Evergreen High student leaders reflect on last year's shooting at their Colorado school as 1-year mark approaches

For Evergreen High School seniors Ava Guyton and Linnea Hutopp, the last year has been about more than simply moving forward.

"We are still healing, and we haven't moved on," Hutopp said.

"Just being super mindful and sensitive that everyone definitely has different stories, and everyone's healing at their own pace," Guyton added.

It's also been a year of reflection, looking back on how a single day in Colorado changed everything.

"With such a traumatic event, no one is going to be fully healed," Guyton said. "There's always going to be moments that impact you more than most."

On Sept. 10, 2025, one of their classmates opened fire inside Evergreen High School. Before taking his own life, the gunman severely injured two other students and affected the lives of hundreds of others.

"Right following the shooting, there was a big weight on everything," Guyton said. "Classes, nothing really felt normal. It just felt like you were in a fever dream all the time."

Now serving as student body co-presidents, Guyton and Hutopp have a front-row view of how students continue to process what happened.

They say the response is different for everyone, something they are keeping in mind as the one-year mark approaches.

"The one-year mark carries a lot of weight," Guyton said. "You've already lost a portion of your innocence. If you let it take over, you're just going to lose more time of being a kid, and I feel like that's something you can never get back."

Guyton said that feeling lingered through the remainder of the school year. Now, she sees signs of a new beginning.

"I just think the new start is really good for everyone," she said. "We are all here together, excited to see our classmates and grateful to see our friends every day."

But they say moving forward is not simply about the passage of time.

"After multiple shootings over multiple decades," Hutopp said. "Right after an event happens, everyone talks about doing all these things and making an actual difference, and nothing has changed yet."

Guyton says for her, the change is personal.

"I feel like, yes, it did change who I am as a person," she said. "But it also helped me find myself a little bit more. It made me discover what impact I truly want to make on the world and what mark I want to leave ... Time is a gift," she said.