Several students were gathered near the gate of the parking lot last night after the pre-season basketball game At McClymonds High School when a car drove by and opened fire.
"Everybody was just running inside the gym talking about, 'they're shooting, they're shooting, they're shooting."
It's the kind of violence that many young people consider normal.
"It's not normal is for it to happen on the campus. In years past, McClymonds has always been this off limits place, so a lot of serious violence wouldn't come on campus," says Yetunde Reeves, school principal.
"Now we're shooting each other on the street over nothing," Greg Hodge, school board member.
The school principal immediately called an assembly to discuss what happened, and talk about violence in general.
For some students, the shooting did not come as a shock.
"For us, this is normal. They just got shot. Now, if they would have died it would have been something different. For us, getting shot is normal. We just look at that like it happened," says Jasmine Mack.
In Tony Esoldo's government class, there were already plans to write the mayor about violence in the community. Today, the assignment had new urgency.
"I just believe that if they had more security, a situation like that would never occur."
The incident is a serious blow to a school that's struggled with image for years. The EXCEL High School (Experience, eXcellence, Community, Empowerment, and Leadership), is living up to its name, while the academic gains go quietly unnoticed. For the first time in recent memory, students scored above the 90th percentile in nationwide achievement tests. Attendance is up to 94 percent, when just a couple of years ago, it was about 20-points lower.
Administrators vow the incident will not slow down their progress.
"That's what we want to get out. We're a school that's in a neighborhood that definitely has issues, but there are quality instructors. There's high expectations. We know that our kids can do it, and that's why we're pushing college for all of them."
