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Marysville Superintendent "Pays it Forward"; Helps Freeman After School Shooting

Tulalipnews.com

When the Freeman School District, its students and parents began recovering from last week’s shooting, they had an empathetic resource to whom they could turn.

The superintendent of the Marysville School District came to eastern Washington to offer her support to Freeman. Marysville experienced its own fatal school shooting in 2014 and the superintendent thought she could contribute to Freeman’s healing.

Marysville Superintendent Becky Berg says she had just finished a phone call with an expert on childhood grief when she heard about the Freeman shooting. She immediately decided to get on a plane and make an unannounced visit.

“We’re now in a fraternity none of us wanted to be in and so if there’s any way to pay things forward and help them out, that’s what we’re about,” Berg said.

Berg, who is a native of Spokane and former Deer Park superintendent, says she came to share her experiences and advice with Freeman Superintendent Randy Russell. They talked about what to do next. That led to a meeting with the community within a couple of days.

“I know that was not something that I was emotionally ready to do here, but it was the best thing to do because the parents just need to hear from the superintendent and law enforcement. They need to gather together, so Freeman took that advice and pulled that off by Friday night. So that’s a huge, huge step," Berg said. "It doesn’t sound very fancy but it takes a lot to screw up your courage to bring everybody together when you don’t really know what’s going to happen next.”

Berg says she could tell the news of last week’s shooting hit her employees hard and that it took them back to their own experience three years ago. But she said her people were eager to offer whatever support they could to their colleagues in Freeman.