Column: St. Louis school shooting a dark day for our community, country

A teenage girl went to her high school on a Monday morning with her whole life ahead of her and now she’s never coming home

I can still hear them singing.

As the Roosevelt boys basketball team’s fans sensed what was coming, a monumental upset over the St. Louis and Missouri high school dynasty that was the Vashon Wolverines under legendary coach Floyd Irons, they chanted in unison the Rough Riders’ unofficial theme song – the Rough Ryders' anthem from rapper DMX.

The old undersized gym at the old Southwest High School in South St. Louis was rocking, pulsating with energy and life.

“Stop, drop, shut 'em down open up shop

Oh, no, that's how Ruff Ryders roll

Stop, drop, shut 'em down open up shop

Oh, no, that's how Ruff Ryders roll”

It’s one of my lasting memories from more than two decades of covering high school sports, seeing the fun and the pride those students had as their team worked to win a game many wouldn’t have believed possible. Singing a song, presumably about gun violence, while having the time of their teenage lives and experiencing a moment they would never forget.

Thinking back to that moment brings a smile to my face.

It was the first thing I thought of on Monday when I heard there was a school shooting there – what used to be known as the old Southwest High School building at 3125 South Kingshighway Boulevard and Arsenal Street is now Central Visual & Performing Arts High School – that left three people, including the suspected shooter, dead.

A teenage girl and a woman were shot to death and six others were injured, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

It hurts to think about it.

A teenage girl went to her high school on a Monday morning with her whole life ahead of her and now she’s never coming home.

Heartbreaking.

And it’s just another horrible day in a country where the number of school shootings and murdered children continues to add up, with too many lives taken or left traumatized by yet another senseless act of gun violence.

The motto on the Central Visual & Performing Arts High School website is “Our City. Our Schools. Our Future.”

Our city is hurting.

The St. Louis Blues released the following statement on Monday afternoon: 

"The St. Louis Blues join our region and the entire nation in grieving for the victims, their families and friends, and everyone impacted by the shooting today at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School. Gun violence continues to plague our country, and today is a tragic reminder that it can happen anywhere – even in our very own neighborhood. The Blues believe in the power of our St. Louis community to come together in support and love for all involved as we all try to cope with this unspeakable tragedy."

The St. Louis Cardinals tweeted this statement: 

"We are heartbroken over the senseless tragedy that took place this morning at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School. Our thoughts are with the victims, their families and the Central VPA community."

By the time this column gets published, there will likely be another school shooting somewhere with more families and communities ripped apart for no reason.

It’s a vicious endless cycle.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer David Carson was among the newspaper’s photography staff that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography in 2015 for their work covering the protests in Ferguson, Missouri.

He was also among a team of reporters and photographers who were finalists for the Pulitzer Price six years earlier for “Breaking News Reporting” after shootings at a Kirkwood (Mo.) City Hall public meeting left six people dead and one injured.

On Monday morning Carson was interviewing students and family members just steps away from the high school, including a mom who received the following text from her daughter: “Mom, hurry up. They’re shooting.”

I got to know David when we worked together at the Post-Dispatch. We ran into each other at the season-opening football game at St. Louis University High School on August 26 as the Junior Billikens hosted reigning Missouri Class 3 champion St. Mary’s.

David was there with his daughter – we are both fathers of teenage girls who are in high school – documenting the pomp and circumstance that marks the start of the high school football season.

The first home game of every season at St. Louis U. High includes the “Running of the Bills” where freshmen who have been painted blue run into the stadium and take their spots in the student section, ready to cheer on their team and sing the school’s fight song as part of an experience that marks the beginning of their four years of high school.

SLUH is just two miles from Central Visual & Performing Arts with a quick drive down Kingshighway Blvd.

Students at CVPA arrived at the school on Monday morning with their whole lives ahead of them, full of energy, full of life.

They left school on Monday morning running for their lives and crawling out of windows, according to reports, while frantically texting and calling their family members for help.

God bless the victims, their families and the many lives that have been affected.

Our city, our schools and our future will never be the same.