there’s a reality to the perception. San Bernardino had 62 homicides in 2016, the most since 1995, and Cholbi understands there are areas where crime feels unavoidable.

. Column: San Bernardino school shooting reminds us that fear is still close to the surface

“We have this frustration, because it’s not like we can dispute the negative claims people make – yeah, there are problems,” she said. “But we’re more than our problems. I think we should not be judged by our current state but what we’re working toward, which is something good.”

Look at graduation rates, she said – above the state average, and improving each of the last few years. Look at the colleges students are accepted to. Look at the area’s natural beauty.

Most of all, she said, look at how San Bernardino responds to tragedy.

“My favorite thing is how much we support each other,” she said. “I know we can get through this and hopefully prevent, God forbid, another tragedy like this. We have to support each other and then look for solutions. We as a community are and remain SB strong.”

Mayor Carey Davis made similar points, saying people needed to work on removing the hate that is responsible for the violence in this and other cities.

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Each act of violence is too much, he said.

“I’m also sorry for the problems that not only result from that day but emanate out from that,” Mayor Carey Davis said. “But our community has a strong heart, and it’s unfortunate that much of the good that takes place in our community isn’t recognized. Because there is a lot of good here.”

At Cholbi’s school, students created more than 1,000 paper cranes, a symbol of hope, to donate to North Park. Hundreds of other community members gathered in repeated vigils this week.

They formed fundraising efforts that have raised more than $100,000 for Jonathan Martinez, Nolan Brandy and the North Park community.

And they’ve made a concerted effort to celebrate the good around them.

“As one of you said, we do get a bad rap in San Bernardino,” school board member Gwen Dowdy-Rodgers told a group of North Park parents and staff members Wednesday. “But this is the only place I’ve ever called home or want to call home.”

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