EL CAJON – Granite Hills High students smiled, listened to music and celebrated their new quad yesterday, a year after a student opened fire on the campus.
During a short lunchtime ceremony dedicating the recently refurbished gathering spot, there was no mention of the shooting that had injured five students and staff members. Students said the campus has recovered and that some seemed unaware that yesterday was the anniversary.
"We wanted to keep it low key," said senior Jenny Limtiaco, the school's Associated Student Body president. "We didn't want to do something for the shooting."
On March 22, 2001, Jason Hoffman, a senior, walked on campus and opened fire. It was less than three weeks after the shooting at nearby Santana High in Santee, which claimed the lives of two students. At Granite Hills, the gunfire ended in less than 90 seconds when the school's resource officer shot and wounded Hoffman. Hoffman committed suicide in jail in October. He was 18.
The officer, Richard Agundez, is now a patrol agent with the El Cajon Police Department. He returned to campus yesterday, and many students greeted him with handshakes, hugs and exclamations of "We miss you here!"
"It's really good to come back and see the students," Agundez said.
During yesterday's ceremony, the emphasis was on the people who helped transform the school quad from a mass of cracking concrete to grassy knolls linked by curving pathways. A steel Eagle, sculpted by retired teacher Rolf Lotz, flies at the quad's entrance.
The $120,000 in renovations were paid for, in part, by donations the school received after last year's shooting and through student fund-raisers. Much of the work was done by volunteers, including ASB adviser Bob Wakefield, who spent most of his summer working on the project.
Yesterday, the school proclaimed the area "Bob's Quad."
Students have flocked there for activities and lunchtime lounging since fall. It is also the place where students erected temporary memorial walls filled with messages honoring two students who died earlier this month, one in a car accident and another from heart failure.
After the ribbon-cutting yesterday, students were smiling and chatting as they ate lunch and sat on the grass and new blue benches.
"It's another day at Granite Hills," Principal Georgette Torres said. "This is exactly what it looks like every lunchtime."
Vice Principal Dan Barnes, who was then dean of students and believed to be the target of Hoffman's rampage, said yesterday was no different for him than any other school day. "My world has changed, but I think I'm back to the way I was," he said.
Many students agreed that the school has returned to normal.
"We're a pretty good school, so we all came together and got through it," said Kerry Becker, a junior. "That was the past, this is now."
Jill Spielvogel: (619) 593-4963; jill.spielvogel@uniontrib.com
