ByKristen Rary|March 8, 2021 at 4:39 PM EST - Updated March 8 at 5:57 PM
BLUFFTON, S.C. (WTOC) - Monday is the first day back to school at Bluffton High School since astudent-involved shootingtook the life of a classmate. Counselors tell me it’s been an emotional day for everyone.
“They feel as we all feel that this was a tremendous loss. A very tragic situation and a senseless situation,” said Lakinsha Swinton, the Director of Student Services at Bluffton High School.
Counselors at Bluffton High School say the auditorium has been filled with students and staff mourning the loss of a classmate.
“When we have situations like this, we have been training for the last few years. Unfortunately we’ve been through this, a few times too many. So we are well-versed in what we need to do with our crisis response counseling and so our team just prepares to support everyone that walks through the door,” said Swinton.
I spoke to a few students off-camera who say tragedies like this are senseless and so unexpected. The counselor say they only hope they can provide students with comfort.
“I think the first thing is to prepare just to take care of our staff, take care of our students, and take care of one another,” said Swinton.
Much of today’s grief counseling has been focused on remembering and honoring D’won Fields, Jr. who was know as DJ.
“We have just all been so fond of DJ and so we’re all impacted by his loss. He definitely had an impact on this community, every race, every gender, every ethnicity, all kinds of backgrounds are here for this beloved son of Bluffton,” said Swinton.
Police say there are still a lot of questions unanswered in this investigation and they are trying to figure out what exactly happened and they will release that information as soon as they can.
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