One year after Evergreen High School shooting in Colorado, dogs bring calm, connection — and even joy

A year ago, Evergreen High School was the scene of chaos and fear.

Today, the Colorado school has two new members of its community — two dogs whose presence has become part of the daily rhythm of the school, offering students and staff something they desperately needed after a shooting shattered their sense of safety.

On Sept. 10, 2025, a 16-year-old Evergreen High School student opened fire, shooting two other students before fatally shooting himself. Both wounded students survived.

The shooting sent students scrambling from the school and brought hundreds of law enforcement officers to the foothills campus.

A year later, the physical evidence of that day has largely disappeared.

The memories have not.

For Sue Ryan, an emergency room doctor who has spent 32 years treating trauma in Denver, the shooting hit particularly close to home.

Ryan had just participated in a panel about mass gun violence that included survivors of the Columbine High School shooting when a colleague approached her.

"She taps me and says hey can we go to Evergreen? And I'm like why are we going to Evergreen? There's been another shooting and they want us there," recalled Ryan.

Ryan went to Evergreen the next day.

She brought Peppi.

The six-year-old Labrador is a Canine Companions facility dog. Canine Companions trains facility dogs to work alongside professionals in settings including schools, hospitals and other environments serving vulnerable populations. The dogs are selected and trained for traits including calmness, reliability and affection.

Peppi was not alone.

Amicus, Heidi and Wilford — other Canine Companions dogs — were also brought to Evergreen in the days following the shooting.

For Ryan, showing up was instinctive. "You just show up. It's a natural thing," she said.

What Ryan encountered at the school was a community still trying to process what had happened.

"They all looked real shell shocked. They were hugging a lot with each other and it was quiet. People weren't talking."

The dogs gave students and staff another way to connect.

They could pet them. Walk with them. Talk to them.

And, for a few moments, simply focus on something other than what had happened.

Ryan remembers one student who returned to the school after the shooting to retrieve her backpack. The student held Peppi's leash as they walked through the building.

"As we started walking she just kept saying 'You're OK, you're OK Peppi,' and the pace got faster. When we turned the corner to where the cafeteria was ... 'You're OK, 'You're OK' ... this is so intense listening to her try to talk herself through such an awful moment."

Ryan was struck by what she was hearing.

"It sounds like she wasn't telling Peppi it's OK, she was telling herself it's OK?" Ryan was asked.

Ryan's response was immediate. "Absolutely."

The dogs kept coming back.

Day after day, they were there — quiet, accepting and seemingly unconcerned with the difficult conversations and painful memories surrounding them.

Skyler Artes, Evergreen High School's principal, noticed.

"There's a certain sorrow that students, staff, families and staff experienced ... at a school that is so special in a community that is so remarkable," recalled Artes.

Then Artes began seeing something else.

"The dogs are so disarming -- it doesn't matter the student group, doesn't matter what's happening in the hallways, the library, front of the school, conversations will break apart, upset will stall, there's calm, there's some humor, some joy, high-pitched squealing voices," Artes said.

The impact was significant enough that Artes made a decision that, by her own description, was anything but spontaneous.  She decided to become a Canine Companions facility-dog handler herself.

"It was not a frivolous decision ... it was a leap forward toward something positive not really having a full grasp of the training experience for a handler for a dog," she told CBS Colorado.

That meant going through Canine Companions' training process. 

The organization says facility-dog handlers must attend a two-week Team Training program and then participate in continuing training and support. The dogs themselves undergo extensive training before being matched with handlers.

Eventually, Artes was matched with Norene, a labrador retriever. And Norene became part of the school.

She now comes to Evergreen with Artes every day.

"She greets students every single day at the front of the building as they're coming inside ... important routine, important piece of stability.  She brings calm, she brings something happy something joyful to the beginning of every day," said Artes.

Then another Evergreen staff member followed Artes' lead. That staff member trained to become a facility-dog handler as well, bringing Polenta to the school.

Now there are two Canine Companions facility dogs at Evergreen High School.

Ryan says seeing the school's response has been gratifying.

"It makes me really proud that we show up for communities and they are so touched by it and see the impact they decide to go down that path," observed Ryan.

And now, a year after the shooting, the dogs have become something more than a resource for students dealing with trauma. They've become part of the school.

So much so that they may soon have a rather unusual role at Evergreen's homecoming, which is scheduled for early October.

Artes has an idea about who should be crowned king and queen.

"Oh yes I'm stuffing ballot boxes. It's going to be Norene and Polenta, the two dogs."

The idea prompts a question: "You're going to have the facility dogs be the homecoming king and queen?"

Artes answer: "I think so."

Whether Norene and Polenta actually receive crowns will ultimately be up to the students. But one thing is already clear. A year after gunfire transformed Evergreen High School, the school's population has grown by two. And those two new members have helped teach the community that sometimes there can be much more at the end of a leash than just a dog.

Canine Companions provides their dogs at no cost. Their annual Barn Party fundraiser is scheduled for Oct. 4.